REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 

 FOR THE YEAR 1902-3. 



By Otis T. Mason, 

 Acting Head Curator. 



During- the year a number of chang^es have taken place in the 

 personnel of the Department of Anthropology. When Mr. W. H. 

 Holmes, the Head Curator, Avas made Chief of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnolog}", Prof. O. T. Mason, Curator of Ethnology, was desig- 

 nated as Acting" Head Curator, Dr. Walter Hough, Assistant Curator, 

 became Acting Curator of the Division of Ethnolog-y; and Mr. Paul 

 Beckwith, Aid in the Division of History, was temporaril}^ assigned 

 to the Assistant Curatorship of Ethnology. Owing to continued fail- 

 ing health, Mrs. Fanny Dinsmore, stenographer, was compelled to 

 resign, and in January Mr. W. E. Wilson was selected to till the 

 place, in January- Mr. H. W.'Hendle}', who had assisted the Depart- 

 ment in preparing its exhibit for the Pan-American Exposition, was 

 appointed preparator in the Department, and in February Dr. Ales 

 Hrdlicka was called to the position of assistant curator in the newlv 

 established Division of Physical Anthropology. 



The work of the Department during the year has consisted largely 

 in cataloguing, caring for, and installing the collections received, 

 although the preparation of an exhiliit for the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition has called for a large share of attention. This work is in 

 charge of Mr. W, H. Holmes, who has undertaken to collect a series 

 of exhibits illustrative of the highest artistic achievements of the 

 American aborigines. 



Until the present year the Department has been devoted entirely to 

 the culture side of the science of man, collections illustrating the 

 phj'sical characters of the race, normal as well as abnormal, having 

 been cared for in the Army Medical Museum; but a large part of this 

 material has recently been transferred to the National Museum, and a 

 laboratory for the stud}^ of this branch has been established under the 

 curatorship of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka. Thus, for the first time in its his- 

 tory, the National Museum embraces the whole subject of anthro- 

 pology, physical and cultural, so far at least as this branch can be 

 represented and illustrated by material objects. 



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