REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 19 



ture, 32,976 unit specimen drawers of wood, 4,712 unit specimen 

 drawers of steel, 6,839 insect drawers, and 13,253 miscellaneous speci- 

 men drawers and boxes of various sizes. 



COLLECTIONS. 



The total number of specimens received by the Museum during the 

 year as permanent acquisitions was approximately 228,642, of which 

 17,361 were anthropological, 204,540 were biological, 6,647 were_ geo- 

 logical and paleontological, and 94 were paintings and engravings 

 presented to the National Gallery of Art. In addition, 1,629 objects 

 were accepted as loans for exhibition in several of the divisions of 

 the department of anthropology and in the National Gallery of Art. 

 A complete list of the accessions will be found in the latter part of 

 this report. 



DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Ethnology. — A collection from Liberia, lent by Mr. George W. 

 Ellis^ jr., formerly secretary of the American Legation in that 

 country, is especially interesting as representing a region in which 

 the culture of the Sudan has been carried to the coast by the Man- 

 dingans and other Vai-speaking peoples who have reached a com- 

 paratively high state of progress. It comprises cotton blankets of 

 superior pattern and weave; fine examples of leather work on 

 weapons or as bags, sandals, and trappings; basketry; vessels of 

 wood, gourd, and horn; knives, swords, spears, and other iron work; 

 articles connected with daily life; and ceremonial objects. Mr. Hoff- 

 man Philip, late consul general at Adis Ababa, Abyssinia, now sec- 

 retary of the American Embassy at Constantinople, deposited an im- 

 portant collection consisting of basketry, a silver-mounted shield, a 

 miter, crucifixes, necklaces, bracelets, ecclesiastical paintings, a manu- 

 script book, etc., from Abyssinia, and a number of other objects from 

 the neighboring tribes under the rule of Emperor Menelek II. 



A valuable series of American Indian objects, including aboriginal 

 buckskin costumes, pouches, clubs, bows, arrows and quivers, cradles, 

 musical instruments., ceremonial headdresses, baskets, and blankets, 

 collected by the late Capt. Allyn K. Capron, United States Army, 

 and Mrs. Capron, during the prolonged service of the former on 

 the southern plains, was purchased. Several Osage Indian sacred 

 packs, formerly regarded with great veneration and the basis of 

 certain traditional ceremonies, were obtained for the Museum by 

 Mr. Francis La Flesche, of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 They are very old and contain objects and material in weaving, etc., 

 which cast light on the industries of perhaps a century ago. In one 

 is a set of instruments for tattooing, the practice of which art was 



