24 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 
and four remarkable portraits of a girl, on Royal Nepera paper, pre- 
sented by the Eastman Company, of Rochester, New York. There 
is now assembled an excellent collection to illustrate the history of 
photography from the earliest period to the present time, which it is 
expected to prepare and install during the current year. It includes 
both apparatus and pictures, and contains many rarities. 
Musical instruments.—The following were among the additions to 
this section: Three Japanese musical instruments—a treble guitar, 
direct bass flute, and fiddle—obtained by the late Mrs. James M. Flint 
in Yokohama and presented by Dr. Flint; a series of drawings, 
tracings, and notes relating to violins, their manufacture, dimensions, 
and characteristics, both old and new, collected by Mr. Gilbert 
Thompson and donated by Miss A. G. Thompson, of Washington; a 
melodeon made in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, by William Pierce, prior 
to 1863, formerly the property of Dr. Theodore F. Hance, and con- 
tributed by his estate, through his daughters, the Misses Emma and 
Eleanor W. Hance, of Washington; a ‘‘marimba”’ of the most recent 
type, used by the natives of Yucatan, presented by Mr. Emil Mosonyi. 
Medicine.—This division acquired a number of surgical instru- 
ments, cases of medicine, microscopic slides, and other interesting 
material. 
History.—The accessions received by this division contained much 
that is noteworthy. A collection of 38 pieces of table porcelain 
bearing the insignia of the ‘Society of the Cincinnati,” made in 
China for David Townsend, of Massachusetts, in 1790, was lent by 
Mr. Thomas Gerry Townsend. Accompanying it is the diploma of 
membership of David Townsend in the Society of the Cincinnati and 
a letter from Samuel Shaw, dated 1790, relating to the procurement 
of the china. A number of personal relics of Rear Admiral Charles 
Wilkes, United States Navy, were deposited by his daughter, Miss 
Jane Wilkes, of Washington, including a handsome jeweled sword 
presented by the city of Boston in 1862, a gold medal conferred by 
the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1848, a service sword, 
hat, epaulets, and other articles used by the admiral, then a lieuten- 
ant, during his command of the United States Exploring Expedition 
of 1838-1842. Many personal memorials of the distinguished astron- 
omer Simon Newcomb, bequeathed by him to the United States 
Government for exhibition in the National Museum, were deposited 
by Mrs. Newcomb, though possessing the right to retain them dur- 
ing her life. The collection embraces the uniform and sword of 
Prof. Newcomb, who had the rank of rear admiral in the United 
States Navy, two orders of the Legion of Honor of France, various 
gold and bronze medals and tablets, a large jasper vase on a black 
marble pedestal presented by the Observatory of Poulkova, Russia, 
a pair of bronze vases from the Imperial University of Tokyo, and 
