ishable specimens from Africa were removed from the poison rooms 

 on the fourth floor and added to the Oceanic materials. The African 

 collections have already been moved into their new storage space. 

 The study and storage facilities of the Pacific Research Laboratory 

 make it possible to deal more systematically with two of the major 

 primitive-art areas of the world, Oceania and Africa. Work was 

 begun on rearranging the Middle and South American collections in 

 Room 35, which was made available by moving the Melanesian col- 

 lections into the Pacific Research Laboratory. 



Evett D. Hester, with the assistance of Albert Bradford and 

 William J. Hiebert, Antioch College students, and Miss Patricia E. 

 O'Shea, volunteer, completed cataloguing the entire Hester Collec- 

 tion of ceramic recoveries from the Philippines that have come to the 

 Museum over a period of years (see page 43) . A co-ordinated project 

 was the organization of albums containing photographs of specimens 

 in the Hester Collections that are housed in the Museum of Anthro- 

 pology at the University of Michigan and at the J. B. Speed Art 

 Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Under the supervision of Chief 

 Curator Martin, Miss Helen K. Kelly, Antioch College student, 

 checked the kachinas presented to the Museum by Byron Harvey III 

 (see Annual Report 1952, page 38) against the catalogue numbers and 

 arranged the specimens for photographing. She later mounted the 

 photographs and supplied the necessary captions. 



Curator Starr neared the end of his work of collaboration in cata- 

 loguing the Berthold Laufer Collection of books in Oriental lan- 

 guages, a collection forming part of the East Asian Collection. This 

 project has been carried out in co-operation with Dr. Hoshien Tchen 

 and Mrs. M. Eileen Rocourt of the Library staff (see page 74). 



Exhibits— Anthropology 



Twelve new exhibits were prepared for Hall 8 (Ancient and Modern 

 Indians of Mexico and Central America). Casts of Classic Maya 

 sculpture from Yaxchilan, Guatemala, and Uxmal, Yucatan, were 

 renovated by Ceramic Restorer Walter Boyer and installed on a 

 specially constructed column in the center of the hall. Dioramist 

 Alfred Lee Rowell completed for the hall a new diorama showing a 

 Maya dedication ceremony, finished the renovation of models of an 

 early Maya temple at Uaxactun, Guatemala, and a Mixtec palace at 

 Mitla, Mexico, and worked on the renovation of a temple from 

 Teotihuacan, Mexico, and on a new diorama of an Aztec market. 

 The new exhibits emphasizing African art that have been installed 



44 



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