8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



any like period of its long history. There were 12,704,583 pub- 

 lications weighing 9,228,617 pounds received for forwarding tlirough 

 the Service. 



The increased workload was handled at little or no additional 

 increase in cost and with no additional employees. The use of card- 

 board cartons in place of wooden boxes for packing publications for 

 oversea shipments has resulted in a large saving. 



Direct booking of ocean freight shipments with the steamship lines, 

 instead of through forwarding agents, has resulted not only in a large 

 saving of the fees that would have been charged by the forwarding 

 agents for their services but also in a more efficient operation. Three 

 weeks or more were necessary under the old system of booking be- 

 tween packing and the shipping of the publications to the steamship 

 piers. Publications are now packed, booked, and shipped in a period 

 of 1 day to 1 week. This method of transmission has reduced the 

 amount of space necessary for storage of cartons of publications 

 awaiting shipment to the steamship lines and has speeded up the 

 turnover of publications on hand for shipment. 



A new method of processing publications for mailing has resulted 

 in a faster transmission to the intended addressees. The old method 

 of processing required a period of from 1 to 2 weeks before mailing. 

 The new method provides for mailing on the day of receipt or the 

 following day. 



Bureau of American Ethnology, 1953-63 



During the decade 1953-63 the activities of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology were concerned principally with expeditions and researches 

 in. the field and publication of anthropological monographs. This 

 unit of the Smithsonian, founded by the great Major John Wesley 

 Powell, is possibly the first center in the country, or even in the world, 

 for research in cultural anthropology. Its publications are famous 

 wherever anthropology^ is studied. 



Of particular significance in the decade under review is the pro- 

 gram in archeology carried on in the extreme northern part of the 

 continent. In the earlier years of the period, archeological excava- 

 tions were conducted at Comwallis Island in the Canadian Arctic, 

 the work being sponsored jointly by the Smithsonian Institution and 

 the National Museum of Canada. In the Hudson Bay area, investiga- 

 tions on Southampton and Coats Islands occupied several seasons, 

 a cooperative project of the Smithsonian Institution, the National 

 Museum of Canada, and the National Geographic Society. Sub- 

 sequently the American Philosophical Society joined in the financial 

 sponsorship of those activities and attention was turned to Walrus 

 Island. The extensive materials collected from the various islands 



