SAMUEL TIERPONT LANGLEY. 
13 
The hope held out in the letter of Professor Baird, that 
some opportunity would be afforded here for the continuance 
of Mr. Langley’s original researches, was made good, first 
through the generosity of the late Jerome Id. Kidder and 
Alexander Graham Bell, and later through appropriations 
by Congress for the establishment of an Astrophysical Ob- 
servatory under the direction of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. This observatory, housed in a modest frame structure 
on the Smithsonian grounds and entailing an annual cost 
upon the Government of a very inconsiderable sum, made it 
possible for Mr. Langley not only to continue his researches, 
but to reach new and even more valuable results than had 
been obtained heretofore. 
It is due to his initiative and energy that the people of 
this country have the National Zoological Park. He special- 
ized in astronomy, but his interest in nature was not confined 
to it. He had an eager curiosity about animal life and a 
great love for natural scenes, and so it fell to him, the as- 
tronomer, to move successfully in the establishing of the 
park, which besides having high scientific possibilities for 
usefulness and instruction, is one of the great pleasure 
grounds of the people who live in this capital and to those 
hundreds of thousands of American citizens who annually 
make a pilgrimage to it. 
Shortly after Mr. Langley’s accession to the Secretaryship 
and aside from his work in the establishment of the ob- 
servatory, he strongly desired to create a new activity for 
the Smithsonian Institution, and his first choice would have 
been that of extending its scope in the direction of the fine 
arts. But the time was not then ripe. He met opposition 
and foresaw insuperable difficulties, and so he reluctantly 
abandoned this field and put his persevering energy into 
the other just mentioned, the establishment of the park. 
But he always had the feeling that the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution should act for the nation in the matter of art. He 
caused to be collected such art objects as belonged to it and 
were deposited elsewhere, and reimplanted, as it were, the 
idea of the fine arts in the Institution by setting aside a 
