View ijj fjuit I)/ llw colh'ctiun in one of llic iikiuis in Hall 

 10. Hiram Powers's The Greek Slave is hi the riirht: to 

 the left is one of the items in the Hinrwt Lane johnsliin 

 hetjiiest, a portrait of her son as Cupid Stringing His 

 Bow. /// the I enter is inie of the earliest art acquisitions of 

 the Institution, G. P. A. Healy's painting Francis Pierre 

 Ciuiliniane Guizot. This was presented to President folin 

 Tyler, who gave it to the National Institute, from lohieli it 

 was transferred to the Smithsonian. 



Abraham Lincoln, contemplating, at the north end of the 

 north wing on the second floor. This area, near the north 

 elevators, is now occupied by docents. The exhibits can 

 hardly be seen by the light of the ividely spaced incandescent 

 bulbs, but someone left his straw hat on the steam radiator, 

 suggesting that summer light was coming in. The Orpheus 

 behind Lincoln /,s a plaster cast made in 1915 for the 

 Francis Scott Key Memorial at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. 

 It was later bronzed and shown in the rotunda. The light 

 fixtures suggest a date before 1930. 



"hundi eds" ot people took the opportunity to see the 

 show. Thereafter, halls were opened as completed. In 

 spite ot the time and ef fort that had gone into the new 

 Natural Historv Building, there was never any formal 

 dedication. 



The publicity regarding the establishment of a Na- 

 tional Gallery had stirred interest within the art world 

 and resulted in additional donations. Early in 1904, 

 Charles Freer of f ered his collection of Oriental art and 

 American paintings to the Institution; whether he was 

 influenced by the Johnston bequest or had decided on 

 this step earlier is not known. As a matter of record, 

 the Board of Regents — after some hemming and haw- 

 ing — accepted the initial Freer gift in January 1906. 

 before the legal tangle involving the Johnston bequest 

 and the National Gallery was resolved. Lhitil the open- 

 ing of the Freer Gallery in 1923, the only display in 

 Washington of some of the treasures in this collection 

 took place as a temporary exhibit of 175 paintings and 

 objects in the new National Museum from April 15 to 

 June 15, 1912." (A life-size model of the great blue 

 whale now is suspended where Whistler's paintings once 

 hung.) The Freer collection, and later the Freer build- 

 ing, were part of the United States National Museum 

 until 1920. 



William Henry Holmes 



The person chosen to direct the Smithsonian's initiative 

 into the arts was William Henry Holmes. Holmes had 



first come to the Institution in the 1870s, and began 

 his career as a scientific illustrator under Fielding Brad- 

 ford Meek; Meek lived in the Castle for nearly twenty 

 years and was Joseph Henry's star boarder. Holmes 

 had worked for the Hayden Territorial Survey and had 

 been one of the first to explore the Indian ruins of 

 Mesa Verde; he had also described the buried fossil 

 f orests of Yellowstone Park. Later he became a member 

 of the U.S. Geological Survey and accompanied Captain 

 C. E. Button to the Grand Canyon. Two mountains, 

 one in the Gallatin Range in Yellowstone National Park 

 of Wyoming and one in the Henry Mountains of Utah, 

 are named for him, along with a pinnacle in the Grand 

 Canyon — an indication of the esteem in which he was 

 held by his geological colleagues. 



Holmes was an excellent artist and particularly liked 

 watercolors. He prepared outstanding perspective 

 landscape views to illustrate reports for Hayden and 

 the U.S. Geological Survey; his line drawings of the 

 Grand Canyon are unequalled. Investigations by Holmes 

 of Indian stone tools during the early 1890s opened 

 new vistas in American anthropology. Because of his 

 skill in both anthropology and art, he was heavily in- 

 volved in preparing exhibits for the 1893 Columbian 

 Exposition in Chicago. While there he was induced to 

 transfer to the new Field Museum, but the director of 

 the Field Museum and Holmes clashed early and often. 



In 1897, when Walcott formed the Department of 

 Anthropology, Holmes returned to the Museum as de- 



42 



The Structure 



