Abstract
THE report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30, 1943, includes the report of the secretary and the financial report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents, together with the usual reports of the United States National Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the International Exchange Service, the Astrophysical Observatory and on the Library. The secretary's report points out that all personnel and facilities of the Institution and its branches were made available and extensively used in the prosecution of the War, although the normal activities were kept alive to the extent of continuing observations the cessation of which would leave permanent gaps in records essential for future investigations and of maintaining and caring for the national collections. All other research and exploratory projects not required for the orderly resumption of cultural activities after the War have been suspended, except those activities relating to closer cultural co-operation with the other American republics. Much of the Institution's contribution to the war effort is of an indirect nature. More than a thousand recorded inquiries had been answered up to the close of the fiscal year, and a list of selected examples tabulated by the War Committee shows not only the wide range of these questions but also the extent to which modern total war depends on scientific knowledge.
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Smithsonian Institution: Annual Report. Nature 153, 769 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153769a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153769a0