SECRETARY'S REPORT 47 
ceremonies. This elephant has been placed in the center of the rotunda 
of the Natural History Building. 
The preparation and installation of the habitat groups and topical 
displays were nearing completion at the end of the fiscal year in the 
two halls featuring the World of Mammals, following the contract 
construction of the exhibit fixtures in June 1958. Nearly all the topical 
units have been installed and much of the work on the habitat groups 
is completed. Staff zoologists under the chairmanship of Dr. Herbert 
Friedmann, head curator of zoology, continued to develop plans for 
the Hall of Oceanic Life. 
Associate Curator Clifford Evans, in cooperation with John C. 
Ewers, Assistant Director of the Museum of History and Technology, 
Howard Cline of the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress, 
and John Corbett of the National Park Service, prepared the scripts 
and supervised the installation of an exhibit, “Anthropology and the 
Nation’s Capital,” which was shown in the foyer of the Natural History 
Building during November and December 1958 coincident with the 
annual meetings in Washington of the American Anthropological 
Association and the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 
Three types of prehistoric surgery, assembled by Dr. T. Dale Stewart, 
curator of physical anthropology, were shown at the January 1959 
meeting of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: (1) Amputa- 
tion of the right arm in the Shanidar I Neanderthal skeleton from 
Traq (45,000 years old); (2) cranial trephining from Peru; and (3) 
filed teeth from the Mississippi Valley. 
The panels of photographs at the south end of the hall devoted to 
Highlights of Latin American Archeology were removed and a large, 
full-size plaster cast of a colossal stone head of the Olmec culture was 
installed in February 1959. This cast of San Lorenzo Monument No. 
1 from southern Veracruz was delivered in 31 sections and was as- 
sembled by Paul Willis of the cabinet shop, with the artwork and final 
painting performed by A. Joseph Andrews, chief exhibits specialist of 
the department of anthropology. Three carved jade figures from La 
Venta in Tabasco, Mexico, as well as other Olmec jade objects such as 
beads, ceremonial axes, pendants, and ear ornaments, were installed in 
June 1959 in an exhibit adjacent to the head. This exhibit also illus- 
trates aboriginal methods of working jade by drilling, sawing, pecking, 
and polishing. The Andean arts and crafts exhibit was renovated in 
December 1958 and a few objects were withdrawn to permit the installa- 
tion of a gold Chimu mask from Peru. 
At the close of the fiscal year construction of the exhibit fixtures 
for Hall 21, which will feature the archeology of the southwestern 
United States, the Pacific coast and Columbia River Valley, and Arctic 
