38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



crowded liall occupied by the gallery of art. The character of the articles and 

 the very effective manner in which they were arranged has, however, made this 

 collection one of the most attractive features of the museum. The number of 

 exhibitors is 18, while the total number of their contributions amounts to over 

 650. Besides laces and embroideries, the exhibit contains many fans, minia- 

 tures, old and rare pieces of porcelain and china, enamels, ivories, silverware, 

 and jewelry. It is hoped that this beginning, which, it is understood, will be 

 extended during the coming winter, will go far toward accomplishing the result 

 so much desired. 



ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTIONS. 



The total number of accessions received during the year was 1,391, comprising 

 approximately 219,505 specimens, of which 10,187 were anthropological, 176,263 

 biological, and 32,755 geological. 



The principal accession in ethnology consisted of about 600 extremely inter- 

 esting objects collected among the natives of West Borneo by Dr. W. L. Abbott, 

 and by him presented to the museum, in continuation of his many valuable 

 contributions from the Malaysian region. Other important ethnological col- 

 lections from the islands of the South Pacific were also obtained, among which 

 may be mentioned material from the Philippine Islands presented by Maj. E. A. 

 Mearns and Capt. Jesse R. Harris, U. S. Army ; and from Guam, donated by 

 Mr. W. E. Safford. Noteworthy among the loans are a large number of art 

 objects in metal obtained by Gen. Oliver Ellsworth Wood, IT. S. Army, during 

 a four years' residence in Japan as military attache, and a collection made by 

 Senator A. J. Beveridge during an extended trip to the Orient, including the 

 Philippine Islands, Japan, and China. As bearing upon the American Indians 

 there were added many specimens from the region of the northei'n cliff dwellers 

 of northwestern Arizona, the Taos and Zuiii Indians of New Mexico, and the 

 Iroquois of New York and Canada. A small but valuable collection illus- 

 trating the industrial and social life of the little-known Tahltan Indians of 

 Stilvine River, British Columbia, was received from the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology. Among the models from the Patent Office assigned to the division 

 of ethnology were many relating to fire making, heating, cooking, illumination, 

 culture history, etc. 



To Mr. Ephraim Benguiat, of New York, the museum is under deep obliga- 

 tions for the addition of twenty-one objects to his already large collection of 

 Jewish religious ceremonial objects on deposit in the division of historic re- 

 ligions. They include two finely embroidered synagogue veils, two silver-gilt 

 breastplates of exquisite workmanship, and a silver and brass hanukah lamp of 

 artistic design. 



The division of prehistoric archeology obtained from the excavations con- 

 ducted by Dr. J. W. Fewkes at the Casa Grande ruins, Arizona, from October, 

 1906, to March, 1907, under a special act of Congress, an especially valuable 

 collection, comprising stone implements, pottery, articles of shell and bone, 

 wooden imi)lenients and timber, textile fabrics, and basket work, and a number 

 of human skulls and parts of skeletons. Important additions were also received 

 from other parts of this country, and from Mexico, Bolivia, Egypt, and India. 



The additions to the division of physical anthropology were numerous and 

 from many sources, illustrating several races of the human family both living 

 and extinct. Dr. W. L. Abbott also contributed a large series of specimens 

 illustrative of the anthropoid apes and the monkeys of West Borneo and 

 Sumatra. Many photographs, facial casts, and measurements of the Indians 

 of North America were made in the laboratory. 



