APPENDIX 1 

 REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report on the condition 

 and operations of the United States National Museum for the fiscal 

 year ended June 30, 1950: 



COLLECTIONS 



Slightly more than 793,300 specimens (approximately 400,000 more 

 than last year) were incorporated into the national collections during 

 the year and were distributed among the six departments as follows : 

 Anthropology, 4,982; zoology, 186,855; botany, 61,983; geology, 

 530,758; engineering and industries, 2,047; and history, 6,701. Most 

 of the accessions were acquired as gifts from individuals or as transfers 

 from Government departments and agencies. The complete report on 

 the Museum, published as a separate document, includes a detailed 

 list of the year's acquisitions, of which the more iaiportant are sum- 

 marized below. Catalog entries in all departments now total 

 32,375,597. 



Anthropology. — President Harry S. Truman deposited on loan the 

 sacred Scrolls of the Law, hand-lettered in Hebrew on parchment, and 

 a copper Ark finely decorated with biblical inscriptions in silver by 

 skilled craftsmen of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts of Jerusalem. 

 These were presented by Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel, to 

 the President of the United States. Two camel saddles, bridles, and 

 elaborately woven and decorated saddlebags presented by His 

 Majesty, King Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia, as tokens of friendship to 

 Maj. Gen. C. V. Haynes and Rear Adm. John P. Whitney, were 

 donated to the Museum by the recipients. 



Woven fabrics and costumes acquired by the late Gen. John J. 

 Pershing from the Moro, Mandaya, and Bagobo during his tours of 

 duty in the Philippine Islands between 1899 and 1913, and from 

 Peruvian and Bolivian Indians during his visit to South America in 

 1924-25, were presented by his son, Francis Warren Pershing. Other 

 noteworthy additions were 464 ethnological specimens obtained in 

 northern Australia by Frank M. Setzler, deputy leader of the Common- 

 wealth of Australia-National Geographic Society -Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion Expedition to Arnhem Land; an outfit utilized by the Piaroa 

 Indians of the Rio Paria area for snuflSng yopo (Piptadenia peregrina), 



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