Evening star., 1937-02-13
Significant Items Cleaned
From, Official Reports.


OFFICIAL reports are, as a rule, OF
little interest save to statisticians
and compilers, but there is quite q
little material of timely and general
interest to be cleaned from the most
recent fiscal reports Of the Smithson-
ian Institution and the United States
National Museum, which have lately
been printed and distributed. For in
stance, a careful record of attendance
is kept, year in and year out, from
which it is discovered that, during q
tWelvemonth period, more than 2.000,-
900 persons have collectively visited
the Smithsonian Building, the three
buildings of the National Museum and
the Freer Gallery of Art. This Is
nearly twice as many persons as yearly
visit the Metropolitan Museum Of Art
in New York or the Art Institute Of
Chicago. Also, no fewer than these
will later on visit annually the Ma
tional Gallery of Art. with its mag
nificent collection. The two months
of the year when the largest attend
ances are recorded are-doubtless to
the surprise of many-August and
April, the lowest December and Janu-
ary. That a large proportion Of the
visitors are from out Of town may
therefore be reasonably concluded.
But with all the foreign travel the
combined attendance at the National
Gallery, London, the Louvre in Paris
and the Uflzzi in Florence do not ap-
proach numerically the attendance
here.
Another interesting fact cleaned
from these reports is financial and
has to do with the Freer Gallery Of
Art, which is administered by the
Smithsonian Institution. The late
Charles L. Freer, it appears, made over
his collection by deed Of gift to the
Smithsonian Institution in 1906.
Later he gave funds for a building,
and finally, in his will, probated in
1919, he provided stock and securities
to the estimated value of $1,958, ,591 as
an endowment fund for the operation
Of the gallery. And now comes the
welcome but astonishing statement
that, through accumulation (and wise
administrator these funds have in
creased more than twofold. so that
they now amount to $4,65l ,867O7. Po-
tential donors, take reassuring note.
We learn also that the Freer COL
lection is being steadily built Up by
purchases, rare examples of the
great art of the East being added as =
opportunity offers The acquisitions !.
during the past year included Per-
sian brass box, four Chinese bronzes,
a sculptured Persian pediment, four
leaves from a sixteenth century Per-
sian manuscript, two Indian and
three Persian paintings, and, in pot
terry, a Chinese cup and a Syro-Egypt-
ian bowl.
That the Freer Gallery of Art is be-
coming widely recognized as . source
of knowledge and resort fos expert
is evidenced by the fact
that nearly 700 objects and over 200
were submitted last year
to the curator for an opinion on their
identity and significance.
The National Gallery of Art, as It
now exists, is also under the Smith
sonian Institution, with quarters as
signed in the Natural History Build
ing of the National Museum. Four in
dividual collections and numerous
separate exhibits have been given to
the National Gallery of Art by private
persons, but the only support it has is
an annual appropriation from Con-
gress Of something less than $4,000,
covering salaries and all necessary
"