Regents Request Funds for Construction of a Third SI Building

Due to ever-growing collections, the Smithsonian Board of Regents presents a resolution to the U.S. Congress requesting an appropriation of $300,000 to enlarge the U.S. National Museum by erection of a fireproof building on the southwest corner of the Smithsonian Reservation.  This request is less than two years after the National Museum Building, now the Arts and Industries Building, is opened.  It was not until 1902 that Congress appropriated funding for a new U.S. National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History.