I 



CATALOGUE OF HUMAN CRANIA IN THE UNITED STATES 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM COLLECTIONS 



By Ales Hrdli6ka ^ 

 Curator, Ditnsion of Physical Anthro-pology , United Slates National Museum 



In 1925, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the 

 Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, the writer made a seven-month 

 journey to south Asia, Java, Australia, and South Africa.^ One of 

 the principal aims of this trip was to examine, by the instruments and 

 methods used in measuring the American material that is being pub- 

 lished in this catalogue, all the Australian, Tasmanian, and South 

 African crania that could be located, so as to obtain uniform and as 

 extensive as possible data on this rare material, and to get all possible 

 further light on the problems of the racial status of the Tasmanians, 

 Bushmen, and Hottentots. 



In Australia was found a great deal more than was expected, and 

 due to the kind cooperation of the Australian museums and depart- 

 ments of anatomy in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, as well as 

 that of scientific men outside of these establishments,^ it was possible 

 to measure there nearly 1,000 crania identified as to locality, 

 besides a small series of the skulls of Tasmanians. The data on the 

 latter could later be supplemented, thanks to the courtesy of Sir 

 Arthur Keith, by the writer's measurements on all the well-identified 

 Tasmanian skulls in the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 



The South African material was rather disappointing. An impor- 

 tant part of the cranial collections at Cape Town had been sent some 

 time previously to Switzerland, and at Johannesburg the anthropo- 

 logical collections are just starting. Nevertheless, in the Museum 



' See also first section of this catalogue on the Mongolians, Eskimo, Aleuts, and Alaska Indians in the 

 Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, vol. G3, art. 12, published on March 14, 1924. A second section 

 on the Algonkin and related Iroquois, Siouan, Caddoan, Salish and Sahaptin, Shoshonean, and Californian 

 Indians, published in the Proceedings of the U. S. National "Museum, vol. 69, art. 5, was issued on May 

 4, 1927. 



» See Smithsonian Ezploratiom, etc. in 1925, Wash., 1926, 5? et seq. 



> Cordial thanks of the writer are due particularly to: Dr. E . A. White, director of the Museum, Adelaide ; 

 Dr. J, A. Kershaw, curator of the National Museum, Meltourne; Dr. C. Anderson, director of the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, Sydney; Professors of Anatomy R. J. A. Berry (Melbourne), F. Wood Jones (Adelaide), 

 and A. N. Burkitt (Sydney); Drs. Herbert Basedow and R. H. Pulleine at Adelaide; and the United States 

 consul general at Melbourne. 



No. 2696.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 71. Art. 24. 



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