executed some of them in Section 1. After Dr. Spoehr's departure 

 for the Navy early in 1942, Curators Collier and Quimby helped to 

 carry on with the work and to plan and install several new exhibits. 

 Mrs. Spoehr did the art work in all the cases in this section. 



Section 2 of Hall B was opened to the public in November. 

 This section, although not completed, is dedicated to the American 

 Indian civilizations as they were prior to the coming of the white 

 man. Ten exhibits are on display. Seven of these deal with the 

 Hopewell Indians who lived in southern Ohio about a.d. 1100 1400. 

 The civilization of these Indians was well developed and was proba- 

 bly more advanced in many ways than that of any other Indians 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. 



The Hopewell farmers probably lived in skin- or bark-covered 

 huts which were grouped together in small hamlets or towns. Near 

 the houses were large and small burial mounds, from which all of 

 our materials were dug. A low, earthen wall enclosed some of these 

 hamlets and their burial mounds. This enclosing wall probably did 

 not serve as a fortification; it was, rather, sacred in character. 



The people of these villages raised corn and perhaps squash and 

 beans, and obtained other necessary items for their diet by fishing 

 and hunting. They made pottery, wove cloth and basketry, and 

 produced extraordinarily varied and beautiful ornaments of copper, 

 mica, stone and silver. 



It is believed that the Hopewell farmers were united with other 

 near-by Indians in some sort of political confederacy. From the 

 meager evidence which is now available, it seems likely that there 

 were privileged classes among the Hopewell Indians, some of whom 

 may have held a high rank of some kind; that elaborate ceremonies 

 were performed from time to time; that special guilds of craftsmen 

 existed; that commerce and trade were carried on with far distant 

 tribes; and that the people were organized socially in such a way as 

 to permit the completion of large jobs (for example, the construction 

 of large mounds) by means of co-operative labor. 



The exhibits attempt to portray all these phases of the daily 

 life of these ancient Indians. Included, therefore, are exhibits illus- 

 trating man's work; woman's work; personal ornaments of copper, 

 stone and silver; a Hopewell woman; a Hopewell man wearing a 

 ceremonial deer-antler headdress; and finally a display showing the 

 artistic skill and the interest of the Hopewell craftsmen in man and 

 nature. Other displays will show Hopewell villages and burial 

 mounds, sculpture, ceremonies, and the materials which these 

 Indians received by means of trade. 



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