Viewing page 155 of 488

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[preprinted]]
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 602
[[/preprinted]]

[[preprinted left margin]]
MADE BY BAKER-VAWTER CO. 
[[preprinted left margin]]

housed wherever space could be found for it in the Natural History building. To this was added in 1923 the great Freer collection in a separate building. 

[[underlined]] Primary purpose of the Smithsonian Institution. [[/underlined]] In the report of the Organization Committee of the Institution, made in 1847, which was signed by Robert Dale Owen, Chairman, the Committee stated that after full consideration, the "increase and diffusion of knowledge" was the purpose of the gift; and that the best method of increasing knowledge was by original research; and that the diffusion of knowledge should be through publication and lectures; and that it did not come within the scope of the Institution to impart professional education; and that in submitting the plan it was proposed to occupy, so far as possible, ground hitherto untenanted and not to compete with other institutions in fields of labor peculiarly their own.
 
In explanation of the program the following observations occur:

"That the institution is not a national establishment, in the sense in which institutions dependent on the Government for support are so, must be evident when it is recollected that the money was not absolutely given to the United States, but intrusted to it for a special object, namely: the establishment of an institution for the benefit of man. * * * The operations of the Smithsonian Institution ought, therefore, to be mingled as little as possible with those of the Government, and its funds should be applied exclusively and faithfully to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 

"That the bequest is intended for the benefit of man in general, and that its influence ought not to be restricted to a single district, or even nation, may be inferred not only from the words of the will, but also from the character of Smithson himself; and I beg leave to quote from a scrap of paper in his own hand, the following sentiment bearing on the point: 'The man of science has no country; the world is his country - all men, his countrymen.' The origin of the funds, the bequest of a foreigner, should also preclude the adoption of a plan which does not, in the words of Mr. Adams, 'spread the benefits to be derived from the institution not only over the whole surface of this Union, but throughout the civilized world.' 'Mr. Smithson's reason for fixing the seat of this institution at Washington obviously was, that there is the seat of government of the United States, and there the Congress by whose legislation, and the Executive through whose agency, the trust committed to the honor, intelligence, and good faith of the nation, is to be fulfilled.'"
[[initialed] CDW [[/initialed]]