24 ANNUAL EEPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. 



Only a very small allotment was allowed the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and its branches from the congressional appropriation for Gov- 

 ernment exhibits at San Francisco in 1915. It was possible, how- 

 ever, to make a small display showing in a general way the scope and 

 activities of the Institution, and an ethnological exhibit illustrating 

 the characteristics and culture status of typical primitive peoples. 

 The exhibits were located in the Liberal Arts Palace, covering a floor 

 space of about 6,000 square feet. 



The exhibit of the Institution proper consisted of a series of photo- 

 graphs of its founder, James Smithson, the four secretaries, pictures 

 of the building and departments, and a complete set of its publica- 

 tions. There was also displayed an exact reproduction of the 

 Langley experimental steam flying machine which performed the 

 epoch-making flights over the Potomac Eiver, May 6, 1896, together 

 with photographs taken at the time. Langley's success as a pioneer 

 in aviation was commemorated on the Column of Progress at the 

 exposition (pi. 1) by a tablet with the following inscription: 



To commemorate science's gift of aviation to the world through Samuel Pier- 

 pont Laugley, an American. 



The principal exhibit by the National Museum dealt with eth- 

 nology, or the scientific study of the races of men, their origin, distri- 

 bution, relations, and culture. It included four family lay-figure 

 groups, the Eskimo of Alaska, the Dyak of the East Indies, the 

 Zulu-Kaffir of South Africa, and the Carib of South America ; also 

 village groups in miniature illustrating the houses and house life of 

 various peoples, together with cases of specimens relating to the 

 primitive arts and industries. 



The remaining departments or branches of the Institution, includ- 

 ing the International Exchange Service, the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, the Astrophysical Observatory, the Zoological Park, the 

 Hodgkins fund, the Aerodynamical Laboratory, and the Regional 

 Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, were 

 represented by charts, photographs, maps, instruments, and publi- 

 cations illustrative of their various functions. 



Mr. W. de C. Ravenel, administrative assistant of the United 

 States National Museum and secretary to the exposition board, acted 

 as the representative of the Smithsonian Institution and its branches, 

 with the assistance of Dr. Walter Hough, curator of ethnology, 

 United States National Museum. 



The exhibits were enumerated in detail in a descriptive catalogue 

 of 120 pages. 



