United States National Museum

The Act of Congress of August 10, 1846, establishing the Smithsonian Institution, empowered the Board of Regents to receive, either through donations or exchanges, new specimens for the museum of the Institution. In addition, the Secretary was authorized to discharge the duties of the "keeper of the museum." Beginning in 1841, the museum collections of the United States government had been stored in the Patent Office. Originally they were under the custodianship of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science (renamed the National Institute in 1842), which had designs on the Smithson bequest and hopes of establishing a national museum. Later, as the National Institute fell from favor with Congress, the collections were placed under the charge of the Commissioner of Patents.

By the late 1840s, the Smithsonian began collecting natural history specimens and started building up a museum collection of specimens for study. When Spencer F. Baird was appointed Assistant Secretary in 1850, he brought his own sizable natural history collection to Washington and donated it to the Institution. Throughout the 1850s the Smithsonian museum continued to grow, partly as a result of private donations and partly as a result of specimens collected by government exploring expeditions and deposited in the Institution.

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