6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
department; these included Gallery tours, discussions of the “Picture 
of the Week,” and lectures on special topics. 
National Collection of Fine Arts.—The annual theeting of the 
Smithsonian Art Commission was again omitted because of war con- 
ditions. 'The Commission lost one member by death—Dr. Frederick P. 
Keppel, a member since 1932. Four miniatures were acquired through 
the Catherine Walden Myer fund. Several proffered gifts of art 
works are being held for action of the Art Commission at its next 
meeting. A number of paintings and other art works have been ac- 
cepted by the National Collection as loans; other paintings and 
miniatures belonging to the Collection have been lent to museums and 
art galleries, mostly for special exhibitions. Only one painting was 
purchased from the Henry Ward Ranger fund, “Fifteenth Century 
French Madonna and Child,” by Harry W. Watrous. Eight special 
exhibitions were held during the year, as follows: Oil paintings and 
other art works by Ceferino Palencia, of Mexico; water colors of 
Mexico by Walter B. Swan, of Omaha, Nebr.; miniatures by 52 artists 
of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters; water colors and 
block prints by Ralph H. Avery, United States Navy; paintings by 
John Mix Stanley, Jane C. Stanley, and Alice Stanley Acheson; paint- 
ings and other art works by the National League of American Pen 
Women; “Portraits of Leading American Negro Citizens,” by Mrs. 
Laura Wheeler Waring, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Betsy Graves 
Reyneau, of Washington; and mural paintings from the caves of 
India and other paintings of India by Sarkis Katchadourian, of New 
York City. 
Freer Gallery of Art-——Additions to the collections included Chinese 
bronzes, ceramics, jade, and painting; Japanese lacquer and painting; 
and one Armenian manuscript. Much of the time of the staff was de- 
voted to war work for several Government agencies, including Jap- 
anese translations, compilation of a glossary of Chinese geographical 
and topograhpical terms, and the examination of Japanese documents. 
The Director attended a meeting in New York of the Committee of 
the American Council of Learned Societies on Protection of Cultural 
Treasures in War Areas. Visitors to the Gallery totaled 62,462 for 
the year. Fifteen groups received instruction by staff members. 
Bureau of American Ethnology—Emphasis on activities concerned 
with Latin America has continued during the year. Dr. M. W. 
Stirling, Chief of the Bureau, directed the Sixth National Geographic 
Society-Smithsonian Institution expedition to Mexico, locating sev- 
eral new archeological sites in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and 
Campeche. Dr. J. R. Swanton read the proof of his extensive work 
on “The Indians of the Southeastern United States,” and completed 
a manuscript on the much discussed Norse expeditions to America. 
