REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN ABORIGINAL POTTERY 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



By William H. Holmks, Honorary Curator. 



The operations in this department have been chiefly confined to the 

 instalment of a large number of collections, none of which are of espe- 

 cial importance. These collections consisted for the most part of frag- 

 mentary wares collected for the Bureau of Ethnology by the curator 

 and his assistants in the tide-water districts of Maryland and Virginia, 

 and in the Gila valley, Arizona. 



Daring the year the curator completed an elaborate paper upon the 

 pottery of the mound-builders, to be published by the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology. Two papers upon aboriginal decorative art, derived from 

 ceramic sources, were published in the " American Anthropologist," 

 one in the January and the other in the April number. 



The last catalogue number for June, 1801, is 136183; and tor June, 

 1892, 155306. 



Donations of earthenware were made by the following persons: Mr. 

 Samuel A. L. Queredo presented fragments of painted pottery from the 

 Argentine Republic, South America. Mr. W. Hallet Phillips trans- 

 mitted fragments of vases from Ossabaw Island, Georgia. Mr. William 

 Harden contributed a large earthen vessel from Ossabaw Island, 

 Georgia. Prof. G. K. Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological Survey, presented 

 fragments of ancient pueblo ware from Arizona. Mr. Henry Adams 

 sent fragments of pottery from St. Helena Island, Georgia. Capt. John 

 G. Bourke, U. S. Army, transmitted earthen vessels from Guadalajara, 

 Mexico. Mr. Arthur H. Weston gave fragments of pottery from Florida. 

 Thomas Dowling, jr., contributed fragments of pottery from Montgom- 

 ery County, Md. From Mr. E. S. Golson were received fragments of 



pottery from Saginaw River, Michigan. 



109 



