UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
ALL CORRESPONDENCE 
SHOULD BE ADDRESSED 
TO THE SECRETARY 
■ » 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Washington, tZS.A. 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES 
DIVISION OF RADIATION AND 
ORGANISMS 
February 17,19^8. 
Dr. Alexander Wetmore, 
Care, Tivoli Hotel, 
Balboa, Canal Zone. 
Dear Sr. Wetmore: 
I am sending herewith some clippings dealing with the Wright plane and the 
Interdepartmental Committee on Research and Development. There are also included 
two memoranda dealing with the Wright plane. I don't know whether you saw 
Sunday's Post before you left or not, but there was a short paragraph in it 
under the headline: "Home for Wright plane to be known in month." It was under 
Dayton dateline and reported a statement by Mr. Harold S. Miller of Dayton, 
one of the executors of Orville Wright's estate, that no decision would be 
made regarding a final home for the plane, pending an examination of Wright’s 
papers^ and that this might take a month or two. 
I called Tom Nolan this morning and he said that he had been planning to 
get in touch with me. We are having lunch tomorrow to try to thrash out a 
couple of problems. I plan to take up a job description for the executive 
officer. You had specified a P-7 for this job, but Tom and I both think 
that it should probably be a P-8. This man will have many dealings with 
members of the committee, and this is a rather weighty committee. I think 
that operations would be much smoother if the man were at the top of the pro¬ 
fessional service. Nolan feels the same way. I realize that you are a little 
hesitant about loading up too many P-8's at the Institution, but this person 
is not an Institution man. We are going ahead with the job description, but 
final steps will not be taken until I have had an answer to this from you. 
I really feel that it would be a mistake to have this man in any way lower than 
P-8. The question of finances will also be discussed with Tom Nolan. If Dr. 
Steelman does not soon send down a letter indicating that funds will be assigned 
from the President's Emergency Fund, I think it might be well to take up this 
matter with Lawton at the Bureau of the Budget, since he is the man who has a 
great deal to do with this fund. We should certainly get the money from the 
outside as it would be bad strategy to start this committee off with an 
assessment. 
We are going up Thursday morning to talk with Fleming 
I trust that all is well with you. 
incerely. 
/ y 
Enclosures 
