Chapter 1 



United States 

 National Museum 



ALTHOUGH THE STORY OF THE SMITHSONIAN haS 

 been told many times, it is a good story that de- 

 serves retelling from a slightly different angle. In brief, 

 the Institution was created by an Act of Congress in 

 1846 to execute the will of the English chemist and 

 mineralogist James Smithson, who had bequeathed his 

 entire fortune to the United States "to found at Wash- 

 ington ... an establishment for the increase and dif- 

 fusion of knowledge among men." Although Congress 

 had settled on science, art, and history as the areas of 

 knowledge to be pursued, the outline was a vague one. 

 The Institution's first Secretary, Joseph Henry, wanted 

 to support research and publications, but not to have 

 the Institution actively involved in gathering collections 

 or developing a public museum. The Board of Regents 

 did insist upon an impressive Smithsonian building, 

 and in 1847 construction began on "the Castle," located 

 on the south side of the Mall with its main entrance 

 centered on Tenth Street. 



Three years later, the overworked Henry hired young 

 and energetic Spencer F. Baird as his assistant. In Baird, 

 natural history found a powerful advocate. He was a 

 prodigious collector as well as a master at persuading 

 others to collect for him. Historians argue as to whether 

 Henry's original objections to a museum were swayed 

 by the force of Baird's arguments or by the weight of 

 his collections. 



There was no formal founding of the United States 

 National Museum, but in 1858 large government-owned 

 collections from the moribund National Institute were 

 transferred to the Castle from the Patent Office build- 

 ing (now the National Portrait Gallery and National 

 Museum of American Art). One of Henry's concerns 

 was guarding the Smithsonian endowment; he was aware 



Installing totem poles in the United States National 

 Museum (now the Arts and Industries Building), possibly 

 in the early 1880s. The onlookers may be Samuel P. 

 Langley and Otis T. Mason. Donated from the 

 Philadelphia Ceyitennial exhibit, the totem poles were 

 accessioned in 1876. The one in the center is currently on 

 display at the north end of Hall 8. 



of what a financial drag a museum could be, having 

 seen the cost of collection maintenance lead to the ruin 

 of the National Institute.' Before agreeing to accept 

 the collections, Henry had made certain that federal 

 money would be available for their maintenance. In 

 1857 (and every year since) Congress appropriated the 

 funds. A Guide to the Smithsonian Institution and National 

 Museum was published in 1859, but it was not until 1870 

 that Henry used the name National Museum in the 

 Annual Report, and not until four years later that Con- 

 gress used the term in an appropriations bill." 



Henry's insistence on federal support for federal col- 

 lections had several interesting consequences. The 

 Smithsonian continues as a semiprivate institution, but 

 because it administers government funds, its museum 

 employees are civil servants just like employees of the 

 Agriculture, Commerce, or Interior departments, with 

 the same rules and regulations to follow. Perhaps the 

 most important point is that the museum is public prop- 

 erty: Anyone may enter to see the exhibits; anyone may 

 enter without paying a fee. Henry's recognition that 

 the federal government should maintain a museum, in 

 the same sense that the government should make a 

 survey of the coasts or investigate how to make crops 

 grow better, was a major development whose ramifi- 

 cations continue to this day. 



Centennial Exposition Exhibits 



The approaching 1876 Centennial Exposition at Phil- 

 adelphia was to be a great event. Because there was no 

 working space in the Castle, a small, temporary brick 

 building was constructed to the west of it in 1875, near 

 where the Freer Gallery of Art now stands. There Baird 

 assembled a crew — including his protege George Brown 

 Goode — to help plan and build exhibits. The Smith- 

 sonian had a noteworthy display in Philadelphia, and 

 Baird coaxed many of the other exhibitors to donate 

 their materials to the federal government. 



As might be expected, these donations changed the 

 problem of getting more material into the enormously 

 crowded Castle from difficult to impossible. Tempo- 

 rary storage space had to be obtained by taking over a 



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