88 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Prof. F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, Mass.; Eev. H. C. Mabie, Boston, 

 Mass., and Dr. Franz Boas, American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City, should be mentioned. 



Four papers based upon Museum material have been published by 

 the curator during the year, and one by the assistant curator. The 

 titles of these are included in the Bibliography (Appendix iv). Six 

 lectures were delivered by Professor Mason at Columbian University on 

 " Primitive arts in their relation to Sociology as illustrated by the col- 

 lections in the United States National Museum." 



Regarding the plans of the curator for the further development of 

 his department, the following paragraphs are quoted from his report : 



The curator would respectfully make the foUowiug suggestions with regard to the 

 development of the department of ethnology: First, that hereafter collections from 

 the American continent should be made with especial reference to completing, as far 

 as iiossiblc, illustrations in things of the technical life of all the principal tribes 

 and families of America. * * * In ordei' to understand the true life of the abo- 

 riginal tribes of the Western Hemisphere, this Museum ought to contain a typical 

 siiecimen from each of them belonging to every one of the great domestic indus- 

 tries; for instance, there should be a model of every kind of house ever lived in by 

 any large number of people on this continent. There ought to be in every one of 

 these collections, in miniature, in ])icture, or in description, the prevailing and cus- 

 tomary furniture of tlie kitchen, the dining room, the bed room, the living room, and 

 the social gathering room or its equivalent, indoors or out of doors. There should 

 be in picture, in miniature, or in actual specimens, every kind of costume worn by 

 a large number of individuals in every one of these tribes. Of course, it would be 

 impossible to represent, in such a collection, all the little eccentricities of dress 

 among savage people, where great varieties prevail among individuals of the same 

 family. After all, in every tribe there is a composite dress, a dress which would 

 take in pretty much all the dress of the tribe, and of this typical dress there should 

 be in this Museum one example from each tribe. 



There should also be gathered the tools used by all those tribes for all sorts of pur- 

 poses; forpounding, cutting, boring, smoothing, and various other purposes of common 

 nse. The metric appliances of all the tribes should be here, and in sufficient numbers 

 to set forth the characteristics of each tribe. There should be a comprehensive 

 series relating to the great industries of their lives; quarrying, mining, fishing, hunt- 

 ing, planting and gleaning, the intermediary arts by which the substances gathered 

 in the primary arts are transferred to the uses of life, and the final arts and activi- 

 ties by which these products of industry are turned into the channels of consump- 

 tion or enjoyment. Also the apparatus by which substances are moved from 

 place to place upon the backs of men or beasts, whether on land, on water, or on 

 snow. This, of course, would make an ideal collection, but instead of gathering 

 in a desultory way duplicates of material already in hand, the curator is now in 

 possession of information which enables him to say whether a specimen which 

 it is possiblt! to acquire will fill one of the gaps herein indicated, or will add one 

 more to a collection already containing a superabundance of such material. 



There were 1,556 entries made in the catalogues during the year, 

 embracing 2,828 specimens. 



DEPARTMENT OF PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGY, 



The curator, Dr. Thomas Wilson, states that the scientific value of 

 the collections received during the past year compares favorably with 



