86 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



The curator lias commenced a study of prehistoric pipes aud smoking 

 apparatus, and of aboriginal musical instruments. lie has also con- 

 tinued special investigations of paleolithic implements, rude notched 

 axes, prehistoric copper, jade and cache implements, and prehistoric 

 Etruscan objects. A paper by the curator on the history of the sign 

 of the Swastika has been completed and is printed in the Report for 

 181)4, Various other objects connected with the existence of prehistoric 

 man in North America have also engaged special attention. 



On two occasions specimens from this department were lent for use 

 in illustrating lectures. The pupils of several schools in the city have 

 visited the exhibition hall and received instruction from the curator as 

 to the scope aud aims of the exhibit. 



Eight papers by the curator, relating chiefly to matters pertaining to 

 his department, have been published during the year. The following 

 remarks, bearing upon the special plans which the curator has in view 

 for tlie future development of the department, are quoted from his 

 anniuvl report: 



The coUectioos in this departuieut have now increased to 203,520 objects. The 

 benefit to science of such a collection is by enabling the archa!ologist and anthro- 

 pologist to write a history of prehistoric man. In ethnological collections and 

 objects relating to primitive jjeoples of modern times, the study of the people's 

 habits and customs, and the writing of tbeir history, can be done by the historian 

 personally visiting the tribes and obtaining his information at iirst hand. Hut in 

 collections relating to prehistoric peoples this can not bo done, and we are driven to 

 a study of the implements, objects, monuments, etc., left by them. The student, 

 historian, arclucologist, and anthropologist compare these objects (1) with each 

 other, in localities where they have been associated together; (2) with implements 

 Irom other localities; (3) he compares oue locality with another, and (4) all of them 

 together with each other — that is, he first establishes, as well as he is able, a nnit of 

 civilization or culture within a given tribe, group, or family; then, by extending his 

 observations, be establishes other units of culture or civilization in other tribes, 

 groups, or families, and these units he respectively compares together, first in a 

 general way, aud second, in the details of the implements and objects which go to 

 make them up. 



I propose to make from the specimens in my department such a segregation by 

 localities; a division, if possible, by time; also an establishment of units of civili- 

 zalion, and thus make the comparison mentioned, or, rather, afford material for stu- 

 dents either now or hereafter to make this comparison of civilizations. This will 

 re(iiiire the s(!rvices of a draftsman. As no person can by mere words describe the 

 form of an object, and as the differences of form are, or may be, but slight, aud yet 

 mean much, there is greater necessity for graphic delineation than there would oth- 

 erwise be. The objects have all been made by hand; there never was any special 

 pattern for the workman to follow; each man, to a large extent, made every kind of 

 object, so the differences become more important and the necessity for drawing 

 greater than it would be under other circumstances. It would not be true to say 

 there were no type specimens of the objects made by the aboriginal man, because if 

 he made each one by hazai'd, as there are a hundred times more implements than 

 styles, some of them must pattern after the others, and thus some implements have 

 come to be considered types. But this, I thiuk, is entirely arbitrary, aud is the 

 decision of the modern student rather than the action or intention of the aboriginal 

 workman. In the endeavor to discover his intention, it is necessary to make draw- 

 ings enough of the implements to show these types and the dift'erences in their 

 details. 



