60 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1909. 



who is now serving as chief naturalist on the Smithsonian expedition 

 to British East Africa, was, on December 31, designated as honorary 

 associate in zoology. Mr. Austin Hobart Clark, formerly of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, was made a collaborator in the division of 

 marine invertebrates on November 30. Mr. D. H. demons succeeded 

 Mr. H. S. Barber as aid in the division of insects on December 7. 

 Mr. David B. Mackie, general aid in biology, resigned on Novem- 

 ber 16. 



The position in the division of geology which has been vacant for 

 some time was filled on January 1 by the appointment of Dr. F, B. 

 Laney as assistant curator. Mr. Wirt Tassin, who has been assistant 

 curator of mineralogy since 1894, resigned on May 31, to engage in 

 private business. 



The following account of the relations of Professor Mason to the 

 Museum has been prepared by Doctor Hough : 



" Professor Mason's connection with the Smithsonian Institution 

 began in 1872, when he was attracted by its aims and the facilities 

 Avhich it afforded for the advancement of his studies, and Secretary 

 Plenry directed his enthusiasm into the field of American ethnology. 

 This bond of union with the Smithsonian was only severed by death. 

 In 1874 he was appointed collaborator in ethnology and gave such 

 time as could be spared from his duties as teacher in Columbian Col- 

 lege to assembling from the collections of the Museum of the Institu- 

 tion those objects which related to man and cataloguing and arrang- 

 ing them in the upper hall of the Institution building. During the 

 following year the prehistoric collections were given into the charge 

 of Dr. Charles Rau, and Professor Mason was permitted to devote his 

 entire time to ethnologv, which he did with indefatiijable enerjrv. 

 Of the pioneer work of these years one can not speak with too great 

 appreciation. Early in this period he laid the foundation of system- 

 atic ethnology in America so firmly that his comprehensive classi- 

 fication stands to this day, and realizing the future needs of the 

 National Museum, which was yet in embryo, he expanded ethnology 

 on the lines of culture history, wherein the science lends itself to the 

 exhibition of tangible results of man's activities. Here was his great 

 work, and this branch of the Museum will always be indebted to his 

 forethought in planning for its future extension. 



" The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 was signalized by the exhibi- 

 tion of numerous ethnological and archeological collections gathered 

 under the guidance of a manual of directions for collectors j^repared 

 by Professor Mason in 1874. In 1872 Professor Mason began the 

 collection of Indian tribal names, which eventually was taken up by 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology, and had its fruition in the Hand- 

 book of American Indians, the first volume of which was j^ublished 

 before his death. The tribal synonomy w^as also extended to embrace 



