SECRETARY'S REPORT 53 



turbed subsoil and a sealing layer of relatively clean sand, presumably 

 fill. Very few pottery fragments other than those of local stoneware 

 were found in the test-hole portion of this layer, but all of those which 

 were found were datable as within the period of operation of the 

 pottery (1794-1837). 



Mr. Pearce and Mr. Muzzrole also conducted archeological excava- 

 tions during May on the site of the early 18th-century City Tavern 

 building in Annapolis. In locating the major foundation they identi- 

 fied four (possibly five) periods of building and found builder's 

 trenches of about 1780 containing cultural materials which after study 

 will make quite accurate dating possible. 



At the beginning of the year, through the courtesy of E. B. Tucker 

 and the government of Bermuda, Mendel L, Peterson, head curator of 

 Armed Forces history, and Alan B. Albright, museum technician, 

 collected a number of significant artifacts from underwater sites in 

 the Bermuda reefs dating from 1595 through 1838. The earliest site 

 yielded a rare pewter porringer. The site of the San Antonio^ a 

 Spanish ship which sank in 1621, yielded more ordnance materials and 

 traces of trade goods. The site of the Eagle, a Virginia Company 

 ship which went down in 1658, produced clay pipes, a soapstone bullet 

 mold, and a solid iron shot for the ship's main battery. The site of 

 UHerminie, a French frigate which sank in 1838, was extensively 

 explored, and from it were collected glass and unmarked porcelain 

 from the wardroom services and a collection of perfect bottles, in- 

 cluding those for brandy, wine, oil, and clarified olive oil, with the 

 seal of the merchant. 



Frank A. Taylor, director, attended the Sixth General Conference 

 of the International Council of Museums at The Hague, July 2-11, 

 1963, where he was elected president of the International Committee 

 of ICOM for Museums of Science and Technology. He visited mu- 

 seums in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England. 



EXHIBITIONS 



Highlights in the exhibits program during the year were the re- 

 opening of three large halls of modernized exhibits in the Museum of 

 Natural History and the beginning of the installation of exhibits in 

 the new Museum of History and Teclmology. With the opening of 

 the second hall of North American archeology, the hall of life in the 

 sea, and the hall of dinosaurs and fossil reptiles, all but three of the 

 galleries on the first floor of the Museum of Natural History have now 

 been modernized. At the end of the year installation of exhibits in 

 four halls of the new Museum of History and Technology began 

 while the construction of exhibits continued. Exhibit units for 15 of 

 the halls in the new museum were prepared. 



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