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With the support of Secretary Langeley, the Smithsonian's Section of Photography was established in 1896. Assistant Secretary G. Brown Goode, and Thomas W. Smillie, the newly appointed Honorary Custodian of the Section, began to document the history of photography from its beginnings in 1839.
The acquisition of fifty photographs from the 1896 Washington Salon for this new collection was the first major purchase of art photography by any museum in the United States. Smillie hoped to collect amateur photography from the Washington Salon yearly. The salon did not become the annual event the organizers had promised, but the Smithsonian has continued to collect and document amateur photography for a century.
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Thomas W. Smillie (1843-1917), whose dedication to the study of the history of photography was crucial to the creation of a national collection. He served as Smithsonian Official Photographer(1871-1917) and Honorary Custodian of the Section of Photography (1896-1917).
