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[[underline]] Visit of the Queen of Great Britain [[/underline]]

The Secretary reported he had been notified that the Queen of England will be visiting the United States and on July 8, 1976, at 3:00 p.m., she will be visiting the Smithsonian Institution.  She will be received at the North entrance of the Castle with a fanfare of trumpets from the Tower, and she has expressed great interest in doing this.  It has been suggested that the Chancellor and Members of the Board of Regents if possible be here to greet her at that time and conduct her to the chapel where James Smithson is interred.  The Queen would then be taken into the Lounge in this building, where the "American crown jewels" will be on exhibition.

The Queen would like to commemorate this occasion by perhaps having on exhibition in our museum the scientific drawings of Leonardo which have never been shown anywhere.  She would have them shown for one month, in special recognition of the occasion of her visit during the summer, and then present to the Institution a facsimile copy of these drawings, an extraordinary gift.

The Smithsonian will recognize that the single largest seminal gift to the United States by the British Nation was the bequest of James Smithson.  It was suggested that a Joint Resolution expressing the gratitude of the people of the United States to Great Britain might be enacted by the Congress.  This could be presented to the Queen in the form of a scroll or Presidential proclamation upon her visit.