90 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



(5) The apparatus of the primitive weaver, mat-maker, basket-maker, 

 etc., in order to understand the origin of the textile art. 



Too much emphasis can not be laid upon collecting objects iu sets, 

 outfits, suits, contents, packs, apparatus, panoplies, accoutrements. The 

 elaboration of many useful and artistic forms has taken place in an 

 adaptive fashion, as being part of a lot or set like the mutual change of 

 form of insect and flower through the process of fertilization. 



When a single object, as a hammer, adze, wedge, hoe, spade, rake, 

 plough, snow-shoe, etc., stands alone as an implement or a product, 

 specimens thereof may be exhibited in series to illustrate the possible 

 lines of inventive progress, care being taken always to note localities 

 and the evidences of historical connection. 



In carrying out the scheme of which the Catlin and the Stanley gal- 

 leries were the commencement, the curator has commenced to collect 

 the actual color of all delegations visiting Washington and to gather a 

 series of painted photographs as the foundation of an aboriginal album 

 of our continent. In this matter great aid has been rendered by the 

 Bureau of Ethnology. 



One of the greatest difficulties which a curator has to encounter is 

 that which arises from fiilse location and insufficient data. In the Na- 

 tional Museum, as well as in every other collection, are many precious 

 objects gathered long ago, when it was considered sufficient to know 

 that a specimen came from America, Africa, or Polynesia. This is one 

 of the chief hindrances to a purely ethnological scheme, since it is oft- 

 en begging the whole question to assign a specimen to a certain tribe. 

 On the other hand, no harm can possibly come from putting things that 

 are alike in the same case or receptacle. 



In order to ennoble this old and imperfectly described material the 

 curator is collecting from absolutely reliable sources single objects and 

 complete outfits of various kinds to act as guides. It has many times 

 happened that one such specimen has really puthim in the jjossession of 

 several, with this added, that the older objects are more absolutely free 

 from the contamination of Aryan influences. For instance, all of Cap- 

 tain Wilkes's American material is labeled northwest coast of America, 

 which means anywhere from the Straits of Fuca to the Bay of San 

 Francisco — a region occupied by many stocks of aborigines. The sub- 

 sequent collections of Gibbs, Swan, Powers, Green, Ray, the officers of 

 the Army, and the Bureau of Ethnology now enable the curator to defi- 

 nitely locate all of Wilkes's specimens. 



The acquisitions of this department are indicated below, arranged 

 geographically and topically. The States of the Union are arranged 

 alphabetically and specimens from each are given separately with a view 

 to stimulating in each an interest in our great national collection. A 

 large number of the specimens accredited to the States were received at 

 the New Orleans Exposition. Especial mention should also be made 

 of the collections of the Bureau of Ethnology, Lieut. P. H. Ray, U. S. 

 Army, and Dr. D. Bethune McCartee. 



