The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XI DECEMHllH, I'.ill No. S 



A REVIEW OF THE MUSEUM'S EXPLORATION WORK 



EXIM-OKATION liMs Ix'cii a steadily <in)\viii<;- factor in the dcvclo])- 

 iiHMit of tlic AiHcricaii Miisctiin sinci' 1SS7. It was in this year that 

 l)aiiicl (iii'atid Klliot accoini)aiiii'd hy the taxidermist Jeiiiiess 

 Ricliardson was sent into Montana to secnre wild specimens of hison. Tlic 

 splendid Hnllalo (Ii-onp in the American Mammal Hall is the result of this 

 expedition. In ISSS the newly appointed Assistant Curator of Birds, 

 Frank M. Cliapman. wi'iit to Florida on the first of his almost annnal 

 joiirncNs. With the adxcnt of Henry Fairfield Oshorn, ( 'tn-ator of \'erte- 

 hrate Paheoiitoloiiy in 1S91 and of Frederic W. Putnam, ("in-ator of Anthro- 

 pology in 1894, explorations began in every dejjartment and have heeonie 

 an important branch of the Museum's work, initil in the year 1911 there 

 are no fewer than fifty localities l)einp; worked liy parties in the field. In 

 the twenty years from 1S91 to 1911, the miinber of distinct exploring 

 parties led by from one to four or five men, with a geographic range of 

 work extending over North and South America, the South Pacific Islands, 

 the ^Yest Indies and the East Indies, Eastern Asia and Xortliern and 

 Central Africa, have been numerically distributed as follows: 



Extinct and living raci's of men 1G3 



Extinct mammals, reptiles, anipliibians and fishes 65 



E.xisting mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes 48 



CJeology of North America 10 



In the early years of its history the Museum depended solely upon 

 purchases from dealers and collectors; in recent years, except in the matter 

 of minerals, its collections have been enriched far more by exploration than 

 by purchase. Richer even than the collections is the .scientific spirit which 

 exploration has brought into the life of the Museum, the energy, devotion 

 and self-sacrifice, the many contributions to the stun of hmnan knowledge in 

 geography, geology, ethnology, palaeontology, and all branches of zoology. 

 These place the Musemn among the foremost scientific institutions in the 

 country. 



The exi)l()ration spirit has fostered the modern development of showing 

 the environment with the specimen, of exhibiting a living picture of a 

 mammal or a bird, just as it was William T. Hornaday's travels in the 

 jungles of Borneo which led him to install in the National Museum of 

 Washington in ISSli the first habitat group, showing orang-utans in their 

 native forest. Now not only the naturalist but also the taxidermist, the 

 photographer and the artist make up the well-e(iuipped zcxilogical expedi- 

 tion, and each contril)Utes hiscpiota to the mitic cii scene of a finished group. 



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