20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



added 321 specimens showing printing processes (in 8 exhibition 

 cases) received from the United States Government Printing Office. 

 History. — More than 2,500 objects of historic and antiquarian value 

 were received, chiefly portraits, costumes, medals, mementos, and fur- 

 niture of historic characters. The series of awards and personal 

 mementos was enriched by a number of objects relating to the scien- 

 tific career of Dr. Charles D. Walcott, fourth Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, a gift of Mrs. Walcott. Several pieces of parlor 

 furniture made in Paris for President James Monroe in 1817 and 

 used in the White House from then until 1937 were lent to the Mu- 

 seum by the White House for an indefinite period. The numismatic 

 collection was increased by 366 coins and medals, including a bronze 

 medal commemorating the invention of the bifocal lens by Benjamin 

 Franklin in 1784. The philatelic collection was increased by the 

 transfer from the Post Office Department of 2,088 specimens of 

 foreign postage stamps, cards, and envelopes. 



EXPLORATIONS AND FIELD WORK 



The scientific explorations of the year by members of the Museum 

 staff were financed principally by grants from the private funds of 

 the Smithsonian Institution or by contributions from friends of the 

 Institution. The investigations were varied in nature and brought 

 highly important results in additions to scientific knowledge and in 

 contributions of specimens to the national collections. 



In May, Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Assistant Secretary, as repre- 

 sentative of the Smithsonian Institution, and chairman of the official 

 delegation of the United States, was in attendance at the Ninth In- 

 ternational Ornithological Congress, held in Kouen, France. At the 

 close of the meetings it was voted to hold the next Congress, which 

 will come in 1942, in the United States. Dr. Wetmore was then 

 elected President. Following the meetings he visited museums and 

 laboratories in Switzerland, particularly in Bern and Basel, and later 

 worked at the British Museum (Natural History) in London. 



Anthropology. — During April and May 1938 Frank M. Setzler, 

 head curator of the department of anthropology, continued an arche- 

 ological program in the trans-Pecos area of southwestern Texas. 

 Since 1931 Mr. Setzler has been attempting, as opportunity per- 

 mitted, to outline the aboriginal culture status of the cave dwellers 

 in the Big Bend region of Texas. His previous excavations at the 

 mouth of the Pecos contributed largely to knowledge of the unusual 

 physical types of this simple nonpottery-making horizon. This year, 

 through the L. L. Wilson fund, he was enabled to excavate a large 

 cave in the northeast corner of Terrell County. Though this pro- 

 duced no skeletal material, the 9-foot deposits of burnt rocks and 



