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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



August, 19SS 



Field Museum of Natural History 



Founded by Marshall Field. 1893 

 RooaeTelt Road and L4ike M Ichiftan, Chicago 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Sewbll L. Avery 

 John Borobn 



WiLLIAU J. CHAUIBRS 



Marshall Field 

 Stanley Field 

 Ernest R. Graham 

 Albert W. Harris 

 Samuel Insull, Jr. 

 Cyrus H. McCokmick 



John P. 



William H. Mitchell 

 Frederick H. Rawson 

 George A. Richardson 

 Fred W. Sargent 

 Stephen C. Sihhs 

 Jambs Simpson 

 Solomon A. Smith 

 Albert A. Spragub 

 Silas H. Stbawn 

 Wilson 



OFFICERS 



Stanley Field Praident 



Albert A. Spragub Finl Vice-Praidmt 



James Simpson Second Viee-Prendent 



Albert W. Harris Third Vict-Praidmt 



Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary 



Solomon A. Smith . . . Treaturer and Attitianl Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Stephen C. Sihus, Director of the Museum Editor 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Berthold LAin^TK Curator of Anthropology 



B. E. Dahlgren Acting Curator of Botany 



Oliver C. Farrington Curator of Geology 



Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology 



H. B. Harte Managing Editor 



Field Museum is open every day of the year during 

 the hours indicated below: 



November, December, January 9 A.M. to 4:30 p.m. 



February, March, April, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

 May, June, July, August, September 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 



Admission is free to Members on all days. Other 

 adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and 

 Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. 

 Children are admitted free on all days. Students and 

 faculty members of educational institutions are admit- 

 ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. 



The Museum's natural history Library is open for 

 reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 



Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of 

 Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension 

 Department of the Museum. 



Lectures for schools, and special entertainments 

 and tours for children at the Museum, are provided 

 by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond 

 Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. 



Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the 

 public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, 

 will appear in Field Museum News. 



A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms 

 are provided for those bringing their lunches. 



Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go 

 direct to the Museum. 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 

 promptly of changes of address. 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 



Field Museum has several classes of Members. 

 Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- 

 tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members 

 give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members 

 pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. 

 All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining 

 Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they 

 become Associate Members. Annual Members con- 

 tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- 

 rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions 

 under these classifications being made by special action 

 of the Board of Trustees. 



Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free 

 admission to the Museum for himself, his family and 

 house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum 

 lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field 

 Museum News is included with all memberships. The 

 courtesies of every museum of note in the United 

 States and Canada are extended to aU Members of 

 Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card 

 to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of 

 which they will be admitted to the Museum without 

 charge. Further information about memberships will 

 be sent on request. 



BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS 



Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may 

 be made in securities, money, books or collections. 

 They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to 

 a person or cause, named by the giver. 



Cash contributions made within the taxable year 

 not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income 

 are allowable as deductions in computing net income 

 under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the 

 income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. 



Endowments may be made to the Museum with the 

 provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. 

 These annuities are tax-free and are guaranteed against 

 fluctuation in amount. 



ATTENDANCE SHOWS LARGE GAIN 



With a total of 1,471,016 visitors checked 

 through its doors from January 1 to July 23 

 inclusive, Field Museum has had a gain in 

 attendance of 585,057 persons thus far in 

 1933, or more than 66 per cent as compared 

 with 1932, when, up to the same date the 

 total attendance was 885,959. 



While a certain amount of this increase 

 may be attributed to the Museum's prox- 

 imity to the grounds of A Century of Pro- 

 gress exposition, there is a large normal 

 increase also. The attendance from January 

 1 to May 26, 1933, inclusive (the period 

 prior to the opening of the exposition), 

 totaled 707,245, which compares with the 

 total of 549,407 attendance registered be- 

 tween the same two dates of 1932. Thus 

 the pre-exposition period of 1933 shows an 

 increase of 157,838 or more than 28 per cent 

 over 1932. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS ON SALE 



Among the most recent publications from 

 JMeld Museum Press are a special guidebook, 

 Archaeology of North America, a new edition 

 of the General Guide to the exhibits in the 

 Museum, and a new edition of the Hand- 

 book of Field Museum. 



Archaeology of North America covers the 

 exhibits in Hall B, griving much supplemental 

 and detailed information. It is of value as 

 a reference book either by itself or in con- 

 nection with a \asit to the exhibits. Dr. 

 Paul S. Martin, Assistant Curator of North 

 American Archaeology, is the author. 

 Among subjects covered in the 122 pages 

 of text are the origin and antiquity of the 

 Indians, the various culture areas of North 

 America, Indian mounds and methods of 

 burial, the manufacture of stone artifacts, 

 the mining of copper and manufacture of 

 copper implements, bone and shell work, 

 pottery, and popular fallacies regarding 

 North American Indians. The book is 

 illustrated with eight photogravure plates, 

 ten pages of drawings, and a map. It is 

 sold at the Museum for 50 cents; postage 

 extra on mail orders. 



The General Guide has been brought up 

 to date to include the new halls opened in 

 the Museum, and the various additions to 

 exhibits, reinstallations, etc. It sells for 

 15 cents. The Handbook has likewise been 

 revised to include the history of the Museum 

 since the last edition, and other additional 

 material. It contains eight illustrations and 

 is priced at 25 cents. 



COCONUTS 



To the average American a coconut 

 represents merely an occasional delicacy, 

 to be eaten either in the raw state, or in a 

 cake, pie, or candy. There are parts of 

 the world, however, where the coconut tree 

 is the most important producer of nearly 

 all the necessities of life — staple food, drinks, 

 utensils, clothing, and shelter. In some 

 places in the South Seas coconuts form one 

 of the main dishes for breakfast, lunch, and 

 dinner. The fruit is usually eaten before 

 it ripens. The watery liquid or "milk" in 

 the fruit is used as a drink, and the sap of 

 the tree, obtained by cutting unopened 

 flower clusters, is boiled down to sugar, 

 and fermented to produce palm wine. 

 Children of the tropics eat a strange coconut 

 candy — the part of the sprouted coconut 

 which bulges into the center and absorbs 

 the meat and milk. It is very tender and 

 sweet. 



Coconut palm leaves are used as roof 

 thatch in constructing huts for shelter. 

 Split coconut palm leaves provide fringe 



for skirts. The midribs and splints are 

 woven into baskets, fire fans and other 

 useful objects. Coconut shells make good 

 dishes, and are sometimes made into orna- 

 mental objects. Some Melanesians cut, 

 carve, and polish the shells to make beautiful 

 cups and baskets. One group in the South 

 Seas enlists the aid of shrimps to make 

 bottles of coconut -shells. The nuts, with 

 their eyes punched open, are placed in water 

 where a small variety of shrimp lives. The 

 shrimps swim through the eye into the center 

 of the nut and eat all the meat; thus the 

 unbroken shell becomes a bottle. Some 

 tribes rub coconut oil all over their bodies 

 as a cosmetic. 



Aside from its local uses in the tropics, 

 the coconut is of great importance in the 

 world's commerce as a source of copra, the 

 dried coconut meat from which coconut oil 

 is obtained for edible fat and for use in 

 soap-making. 



An exhibit illustrating how coconuts grow 

 is to be found in the Hall of Plant Life 

 (Hall 29). Coconut palm material is 

 exhibited in Hall 25, where there is also 

 a specimen of the so-called double coconut 

 of the Seychelles islands, which has the 

 largest seed in the plant kingdom. 



AN UNUSUAL FLUORITE CRYSTAL 



A purple fluorite crystal of unusually 

 large size was recently presented to the 

 Museum. On account of the excellence of 

 the specimen it is displayed apart from the 

 regular fluorite collection in Hall 34. It is 

 installed in an individual case, adding one 

 more to the small group of exceptional 

 minerals so displayed. The specimen is a 

 nine-inch cube of purple fluorite growing 

 out of a mass of the mineral, with edges 

 and corners of other cubes projecting from 

 its faces. 



Fluorites have long been favorites with 

 collectors on account of their frequently 

 perfect crystal forms and the brilliant purple 

 and green color of many of the specimens. 

 In the mineral collection in Hall 34 near 

 the case containing this specimen there is 

 a large collection of other fluorites containing 

 many colorless, purple and green crystals 

 as well as some of less common color. In 

 Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37) there 

 is another collection of less showy but more 

 useful fluorite containing examples of kinds 

 mined for industrial purposes in many parts 

 of the world. 



The new specimen is from Hardin County 

 in southern Illinois where the largest fluorite 

 mines of the country are found. The speci- 

 men was presented by the Crystal Fluorspar 

 Company of Elizabethtown, Illinois. 



Basketry Materials Exhibited 



While there are only a few commercial 

 basket materials, chiefly willow, rattan, and 

 certain kinds of wood splints, the basket 

 fibers used by primitive peoples are numer- 

 ous, including reeds, sedges, culms of grasses, 

 bamboos, palm leaves, stems and twigs of 

 shrubs, and splints from wood or from woody 

 roots. In an exhibit in Hall 28 there are 

 shown some Mexican baskets of different 

 patterns made from the culms of a grass. 

 Also displayed are several baskets, a tray, 

 and a tobacco case with attractive designs, 

 manufactured in Japan and the Philippine 

 Islands from rattan and other materials. 



The famous "Outlook Pagoda," in China, 

 tallest that has survived in good condition, 

 is represented by a miniature model at Field 

 Museum. 



