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Smithsonian Institution  574
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MADE BY BAKER-VAWTER CO.
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[[underlined]]Curator's Salary[[/underlined]]. The Secretary went on to say that at the meeting held December 9, 1920, the Board of Regents adopted the following resolution:-

RESOLVED; That the Secretary be authorized to temporarily hire, for the full income, a competent curator whose first service shall be the faithful oversight, intelligent exhibition and careful protection of the collections transferred by the will of the late Charles L. Freer; and to incorporate in the contract for the services of said curator an agreement that any additional services under the terms of said will shall be paid by said curator in such sums as may be agreed upon.

This resolution was adopted for the purpose of carrying out the requirements of Section 18 of Item 1 of Mr. Freer's will, which reads as follows:

Eighteenth. In addition to the gifts last above mentioned, I give and bequeath to said Smithsonian Institution capital stock of said Parke, Davis & Company, of the market value at the time of my death, of Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.00). The cash dividends on said stock or the income derived from the proceeds of the sale thereof, shall be used by the Regents of said Institution solely for the purpose of hiring a competent curator whose first service shall be the faithful oversight, intelligent exhibition and careful protection of the collections transferred by me by deed of gift or bills of sale or bequeathed by this will to said Institution.

The Secretary stated that when Mr. Freer drew his will, the stock of Parke, Davis & Company was selling at about 120 per share, and his thought, as he explained it to the Secretary, was that it would yield sufficient income to allow the Regents to pay from Six to Ten thousand dollars per annum to a curator. He put the word "solely" into Item 18, as he feared that in the long run of time there might be a desire to economize on the salary of the curator and to employ an inferior person for the position.

In a letter to the Secretary, under date of September 9, 1919, Mr. Freer stated that he would like to discuss with the Secretary at some time in the future the question of the salary of the curator, and also the matter of the protection of the garden of the Freer Building within the court. Owing to his death on September 25, 1919, there was no opportunity to learn what he had in mind.
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