Report on the United States 

 National Museum 



Sm : I have the honor to submit the following report on the condi- 

 tion and operations of the U.S. National Museum for the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1961 : 



COLLECTIONS 



During the year 971,150 specimens were added to the national col- 

 lections and distributed among the eight departments as follows: 

 Anthropology, 19,764; zoology, 369,701; botany, 103,160; geology, 

 229,676 ; science and technology, 4,231 ; arts and manufactures, 5,521 ; 

 civil history, 237,323; and armed forces history, 1,774. The total 

 nimiber is less than half as many as recorded last year, when an extraor- 

 dinary number of postage stamps, approaching a million and a half, 

 was accessioned. Most of this year's accessions were acquired as gifts 

 from individuals or as transfers from Govermnent departments and 

 agencies. The complete report on the Museum, published as a sep- 

 arate docimaent, includes a detailed list of the year's acquisitions, of 

 which the more important are summarized below. Catalog entries 

 in all departments now total 54,963,805. 



Anthropology. — Through an arrangement with Dr. Ralph S. 

 Solecki, of Columbia University, whereby the Smithsonian Institution 

 sponsored his 1957 expedition to Iraq, the division of archeology re- 

 ceived 8,770 artifacts from Shanidar cave and neighboring sites. In 

 addition to a few specimens from the historic and protohistoric cul- 

 tural periods, the representation is mainly from the proto-Neolithic 

 and the Mousterian, the whole indicating a time span of around 65,000 

 years. The division also received, by transfer from the River Basin 

 Surveys, 5,153 artifacts collected at numerous prehistoric sites in 

 South Dakota and Wyoming. Mrs. Virginia M. Pollak added to her 

 earlier generous donations a wooden ibis from the Ptolemaic-Roman 

 period of Egypt. 



Of special interest among the new accessions in the division of 

 ethnology are two rare Chinese scrolls written in the Chinese and 

 Manchurian languages and representing awards in the years 1753 and 

 1868 for loyal services to the Chinese Government, donated by Dr. 

 David C. Graham, honorary research associate in biology. A late 

 19th century Chinese four-panel lacquer screen was received from the 

 estate of John T. Owens. The decoration thereon, showing four 

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