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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION    1515

(Appendix I)

DRAFT OF PROPOSED LETTER

Honorable Thomas C. Hennings, Jr.
Chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration
United States Senate
Washington, D. C.

Dear Senator Hennings:

You kindly requested in your letter of February 4 that the recommendations and comments of the Smithsonian Institution on S. 2975, a bill "To establish a National Portrait Gallery, and for other purposes." 

A National Portrait Gallery will serve as an outstanding educational, cultural, and patriotic center for the American people. Its purpose would be to exhibit, and to provide documentation on, the National collections of portraits and statuary of men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of America. 

Many portraits of important historical personages are now being held by the trustees of the National Gallery of Art for permanent display in a National Portrait Gallery. The National Collection of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution also has a collection of nationally important portraits which cannot at the present time be adequately displayed. In addition, there are numbers of portraits of persons who should be represented in a National Portrait Gallery, now in the hands of private collectors, which might become available if a suitable gallery is provided.

Thus, a National Portrait Gallery will be a most significant cultural achievement. In this connection may I refer you to the Act of March 28, 1958, which authorized the further transfer of the old Patent Office Building to the Smithsonian Institution for the use of certain of its art galleries.

The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution has appointed a Committee of Regents to consider plans for a National Portrait Gallery in the Institution. The report of this Committee is now being formulated for consideration by the Board of Regents. 

It is most respectfully requested that legislative action S. 2975 be deferred until the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have had opportunity to complete their study of the organization of a National Portrait Gallery in the Institution and to report fully to you their views on the pending legislation. 

The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the submission of this report to the Committee.

Sincerely yours,

Leonard Carmichael
Secretary

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