INTRODUCTION 
As far back as sixty-three years ago the Congress of the 
United States directed the formation of a gallery of art for the 
nation, and even at a somewhat earlier date it gave encourage- 
ment to such a project by granting an act of incorporation to 
a private society, whose collections were eventually to be ceded 
to the United States. The assembling of art objects under the 
chartered association began in 1 840, and under the specific pro- 
vision for a gallery in 1849. The two collections were united 
in 1862, since which time the subject of art as a museum feature 
under the Government has continued in charge of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, in accordance with the terms of its establish- 
ment in 1846. 
However slow may have been its progress in this field, how- 
ever lacking in esthetic merit the majority of its acquisitions, 
the Institution fulfilled its obligations to provide a place for the 
art collections of the nation, has made such efforts as were 
possible within its limited means and opportunities to gather 
suitable material, and, what is more important, has kept the 
subject alive in the expectation of ultimately awakening an 
interest that would justify its course and realize the intent of 
Congress. The older readers of the annual reports of the 
Institution will recall the prominence given to art in the plan 
of organization and the constant reminder of the existence of 
an art department, while in recent years the public has found 
no more attractive exhibits in the Museum halls than those 
embracing the graphic arts, ceramics, metal and glass work, 
lacquers and art fabrics. The surprise so generally expressed 
in regard to a recent court decree, affirming the existence in 
connection with the Institution of a gallery of art entitled to 
be called national must, therefore, be ascribed to the fact that 
the collection has contained but few worthy paintings and 
works of sculpture, the commonly recognized essentials of an 
establishment of that character. 
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