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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Mr. Alanson Skinner of the department 

 of antlu'opology spent the early part of the 

 summer with the Kansa Indians in northern 

 Oklahoma where data on their social life and 

 societies was obtained, and the last sacred 

 war bundle in the possession of the tribe 

 secured. From that point Mr. Skinner went 

 to central Oklahoma where work was taken 

 up among the Iowa. Special attention was 

 paid to the military and secret societies of 

 the tribe and a complete ritual of the medi- 

 cine dance was secured, as well as several 

 specimens of different sacred bundles. A 

 few days were spent among the Ponca where 

 fiu-ther data was collected upon the societies 

 of that tribe. The latter part of the summer 

 Mr. Skinner stayed at Sisseton, South Dakota, 

 where with the assistance of Mr. Amos One 

 Road, a young Sioux, investigations were 

 made among the Eastern Dakota with special 

 regard to material cultm-e. These people, 

 unlike the Oklahoma tribes, have given up 

 almost everything that pertained to the old 

 Indian life and are now actively engaged in 

 farming. Some very old and unusual speci- 

 mens were obtained however from people 

 who had kept them as relics of the past. 



During July, August and the greater 

 portion of September Dr. Chester A. Reeds 

 of the department of geology and inverte- 

 brate palaeontology together with Messrs. 

 Hyde, Logan and Snider of the Oklahoma 

 Geological Survey, as field assistants, made 

 a collection of approximately 50,000 inverte- 

 brate fossils from the Hunton beds, Arbuckle 

 Mountains, Oklahoma. Nine distinct geo- 

 logical horizons were established, five being 

 Silurian, and four Lower Devonian. The col- 

 lection sent to the Museum consists of small 

 specimens, except for two well-preserved sec- 

 tions of a fossU tree (Dadaxylon newherryensis). 

 The specimens of fossil wood have been placed 

 on exhibition in the hall of geology. 



The Schrammen collection of Cretaceous 

 fossils has been purchased by the department 

 of geology and invertebrate paleeontology 

 of the Museum from Dr. A. Schrammen of 

 Hildesheim, Germany. It consists of eleven 

 hundred species of invertebrates represented 

 by four thousand specimens which were 

 collected from some fifty localities and four- 

 teen geological horizons in the upper and 

 lower Cretaceous beds of northwest Germany. 

 The phyla and sub-phyla represented are the 

 Foraminifera, spongia, hydrozoa, anthozoa. 



echinoidea, annehda, brachiopoda, gastro- 

 poda, pelecypoda and cephalopoda. Among 

 the pelecypoda and cephalopoda are to be 

 found the type specimens of Wolleman 

 in his work on the Cretaceous of Misburg 

 and Nettlingen. The most valuable portion 

 of the collection is the large number of types 

 of siliceous sponges from the Mucronaten 

 and Quadraten Senonian strata. Those 

 from Oberg are really beautiful, and although 

 delicate, are remarkably well preserved. 

 The descriptions of the type sponges appear 

 in Dr. A. Schrammen's monograph on the 

 Kreidespongien, Palceontographica, Vol. V, 

 Supplement. 



Miss Ann E. Thomas has been appointed 

 assistant in the department of public educa- 

 tion to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- 

 tion of Mrs. Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan. 



Mr. Adolph Elwyn, who for the past 

 nine years has been assistant in the depart- 

 ment of anatomy and physiology, has re- 

 signed his position to become instructor in 

 histology and biology at the Long Island 

 College Hospital. Mr. Clarence R. Halter 

 has been appointed to succeed Mr. Elwyn. 



Mr. F. E. Watson has been appointed an 

 assistant in the department of invertebrate 

 zoology. He wiU devote the greater portion 

 of his time to Lepidoptera. 



Dr. Simoens da Silva of Rio de Janeiro 

 visited the Museum dm'ing October, having 

 come to the United States as the official 

 Brazilian delegate to the Congress of Ameri- 

 canists. Dr. Da Silva is interested in 

 archaeology and has a private museum de- 

 voted to that branch of science. 



In the will of the late Miss Dessie Greer, 

 an annual member of the Museum, the Mu- 

 seum is designated as a beneficiary of a fund 

 of $90,000, which is being held in trust during 

 the lifetime of Miss Theresa Trimper. 



Under the will of the late Morris Loeb the 

 Museum is designated as one of the bene- 

 ficiaries of the residuary estate, appraised 

 at $989,857, subject to a life interest of Mrs. 

 Loeb. The appraiser estimates that the 

 Museum's share of this fund will be $36,946. 

 The Museum is also a contingent beneficiary 

 of a special fund of $25,000 to be used for the 

 establishment or maintenance of a chemical 

 type museum. 



