126 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



ofthe West, and those of the Puebh) re;L;iou of the southwest, which 

 have beeu so thoroughly explored by the Bureau of P^thuology uuder 

 the direction of ^laj. J. W. Powell. 



Perhaps no portion of tlie Museum is so cramped by lack of space as 

 this. The material already luouuted and labeled for exhibition would 

 fill five times the space which can now be assigned to it, and if installed 

 in rooms of sufticient capacity, would form one of the most instructive 

 and impressive ethnological collections in the world. At i)resent, how- 

 ever, only a small portion of this treasure can be shown, and the result 

 IS far from satisfactory, since the effective display of such objects 

 depends largely upon the manner in which they are arranged with 

 reference to one another and to some great ruling concept, a result 

 which can only be accomplished in halls of ample dimensions. 



The curator of the ethnological collection, Prof. O. T. Mason, has for 

 a number of years been bringing these vast materials under control, 

 so that any object with its full history can be consulted without delay, 

 a most ingenious system of storage, indexed by a card (;atalogue ren- 

 dering the material available for the use of investigators. At the same 

 time the material is at once ready for any new steps in the develop- 

 ment of the exhibition series, and were space available, in a few weeks 

 the entire collection could be jilaced before the public. If this could 

 be once accomplished, the result, I am satisfied, would astonish those 

 who are most familiar with the resources of the Museum in this field. 



During the past year the entire time of the curator has beeu devoted 

 to the World's Fair to the exclusion of any new Museum enterprises. 

 The usual routine of receiving new material and caring for the gen- 

 eral collection has gone on, but no new specimens have been put on 

 exhibition in the Museum. The number of specimens received during 

 the year was 5,004, and 3,161 entries were made in the departmental 

 catalogue. 



As has already been said, the participation of the Museum in expo- 

 sitions is a detriment to its scientific work. A certain compensation 

 is found, however, in the opportunity to instruct the public by an 

 exhibit systematically arranged and labeled, and in the increase to the 

 collections. 



In arranging for the ethnological and archa'ological portion of the 

 exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition it was decided that the 

 efibrts of this Department should be combined with those of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, which is another branch of tlie Smithsonian 

 Institution, and which has already been so closely connected witli the 

 Museuni in its activities that it is impossible to separate the interests 

 of the two. In developing the plans for the Exposition, many projects 

 were discussed, and, but for the fact that a general ethnological display 

 had been arranged for under the direct control of the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition, a more comi)reliensive anthropological collection 

 would liave been prepared. It being the first object, however, to avoid 



