ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM. 



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wood of the hemlock. Their houses are also works of art, with carved 

 and painted ornaments, and are supplemented by wonderful totem poles 

 sculptured in the most fanciful forms. The hemlock, the cedar, and 

 the spruce have made these peoples a race of builders and sculptors. 

 They do not wear skins exclusively, but have woven garments, because 

 the cedar bark and the wool of the mountain goat make the textile art 

 easy. They do not make pottery, but they carve the yellow spruce 

 into ornamental vessels, spoons, and chests, and they have transferred 

 their skill in carving- to stone, and are now veritable sculptors, made 

 so because the forest trees of this particular environment dictated the 

 lines in which many features of their culture should grow. 



It is unnecessary to go further into details, as the reasons are clear 

 for assembling our ethnic collections by geographic areas, and it only 

 remains to indicate in some detail how these collections are to be 

 grouped and displayed in the museum. 



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Fig. 6.— Diagram of Eastern Eskimo ethnic museum unit. A, Lay-figure group, case 8 by 12 feet. B, 

 House models; C, Boat models; />, Sledge models, harness, snowshoes; etc. 



In the accompanying diagram (tig. 6) we have a scheme for arranging 

 one of the geo-ethnic units. The area selected is that of the Eastern 

 Eskimo (area 1 on the map). In the center of the exhibition hall we 

 place the group of life-size figures, A (tig. 6), showing how the people 

 look, and, as far as possible, what they think and do and have. This 

 is the key to the exhibit, the most essential idea, the feature from 

 which the most casual observer can get a definite conception of the 

 people and their culture. The particular episode depicted in the 

 group shown in tig. 7 was selected for the purpose of illustrating, 

 amongst other things, the cheerful disposition of these farthest-north 

 people. Then, ranged around this group, should be cases containing 

 everything that will serve to indicate more fully and accurately the 

 nature of their activities and culture. Case B should contain models 

 of the various forms of dwellings — the snow house, the earth-covered 

 hut, and the improvised shelter, with all varieties of attendant struc- 

 tures; case C, models of their boats, while actual examples may be 

 placed near at hand if space permits; case /K their sledges, snowshoes. 



