t he emphasized his protest against it by resigning
from the board.

A question of legal interpretation came in to make the situation
yet more difficult. The regents had resolved that, after the
completion of the building, one half the income should be devoted
to those objects which Professor Henry considered most appropriate.
Meanwhile there was no limit to the amount that might be appropriated
to these objects, but Mr. Jewett and other heads of departments
wished to apply the rule from the beginning. Henry refused to do so,
and looked with entire satisfaction on the slowness of completion
of what was, in his eyes, an undesirable building.

It must be admitted that there was one point which Professor
Henry either failed to appreciate, or perhaps thought unworthy
of consideration. This is, the strong hold on the minds of men
which an institution is able to secure through the agency of an
imposing building. Saying nothing of the artistic and educational
value of a beautiful piece of architecture, it would seem that such
a structure has a peculiar power of impressing the minds of men with
the importance of the object to which it is devoted, or of the work
going on within it. Had Professor Henry been allowed to perform
all the functions of the Smithsonian Institution in a moderate-sized
hired house, as he felt himself abundantly able to do, I have very
serious doubts whether it would have acquired its present celebrity
and gained its present high place in the estimation of the public.

In the winter of 1865 the institution suffered an irreparable
loss by a conflagration which destroyed the central portion of
the building. At that time the gallery of art had been confined to
a collection of portraits of Indians by Stanley. This collection
was entirely destroyed. The library, being at one end, remained
intact. The lecture room, where courses of scientific lectures
had been delivered by eminent men of science, was also destroyed.
This event gave Professor Henry an opportunity of taking a long
step in the direction he desired. He induced Congress to take the
Smithsonian library on deposit as a part of its own, and thus relieve
the institution of the cost of supporting this branch.

The Corcoran Art Gallery had been founded in the mean time, and
relieved the institution of all necessity for supporting a gallery
of art. He would gladly have seen the National Museum made a separate
institution, and the Smithsonian