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THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE "ESTABLISHMENT."

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, President of the United States.

CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS, Vice-President of the United States.
MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief Justice of the United States.

JOHN HAY, Secretary of State.

LESLIE M. SHAW, Secretary of the Treasury.

WILLIAM H. TAFT, Secretary of War.
WILLIAM H. MOODY, Attorney-General.

GEORGE B. CORTELYOU, Postmaster-General.
PAUL MORTON, Secretary of the Navy.

ETHAN ALLEN HITCHCOCK, Secretary of the Interior.

JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture.

VICTOR H. METCALF, Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION.

(List given on following page.)

OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION.

SAMUEL P. LANGLEY, Secretary.

(Director of the Institution and Keeper of the U. S. National Museum.) RICHARD RATHBUN, Assistant Secretary, in Charge of the U. S. National Museum. CYRUS ADLER, Assistant Secretary, in Charge of Library and Exchanges.

IX

By the organizing act approved August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes, Title LXXIII, section 5580), "The business of the Institution shall be conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents, named the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to be composed of the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three members of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives, together with six other persons, other than Members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington, and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two of the same State."

REGENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905.

The Chief Justice of the United States:

MELVILLE W. FULLER, elected Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution and presiding officer of the Board January 9, 1889.

The Vice-President of the United States:

CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS, ex officio March 4, 1905..

United States Senators:

SHELBY M. CULLOM (appointed March 24, 1885; March 28, 1889;
December 18, 1895, and March 7, 1901).

Vacancy (death of Senator O. H. PLATT, April 21, 1905).
Vacancy (retirement of Senator F. M. COCKRELL, March 3, 1905).

Members of the House of Representatives:

ROBERT R. HITT (appointed August 11, 1893; January 4, 1894; December 20, 1895; December 22, 1897; January 4, 1900; December 13, 1901, and January 12, 1904)

Term expires.

.Mar. 3, 1909

.Mar. 3, 1907

.Dec. 27, 1905

ROBERT ADAMS, JR. (appointed December 20, 1895; December 22, 1897; January 4, 1900; December 13, 1901, and January 12, 1904)

.Dec. 27, 1905

HUGH A. DINSMORE (appointed January 4, 1900; December 13, 1901, and January 12, 1904)..

Citizens of a State:

Dec. 27, 1905

JAMES B. ANGELL, of Michigan (appointed January 19, 1887; January 9, 1893; January 24, 1899, and January 23, 1905)..................Jan. 23, 1911 ANDREW D. WHITE, of New York (appointed February 15, 1888; March 19, 1894, and June 2, 1900)... RICHARD OLNEY, of Massachusetts (appointed January 24, 1900).....

.June 2, 1906

..Jan. 24, 1906

GEORGE GRAY, of Delaware (appointed January 14, 1901)...........Jan. 14, 1907 Residents in the City of Washington:

JOHN B. HENDERSON (appointed January 26, 1892; January 24, 1898, and January 27, 1904)...

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (appointed January 24, 1898, and January 27, 1904) .

Executive Committee of the Board of Regents.

JOHN B. HENDERSON, Chairman.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.

Jan. 27, 1910

.Jan. 27, 1910

ROBERT R. HITT.

X

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905.

At a meeting held March 12, 1903, the Board of Regents adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That, in addition to the prescribed meeting held on the fourth Wednesday in January, regular meetings of the Board shall be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in December and on the 6th day of March, unless that day falls on Sunday, when the following Monday shall be substituted.

In accordance with this resolution, the Board met at 10 o'clock a. m. on December 6, 1904, January 25, 1905, and March 6, 1905.

REGULAR MEETING OF DECEMBER 6, 1904.

Present: Mr. Chief Justice Fuller (Chancellor) in the chair; the Hon. W. P. Frye, President pro tempore of the Senate, acting as Regent; the Hon. S. M. Cullom, the Hon. O. H. Platt, the Hon. F. M. Cockrell, the Hon. Robert Adams, jr., the Hon. Hugh. A. Dinsmore, Dr. Andrew D. White, the Hon. John B. Henderson, Dr. A. Graham Bell, and the Secretary, Mr. S. P. Langley.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING.

The minutes of the meeting held March 7, 1904, were read in abstract and approved.

DISPOSITION OF THE REMAINS OF JAMES SMITHSON.

The Secretary stated that at the meeting of January 27, 1904, a committee consisting of the Chancellor, the members of the executive committee, and the Secretary had been appointed to act on the question of the final disposition of the remains of James Smithson and of the monument to be erected to him. The committee reported to the Board on March 7, 1904, recommending that a suitable tomb be erected and that Congress be asked to make an adequate appropriation for it.

Since that meeting the committee had decided to suggest in lieu of their former recommendation that the original tomb be brought to this country and used as a final resting place for the remains. Accordingly the Secretary had entered into correspondence with the officials at Genoa, and the tomb had been shipped and was expected by the end of the present month.

After discussion, Senator Cullom offered the following resolution, which was adopted:

Resolved, That the special committee having in charge the matter of the final disposition of the remains of James Smithson be authorized to receive the original tomb, and to place it, suitably inscribed, with the remains, in some proper position that they may select in the grounds of the Institution; the expenses involved in the matter to be met from the funds of the Institution.

NEW BUILDING FOR THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.

The Secretary stated that the preliminary floor plans and elevations were approved on January 27, 1904, and that the detailed plans for the construction of the foundation had been worked out during the spring. The excavation for the building was begun on June 15, 1904, the Secretary turning the first spade of earth, and the site of the building was inclosed with a high board fence. The excavation was completed during the last of the summer, and the work of laying the foundation was immediately begun, the material used being concrete. This part of the work was finished November 9, 1904.

Proposals for furnishing the granite for all parts of the building where this stone was to be used, were opened October 1. There were nine bidders, and after due consideration the following selections were made: For the basement story, pink granite from Milford, Mass.; for the main and second stories, the white Bethel granite of Vermont; for the upper story, white granite from Mount Airy, N. C.; for the trimmings of the court walls, the so-called Woodstock granite of Maryland. It was explained that the stones from these quarries would harmonize, and that the selection had the favorable recommendation of the superintendent of construction and of the architects.

Contracts were at once entered into for supplying the above material, cut and ready for laying, and it was gratifying to state that the total cost of the granite would fall below the original estimates.

It was expected that work on the lower story could be started by next February, and in case the season were an open one, the basement walls could be completed before the summer of 1905. At the present time the superintendent of construction was erecting, in wood, a narrow section of the south front of the building, of actual dimensions, in order to determine if the lines and proportions as shown on the plans were entirely satisfactory or subject to improvement.

PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES.

The Secretary recalled to the Board that bills for the preservation of antiquities on the national domain, had been introduced in the Senate by Senator Cullom, and in the House by Representative Hitt, at the last session of Congress, but that no action had been taken. It

had been learned that the Secretary of the Interior had in contemplation a bill which, while meeting the needs of the Department, would also be satisfactory to the Institution. The Institution had undertaken to prepare for the Secretary of the Interior the requisite maps giving the location of antiquities on the public lands. It was of interest to state that the Secretary of the Interier had already taken preliminary steps in the matter, so far as his authority extended, and had appointed guardians for important ruins.

EXPLORATIONS.

The Secretary said that since the last meeting of the Board two expeditions had ben sent out by the Institution; one under the direction of Mr. A. G. Maddren for the purpose of studying the remains of the Alaskan mammoth and other large mammals reported as abundant in the "Bone-Yard" and at Elephant Point; and a second under the direction of Dr. W. H. Sherzer to study the glaciers of British Columbia. Arrangements had also been made to send Dr. J. Walter Fewkes to Vera Cruz, Mexico, for the purpose of studying the practically unexplored region in the eastern shore of that country, where it is hoped to discover the relationship of the mound-building tribes of our Mississippi Valley and the Pueblo peoples of the Rio Grande and Rio Colorado with the so-called civilized tribes of Mexico. The district was also interesting because of the presence there of a branch of the Maya race of Yucatan.

The sending of these expeditions was a recurrence to the old policy of the Institution which paid for them from its own fund. In this last case it was a joint work of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Institution.

EXTENSION OF ETHNOLOGICAL WORK IN HAWAII AND SAMOA.

The Secretary explained that he had for several years, in connection with the estimates, urged the extension of the researches of the Bureau of American Ethnology to Hawaii and Samoa. Congress had apparently been unwilling up to the present time to authorize this. These researches were practically urgent, and the request had been renewed this year, and he hoped that its importance could be impressed upon the members of the appropriations committees. No additional appropriation was needed to accomplish this, it being only necessary to insert the proper phraseology in the appropriation bill.

The Board then adjourned.

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