CHAPTER IX 
THE SMITHSONIAN’S GREATEST PRIVATE 
TRUST—THE FREER GALLERY OF ART 
On May 5, 1906, Charles Lang Freer of Detroit executed 
a formal deed of gift to the Smithsonian Institution, plac¬ 
ing under its charge for the American people his unrivaled 
collections of American and Oriental art. This gift was 
later increased by the provision for a beautiful building 
to contain the collection and funds to care for it; and 
still later was crowned by a very large bequest, the income 
to be used solely to promote the study of the civilization of 
the Far East and the appreciation of high ideals of beauty. 
Mr. Freer’s foundations-have now a money value of quite 
ten millions, and stand among the world’s largest indi¬ 
vidual benefactions in the field of art and culture. 
As jearly as 1904, Mr. Freer, no doubt influenced by 
the bequest in 1903 by Harriet Lane Johnston of her 
private art collection to the “National Art Gallery,” 
transmitted to the Smithsonian an offer to bequeath his 
entire art collection to the United States, through the 
Institution, and to provide in his will for the erection of 
a suitable building to house the collection. In this offer 
he described his purpose in assembling the extensive col¬ 
lection as follows: 
“These several collections include specimens of very 
widely separated periods of artistic development, begin¬ 
ning before the birth of Christ and ending today. No 
attempt has been made to secure specimens from unsym¬ 
pathetic sources, my collecting having been confined to 
American and Asiatic Schools. My great desire has been 
[ Ho] 
