34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



Hadji Ephraim and Mr. Mordecai Benguiat made import tint ad- 

 ditions to the rich collection of antique Jewish objects lent by them 

 during previous years. Included in a valuable gift from the estate 

 of the late John Chandler Bancroft Davis were necklaces, scarabs, 

 figurines, and Ptolemaic coins from Egypt, a sculptured brick from 

 the Colosseum at Borne, and marble and terra-cotta vases. From 

 Miss Isobel H. Lenman were received as a loan a collection of ancient 

 glassware, comprising bottles, flasks, bowls, cups, tear bottles, brace- 

 lets, beads, and other articles, displaying the marvelous irridescence 

 characteristic of the ancient glassware of Syria and Phoenicia. 



The principal accession in physical anthropology consisted of ma- 

 terial obtained in Peru by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka in 1915 in connection 

 with the assembling of exhibits for the Panama-California Exposi- 

 tion. It includes hundreds of objects of great value, among which 

 are many specimens representing rare and in some instances unique 

 anatomical features. Besides an excellent series of brains of gorillas 

 and chimpanzees from the Cameroons and casts of the Sivapithecus 

 remains from India, aboriginal skulls and other bones were received 

 from the vicinity of Ycro and Fort Myers, Florida, representing the 

 supposedly very ancient man of that region, from ancient mounds 

 in Utah and the Mesa Yerde ruins in Colorado, from Tennessee and 

 Illinois, and from Colombia and Hawaii. 



Among the many acquisitions in the division of mechanical tech- 

 nology were rare watch movements; early pieces of apparatus re- 

 lating to the invention and history of the telegraph, the telephone, 

 the telautograph, the phonograph, and the graphophone; a Howe 

 sewing machine, which sewed the first seam done by machinery ; and 

 numerous interesting firearms, some of early make. 



To his previous munificent donation, illustrating the history and 

 development of the pianoforte and including dulcimers, spinets, 

 clavichords, harpsichords, and organs, Mr. Hugo Worch added 28 

 pieces, increasing the extent of this remarkable collection to 117 

 instruments. 



An instructive addition to the exhibition series in graphic arts 

 was a life-size figure of a Japanese wood-cut printer at work, the 

 outfit, complete in every detail, having been a gift from the Im- 

 perial Government of Japan. A much earlier stage in the develop- 

 ment of graphic methods is illustrated by an original Mexican paint- 

 ing, executed on a sheet of palmetto fiber smoothly surfaced with 

 white clay. Among other interesting acquisitions were one of the 

 earliest forms of the machine for casting linotype slugs; materials 

 of the various kinds employed in miniature painting, with examples 

 of miniature work on ivory, parchment, and porcelain ; and a series 

 of specimens illustrating processes in making line-cut and halftone 

 engraving. 



