34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



primitive members of the reptilian order Captorhinomorpha, in con- 

 nection with his research on the nature and origin of the reptilian 

 middle ear. The skulls inspected display important morphological 

 detail which has not yet been recorded. 



For a month and a half just before the end of the fiscal year, Dr. 

 Hotton, accompanied by John D. Gassaway, museum aide, collected 

 in the Permian areas of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They ex- 

 plored outcrops of the Speiser formation for vertebrate fossils from 

 Eiley County to Cowley County, Kans., and obtained a good collection 

 of little-known amphibians, including the greater part of an excel- 

 lently preserved articulated skeleton of Acroplous. Most of the well- 

 known localities in Texas appear to have been overcollected, but 

 nevertheless some interesting blocks containing bones of many small 

 animals were obtained in new localities or less promising areas 

 around the better-known ones. A marked difference between the 

 Kansas and Texas deposits was noted, although they are rouglily of 

 the same age. 



Exhibits Specialist Franklin L. Pearce spent ten days in June at 

 the Cleveland Museum of Natural Plistory, the University of Michigan 

 Museums, and the Chicago Natural History Museum, primarily to 

 observe their methods of preparation of fossils and the use of new 

 plastic and metallic materials in the field of vertebrate paleontology. 

 Some of the new techniques utilized in these museums hold promise 

 for use in the restoration procedures already in progress at the 

 Smithsonian. 



The Director of the Museum of Histoiy and Technology, Frank 

 A. Taylor, spent two days in New York in July at the American 

 Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

 investigating details of exhibition techniques. He examined repro- 

 ductions of early European mechanical calculators and met the crafts- 

 men who are building the model of the da Vinci coining press for the 

 Smithsonian. 



Dr. Robert P. Multhauf, head curator of science and technology, 

 made trips during the year to several of the eastern States, visiting 

 museums, other institutions, and individuals to examine scientific 

 apparatus and antique instruments of possible interest to the Smith- 

 sonian study and exhibits programs. 



In order to accelerate the enlargement of exhibit and study mate- 

 rials of the division of mechanical and civil engineering, Eugene S. 

 Ferguson, curator, visited a number of institutions and individuals 

 throughout the eastern United States. Especially at Winterthur, 

 Del., Philadelphia, and various localities in New England, he ac- 

 quired information about specific machines and tools of potential use 

 in planning various new Smithsonian exhibits. In June he attended 



