200 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



THE EXHIBIT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



By William 1 1. I [olmes, 

 Head < 'urator. 



When plans were required for an anthropological exhibit to form 

 part of the Government's display at the Pan-American Exposition in 

 Buffalo, 1901, it was not difficult to decide as to what portion of the 

 very wide field included in the Museum department should be selected. 

 The Pan-American concept furnished the suggestion, and it was 

 arranged to present in the most striking manner possible a synopsis of 

 the Pan-American aborigines, the native peoples of America, from 

 the Eskimo of North Greenland to the wild tribes of Tierra del Fuego. 

 The most salient ideas or features available for exposition presenta- 

 tion in this field are (1) the peoples themselves, and (2) the material 

 products of their varied activities. 



GROUPS OF LAY FIGURES. 



The most important unit available for illustrating a people is the 

 family group—the men, women, and children, with their costumes, 

 personal adornments, and general belongings. It was therefore decided 

 to undertake the preparation ot 12 lay-figure family groups, illustrat- 

 ing such tribes as would serve best as types of the ethnic provinces 

 distributed between the northern and southern extremes. With such 

 a set of groups geographical lv arranged upon the exhibition space it 

 was conceived that the student, and even the ordinary visitor, might, 

 by passing from north to south or from south to north through the 

 series, form a vivid and definite notion of the appearance, condition, 

 and culture of the race or peoples called American Indians, the race 

 so rudely and completely supplanted by the nations of the Old World. 

 Each lay -figure group comprises from four to seven individuals, 

 selected to best convey an idea of the various members of a typical 

 family, old and young of both sexes. 



Two of these groups, the Greenland Eskimo and the Patagonian, 

 occupy cases 8 by 12 feet in horizontal dimensions and stand at the 

 northern and southern extremities of the exhibit. The other cases 

 are smaller and accommodate from three to six figures. Each mem- 

 ber of a group is represented as engaged in some suitable occupation. 

 The activities of tin 1 people are thus illustrated and the various prod- 

 ucts of industry are, as far as possible, brought together in consistent 

 relations with the group. 



In building these figures the closest possible approach to accuracy 

 was sought, but satisfactory costumes were not always available, and 

 collections illustrating arts and industries were found to be deficient, 



