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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

7th Street and Independence Avenue, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (an old medical museum), would have to be moved elsewhere, in accordance with the recommendation of the Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Congress would be asked by the President to furnish the authorization and funds to build a building.  The cost of this gallery is thought to be in the range of $10 million, to house a $40 million collection.  An endowment fund would be provided by Mr. Hirshhorn, it is expected, as well as his great collection.

The proposed site is within the area authorized by the Act of May 17, 1938, as the location of a Smithsonian Gallery of Art, i.e., on the Mall between 4th and 14th Streets.

Senator Saltonstall asked if there were any difficulty about the Air Museum being across the Mall from the National Gallery of Art.  The Secretary and Senator Anderson explained that the site o the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall had been designated by an Act of Congress.  Funds have already been appropriated and plans and specifications for a suitable building for the National Air and Space Museum, to be compatible with the National Gallery or Art, are nearing completion.

The site for the Hirshhorn gallery between 7th and 9th Streets on the Independence Avenue side of the Mall lies within the area designated by Congress for an art gallery.  The Secretary described a model prepared by Gordon Bunshaft, which had been shown to Mrs. Johnson and Secretary Udall.  The Secretary has asked Mrs. Johnson to speak to Defense Secretary McNamara about the need to move the Armed Forces Medical Museum to some other location.  The Secretary suggested that this museum should go to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, into the new Forrestal Building, or be moved to the Smithsonian's prposed [[proposed]] Armed Forces Museum.

Transcription Notes:
There is a handwritten note scanned previously in the set of papers (Page 89 of 320) which references a missing letter "o" in proposed - that page refers to the last line of this document.