70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 7 



National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation, assisted in the 

 setting up of record systems in the laboratory and in establishing 

 methods for issuing the reports based on the field work and laboratory 

 studies. Owing to a shortage of personnel, it was necessary for Mr. 

 Cooper to devote much of his time to direct supervision and to many 

 of the actual operations involved in mimeographing and distributing 

 the preliminary appraisals of the archeological and paleontological 

 resources of the various reservoirs. In May Mr. Cooper represented 

 the River Basin Surveys at a symposium on the River Valley program 

 conducted by the Nebraska Academy of Sciences. During the period 

 May 21 to June 2, 1947, Mr. Cooper prepared reports on Heart Butte, 

 Dickenson, Deerfield, Shadehill, Blue Horse, Slieyenne, and Garrison 

 Reservoirs, and on the Devils Lake area. Mr. Cooper left Lincoln on 

 June 3, 1947, in charge of a field party which was to undertake a pre- 

 liminary reconnaissance of the Fort Randall Reservoir on the Missouri 

 River in South Dakota. This recomiaissance was still in progress on 

 June 30, at which time 60 archeological sites had been located and 

 recorded. 



Robert B. Gumming, Jr., archeologist, was added to the staff as 

 laboratory supervisor at the Lincoln headquarters on October 1, 1946. 

 Since the laboratory was then being moved to new quarters in the 

 basement of the Love Memorial Library building, Mr. Cumming began 

 work by assisting in the formulation of the laboratory plan and plac- 

 ing the equipment in order so that routine work could proceed. Dur- 

 ing the fall and winter months he assisted in planning and initiating 

 basic laboratory methods. A triplicate filing system was devised in 

 which information covering approximately 175 sites was filed in a site 

 file, a reservoir file, and a reserve file. A photographic file system 

 was organized wherein prints were mounted on 5- by 8-inch cards bear- 

 ing descriptive information and were filed in accordance with a stand- 

 ard trinomial system consisting of symbols for the State, county, and 

 site. The negatives were filed in a separate cabinet using the same 

 system for identification. Mr. Cumming also formulated the system 

 for cleaning, cataloging, and storing the specimens and assisted in 

 initiating an inventory procedure for equipment and supplies which 

 he maintained throughout the year. In addition, he assisted in super- 

 vising the maintenance of equipment. He also assisted in the work 

 and supervision of the preparation of illustrations, drafting of site 

 maps, typing, mimeographing, proofreading, and assembling of the 

 preliminary reports. During such times as the field directors were 

 absent from the headquarters office, he handled the business routine 

 in the office. At the close of the fiscal year Mr. Cumming was engaged 

 in processing the records sent in from the field for 50 sites located after 

 resumption of the survey work. Because the laboratory was under- 



