Present: George M. Dallas, William W. Seaton, George Evans, Isaac S. Pennybacker, Sidney Breese, Robert Dale Owen, William J. Hough, Henry W. Hilliard, Richard Rush, Gideon Hawley, Alexander Dallas Bache, Joseph G. Totten, Rufus Choate. The members not present were Roger Brooke Taney and William C. Preston.
The chancellor presented a letter from Walter R. Johnson offering his services for the department of physical science and a letter from John Jay of the New York Historical Society recommending John Romeyn Brodhead for the office of secretary. Mr. Bache presented a letter from B. F. French. The board resolved that the assistant secretary print one thousand copies of the board's proceedings from its commencement to the current meeting and forward 25 copies to each regent; to offer Mr. Hough thanks for his services as secretary, it being the last meeting he would serve as such; that the Executive Committee be authorized to arrange with the secretary the "time and manner of the discharge of the duties enjoined on him by law" and by the board; that a committee be appointed by the Chancellor to "procure the introduction...of a bill amendatory of the act establishing this institution," to which Mr. Hough and Mr. Evans were appointed.
Acting on the notion that some of the regents were unsure whether the resolution discussed the previous meeting regarding a lecture series had been adopted or postponed until the secretary-elect, Joseph Henry, was consulted, it was ordered that it be postponed until the board's next session. The board resolved that the secretary of the Institution be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the board, but not to vote and then adjourned to meet on the second Wednesday of the current month in the room of the U.S. Vice-President in the Capitol at 11:00 AM.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 1, Board of Regents Vol. 1 (Bound volume)
