The exhibit is on display at the National Archives, Constitution Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets, Washington, D. C. The Exhibition Hall is open from 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on weekdays and from 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Sundays and holidays.

William H. Jackson's photograph of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is reproduced on the cover of this catalog.

National Archives Publication No. 49-23

Washington : 1949

This exhibit marks the hundredth anniversary of the Department of the Interior. Such a department was suggested in the debates of 1787-89 on the structure of the new government, but as a solution Congress provided for a Department of State rather than a Department of Foreign Affairs and combined under a Secretary of State responsibility for both foreign and domestic business. In addition, the War Department continued to handle Indian affairs because of the supposed close connection with military affairs, and the Treasury Department continued its administration of the public domain, which was then conceived of as a major source of revenue. As the country grew, the management of these domestic functions became an increasingly heavy administrative burden to these departments, the primary interests of which were also expanding.

Presidents Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Jackson all suggested to Congress the propriety of establishing a new department, but bills introduced for this purpose were defeated. It is peculiarly appropriate that success was achieved on March 3, 1849, the last day of the Polk administration, for that administration through the annexation of Texas, the Oregon Treaty, and the Mexican War had extended the boundaries of the United States to the Pacific and had added over a million square miles to the public domain.

The Interior Department gained in power and prestige as the domestic affairs of the rapidly growing Nation took on ever-increasing importance. The only difficulty was that the Department became unwieldy from their very number and diversity. This situation was remedied in large part by the setting off of new departments-Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor--to which both appropriate older bureaus and newer functions were transferred. The Interior Department was thus freed to give increasing attention to the conservation and wise development of the Nation's natural resources. This concern, which began to be evident during the administration of Carl Schurz in the 1870's, has grown with the passing of the frontier and the rapid industrialization of the country's economic life and has been sharpened by the extravagant depletions of natural resources in two world wars. For the past 40 years the Department has been dedicated mainly to this mission, so obviously of primary importance for the Nation's future welfare.

Of the original bureaus that were transferred to the Interior Department in 1849 only two remain, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the General Land Office, or Bureau of Land Management, as it has been significantly renamed. Other great bureaus concerned with natural resources have grown up within the Department--the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Mines, the National Park Service, and the Bonneville and Southwestern Power Administrations. Transferred to the Department in earlier years was responsibility for the administration of the Territories, now concentrated in the Division of Territories and Island Possessions. More recently there were added the Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey, now consolidated in the Fish and Wildlife Service. There are other divisions not of bureau status in the Department and there have been important but temporary wartime agencies attached to it.

This exhibit does not attempt to portray the entire history of the Department of the Interior or of its programs. Through older records that have been transferred to the National Archives (records of the Department itself unless otherwise noted), it attempts simply to highlight something of the Department's proud role in the Nation's history.

Proposal for a New Department (case 1)

In his annual report for the fiscal year 1848, the Secretary of the Treasury, Robert J. Walker, recommended that certain "public duties" unrelated to customs and fiscal matters should devolve upon a new Executive department to be established by Congress and to be under a Secretary of the Interior. The page containing this recommendation is shown. The new department, he said, should include the General Land Office of the Treasury Department and the offices dealing with patents, the census, pensions, and Indians, which should be transferred from the State, War, and Navy Departments. Walker's rather detailed plans for the new department were sent to the House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

From records of the House of Representatives in the National Archives.

Congressional Action on the Proposal (case 1)

On February 12, 1849, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee reported to the House of Representatives Bill No. 764 "to establish the Department of the Interior, and for other purposes." The same day the Chairman of the Agricultural Committee endorsed the plans of the Secretary of the Treasury but favored the title "Home Department." As a result the title of the original bill was amended to read: "To establish the Home Department and to provide for the