SECRETARY'S REPORT 23 



A large collection of vase-s, andirons, and other ornamental pieces 

 donated by Mrs. W. Murray Crane of New York City helped to com- 

 plete the exhibition of almost every setting in the First Ladies Hall. 

 As a loan the Musemn received from B. Woodruff Weaver two gold 

 sofas which were missing from the White House suite of furniture 

 previously acquired. These sofas were sold at auction by the Wliite 

 House in 1002 to a private party. They were purchased by the 

 Barnes family of Washington. 



Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower presented the gloves, evening purse, 

 jewelry, and slippers that she wore with her inaugural dress. These 

 accessories complement this unit for exhibition. Two fans and a blue- 

 and- wliite Chinese porcelain vase belonging to Mrs. Herbert Hoover 

 were presented by Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Jr. A hickory walking stick, 

 inlaid in silver and bearing the name of Abraham Lincoln, was given 

 by Samuel J. Prescott. 



A gift to the division of military history from Joseph Cununings 

 Cliase contained 79 portraits of World War I officers and enlisted men, 

 and one portrait of an enlisted man in service during the Korean 

 conflict. 



Outstanding among the accessions in the division of numismatics 

 was the gift from Mrs. William D. (Gorgas) Wrightson, comprising 

 43 award medals and decorations given to Dr. William Crawford 

 Gorgas, 1854-1920, Sanitation Engineer for the Panama Canal Com- 

 mission and later Surgeon General of the United States. 



The Post Office Department continued as the principal means where- 

 by the philatelic collections are kept up to date, forwarding one speci- 

 men of each new stamp distributed by the Universal Postal Union. 

 Three shipments of approximately 3,000 stamps were transferred. 

 The Treasm-y Department through the cooperation of T. Coleman 

 Andrews, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, transferred an addi- 

 tional 49,G42 specimens of United States revenue stamps and proofs. 



Among gifts from private donors, especial mention is made of two 

 additional collections of great value from Ernest Ijowenstein. One 

 collection comprised four volumes of Honduras airmails, replete with 

 rarities, and the other consisted of a 3-volume collection of Paraguay 

 airmails. 



EXPLORATION, FIELDWORK, AND RELATED TRAVEL 



During November 1954, Frank M. Setzler, head curator, department 

 of anthropology, and C. Malcolm Watkins, associate curator, division 

 of ethnology, excavated a number of test pits at Marlborough Point, 

 Stafford County, Va., to obtain evidence of the former location of 

 houses, taverns, and industries of this long-abandoned colonial town. 

 The acquisition of such information will supplement existing knowl- 



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