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Rh amounted to $650,000. An act of the 7th of July 1838 (repealed in 1841) directed the investment of the money in state bonds, and $500,000 was invested in Arkansas bonds which proved worthless, but Congress, considering that it was a trustee of the fund, made an appropriation to cover the loss. By other gifts, notably that of $216,000 from Thomas George Hodgkins (d. 1892) of Setauket, Long Island, New York, the fund was increased: in 1910 it amounted to $944,918, drawing interest at 6%.

There were many different suggestions as to how the fund should be used. The character of the National Institute (called National Institution before 1843), which was organized in 1840 &ldquo;to promote science and the useful arts and to establish a national museum of history,&rdquo; had a great influence in shaping the act (approved on the 10th of August 1846) establishing the Smithsonian Institution and providing for an &ldquo;establishment&rdquo; by this name composed of the president, vice-president, secretaries of state, treasury, war and navy, the postmaster-general, the attorney-general, the chief-justice of the supreme court and the commissioner of the patent office of the United States, the mayor of the city of Washington (amended in 1871 to read: governor of the District of Columbia), and such other persons as they may elect honorary members. The same act provided for the government of the Institution by a Board of Regents composed of the vice-president of the United States, the mayor of the city of Washington (amended in 1871 as above), three members of the Senate (appointed by its president), three members of the House of Representatives (appointed by its speaker), two members of the National Institute of the City of Washington (chosen by joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives), and four others, inhabitants of four different states; the Board chose from its members a chancellor (in practice the vice-president of the United States until 1850 and since then the chief-justice). The act provided for the delivery to the Board of Regents and the maintenance in the buildings, which were to be erected according to the act, of &ldquo;all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history,&rdquo; &c., belonging to the United States, including the collections of Smithson; and it enacted that any applicant for copyright should deliver one copy of the work to be copyrighted to the librarian of the Smithsonian Institution and another to the Librarian of Congress. Thanks to the efforts of J. Q. Adams, provision was made for the use of the income of the fund only and the principal was permanently invested.

The Regents met on the 7th of September 1846. Those appointed were: George Evans, Sidney Breese and Isaac S. Pennybacker, senators; Robert Dale Owen, William J. Hough and Henry W. Hilliard, members of the House of Representatives; Rufus Choate, Gideon Hawley, Richard Rush and William C. Preston, by joint resolution, from four different states; and Alexander Dallas Bache and General Joseph G. Totten, from the National Institute. They elected (Dec. 1846) as first secretary and director of the Institution, Joseph Henry, then professor of natural philosophy in the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), who presented in his first annual report (Dec. 1847) a &ldquo;program of organization.&rdquo; The first paragraph contained the following: &mdash; &ldquo;To Increase Knowledge: It is proposed (1) to stimulate men of talent to make original researches, by offering suitable rewards for memoirs containing new truths; and (2) to appropriate annually a portion of the income for particular researches, under the direction of

suitable persons. To Diffuse Knowledge: It is proposed (1) to publish a series of periodical reports on the progress of different branches of knowledge; and (2) to publish occasionally separate treatises on subjects of general interest.&rdquo;