The Committee on Buildings was established and given its first assignment.
Summary:
Present: George M. Dallas, Roger B. Taney, William W. Seaton, George Evans, Isaac S. Pennybacker, Robert Dale Owen, William J. Hough, Henry W. Hilliard, Rufus Choate, Gideon Hawley, Richard Rush, Alexander Dallas Bache. The members not present were Sidney Breese, William C. Preston, and Joseph G. Totten.
Mr. Owen presented building plans of architects David Dale Owen and Robert Mills. The regents resolved that the Chancellor, Secretary, and Executive Committee be "authorized and instructed to take such measures as may be deemed by them most proper to obtain plans for the erection of buildings" and to make a report accordingly to the board at its next meeting, along with information on the best materials and ways to heat, light, and ventilate the building, and a cost estimate; to extend thanks to David Dale Owen for his architectural plans and to refer any other plans submitted to the board to the Committee on Buildings; that this committee be authorized, at the expense of the board, to visit various structures, speak with experts, and purchase materials they deem necessary to accomplish their assignment.
The Board also resolved that their meetings would take place on the second Wednesday of December and the third Wednesday of February in each year and on the first Wednesday of June in each alternate year, beginning in June of 1848; that Mr. Rush ascertain whether Madame de la Batut was living, and if not, how to "obtain the fund reverting to the Unites States;" to authorize the Executive Committee to pay any legal fee incurred and reported by Mr. Rush; to request that the Secretary contract the printing of two hundred and fifty copies of the original laws accepting Smithson's gift and establishing the Institution and the names and addresses of the Board of Regents, with six copies to be sent to each regent and each member of the Establishment.
The board then resolved that the subject of a building site be referred to the Committee on Buildings and that they report at the next meeting; that Mr. Choate and Mr. Pennybacker be added to the committee established the previous day to create a plan for the Institution; to request that the secretary collect all documents connected to the history of the Smithsonian and bind them "as a commencement of its library." William Archer then presented to the board his plan and cost estimate for a building, which was referred to the Committee on Buildings. The Board then adjourned until the last Monday of the following November.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 1, Board of Regents Vol. 1 (Bound volume)
