PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued |^4^iVA, vca^i ^1/ '^< 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Vol, 91 Washington: 1942 No. 3131 



CATALOG OF HUMAN CRANIA IN THE UNITED STATES 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: ESKIMO IN 

 GENERAL 



By Ales Hrdlicka 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1924 the United States National Museum published the first 

 of its catalogs of crania. This included the measurements of 245 

 Eskimo skulls from one locality (St. Lawrence Island), with four small 

 series of other Alaskan skulls, wliich at that time was the total from 

 these peoples or localities in the Museum's possession. Since then, 

 under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, no less than 18 

 expeditions to Alaska have been made, 10 of them conducted by the 

 author. These expeditions covered all the more important parts of 

 the coast, the main rivers, and the principal islands. Their purpose 

 was to study the hving Esldmo, to collect skeletal remains over all 

 the once-inhabited territory, and to excavate old sites, which every- 

 where in Alaska yield both cultural and skeletal materials. 



Most of the results of researches on the hving Eskimo have been 

 published, as have those on much of the skeletal material collected 

 before 1930^; but today the Esldmo material alone comprises more 

 than 2,200 crania, 2,100 of which are adult, mostly in an excellent state 

 of preservation and in a large proportion of cases accompanied by the 

 rest of the skeleton. The whole constitutes an exceedingly precious 

 series, data on wliich will be of basic importance. These data are 



1 HrdliCka, Ales, in Smithsonian Exploration Pamphlets, 1926-39; Anthropological survey in Alaska, 46th 

 Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.,374pp., 1930; The Eskimo of the Kuskokwim, Amer. Journ. Phys. Anthrop., 

 vol. 18, pp. 93-135, 1933. 



169 



416178—42 1 



