george brown goode.
Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1896.
louis agassiz.
Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. 1863-1873.
asa gray.
Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, 1874-88. in the educational and scientific world. Their roll contains the names of the most distinguished American citizens for half a century.
An unwritten policy has grown up which, without instructions or regulations, has been of profound influence in the work. The Smithsonian Institution does not undertake work which any existing agency can or will do as well. It does not engage in controversies; it limits its work to observation and the diffusion of ascertained knowledge,
not to speculation. It preserves an 'open mind' for all branches of knowledge and considers any phenomena which are the object of serious study within its purview. Its benefits are not confined to Washington nor to the United States, but as far as consistent are extended to all men.
Its secretaries, assistant secretaries, and scientific officers have from the beginning—long before a classified service existed—been
