REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



fine-art collection and the lower hall to a library, but carrying with 

 it certain exposition series, such as are appropriate to a library. The 

 appropriation for the construction of the new building did not pro- 

 vide for its equipment, and to commence this work I have included 

 in the estimates to Congress a request for $200,000 to begin the con- 

 struction of cases and furnishings for the new building. 



The purpose of the Museum is, and must continue to be, the cus- 

 tody of the national collections, by which is meant the preservation, 

 classification and exhibition, and work incident thereto. The main 

 purpose of the Museum must never be lost sight of. It is but natural 

 and proper that in the course of classification and arrangement 

 skilled scientific men engaged in this work should make discoveries 

 of importance to science and that the Museum should publish them. 

 In this way the Museum, in all the departments which its collections 

 represent, is a great research institution as well, but this research 

 work is a bj-product rather than the fundamental purpose of the 

 Museum. Happily enough, the relationship of the Museum to the 

 Institution is of such a nature that there is no waste of energy, and 

 researches which may be initiated through the study of collections, 

 which for some reason or other can not be pursued without field work 

 and further studies, can be carried on either by the parent Institu- 

 tion or by some other branch of it. From this point of view the fact 

 that the Institution, Museum, and Bureau of Ethnology are in one 

 organization has produced most useful results, and it is not improb- 

 able that in the future other combinations which may be of great 

 advantage to the scientific work of the Government and the advance- 

 ment of science generally, can be effected without in any way inter- 

 fering with the fundamental purpose of the Museum. 



NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 



The brief history of the inception of the National Gallery of Art, 

 of the tender and acceptance of the Freer collection and of the 

 decree of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, resulting in 

 the securing of the Harriet Lane Johnston collection, is given in the 

 report for the previous year. As described more in detail in the 

 report on the Xational Museum, these collections have been tempo- 

 rarily installed in the lecture hall of the Museum, and, in spite of 

 the fact that the place was not designed for a collection of art, have 

 been viewed by a large number of visitors. Twenty-one paintings 

 of merit from the Lucius Tuckerman collection have been received 

 on deposit, and gifts have been received, among others, from the Hon. 

 J. B. Henderson, the chairman of the executive committee of the 

 Board of Regents, and from Miss Eleanor Blodgett, of New York.. 



A most considerable gift, especially gratifying in view of the fact 

 that it furnishes an index of real recognition of the importance of 



