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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION  623
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PUBLICATION BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION OF A POPULAR SCIENTIFIC SERIES OF BOOKS.

Mr. W. T. DeVan, who promoted the "Chronicles of America" series of books, recently published by the Yale University Press, has become greatly interested in our efforts to increase the endowment of the Smithsonian Institution.

He has proposed the publication, on similar lines, of a series of books, about twenty in number, to interpret the Smithsonian Institution and its activities. He hopes to dispose of a limited, signed edition de luxe, and afterwards to sell a very large number of series at more popular prices.  He offers the Institution a liberal share of the proceeds of the sales.

It is agreed that if the project should go forward it would be for three purposes: (1) to promote the diffusion of knowledge among men; (2) to give the Institution honorable publicity; (3) to increase the unrestricted endowment of the Institution.

In order to accomplish these ends, it is evident that the writings must be so accurate that the Institution could approve of them, but in such an attractive style and well illustrated that large numbers of people would be interested in them. These requirements might be met by having the members of the staff prepare the writings, submit them to an editor inside the organization to round out the scheme and make it representative, and then to turn over the manuscripts to expert writers who would be able to give them that readable, interesting style which would be necessary to a large sale. Yet it would be suicidal to allow such an one to have free rein, so the manuscripts must again be submitted to the authors in order to avoid blunders such as the non-scientific writer might introduce.

Two other questions arise in connection with this publication

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