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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION  829
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Due to the absence of Dr. Holmes, Secretary of the Commission, Mr. James G. Traylor was requested to act as Secretary.

The minutes of the last annual meeting, held December 11, 1928, were submitted, and, on motion, approved without reading. This was followed by the reading of the Secretary's report on the activities of the Gallery for the calendar year 1929. The more important features of this report, briefly recorded, are as follows:

The activities of the Gallery for the calendar year 1929, as in several previous years, have been greatly restricted due to the exhaustion of space for the accommodation of additional works of art.

It happens that this period of inactivity has been greatly relieved during the present season by two events of very especial importance--first the gift of a great collection of art works by Mr. John Gellatly of New York, and second the initial assemblage in the Gallery of seventy-eight American paintings purchased by the National Academy of Design as provided by the Henry W. Ranger bequest. The latter collection, installed in the Gallery during the first week of December, was opened by an informal reception on the evening of December 10th and met with general approval.

After a preliminary hearing before the Permanent Committee of the Board of Regents, attended by Mr. Frederic A. Delano, Honorable Reed Smoot, Dr. John C. Merriam, and the Secretary, a special meeting of the Gallery Commission was called April 13, 1929, to consider the Gellatly offer. After hearing in some detail of the collection offered, of the conditions imposed by the prospective donor, and the responsibilities
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