REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 3 



of Design from the fund provided by the Henry Ward Ranger 

 bequest were recalled and claimed, according to the terms of the 

 Ranger will. Two miniatures were acquired through the Catherine 

 Walden Myer fund. The Gallery held two special exhibitions, as 

 follows : Paintings and etchings by Thomas Moran, installed in the 

 lobby of the Natural History Building on the one hundredth anni- 

 versary of the painter's birth; and the exhibition of the Second 

 Annual Metropolitan State Art Contest, 1937, including 305 prints, 

 paintings, and pieces of sculpture, by 148 artists. 



Freer Gallery of Art. — The year's additions to the collection in- 

 clude a bronze Cambodian Buddha, a bronze Chinese ceremonial ves- 

 sel, and three early Chinese mirrors ; three Armenian volume^ of the 

 fourteenth and seventeenth centuries — the Gospel, a psalter, and a 

 hymnal; a thirteenth century New Testament in Aramaic; Arabic 

 volumes and paper and parchment leaves from several Arabic manu- 

 scripts of various periods from the ninth to the seventeenth cen- 

 turies ; a sixteenth century Persian volume and 3 leaves from a Per- 

 sian manuscript of the same period; 1 Chinese, 4 Indian, and 11 

 Persian paintings ; and in pottery 1 Chinese cup holder and 2 Chinese 

 vases, a Persian bowl, and 2 Syrian pitchers. Curatorial work was 

 devoted to the study of Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Aramaic, Ar- 

 menian, Arabic, Persian, East Indian, and Cambodian objects in the 

 collection and of the texts and seals associated with them. During 

 the year 810 objects and 286 photographs of objects were submitted 

 to the curator for opinion as to provenance, age, quality, or other sig- 

 nificance, and 31 inscriptions for translation. Visitors totaled 140,881, 

 and 10 groups were given docent service. Three illustrated talks 

 were given by members of the Gallery staff before three local 

 organizations. 



Bureau of American Ethnology. — The researches of the Bureau 

 covered a wide variety of archeological and ethnological studies of 

 the Indians of North, South, and Central America. Mr. Stirling, 

 Chief of the Bureau, completed his ethnological report on the Jivaro 

 Indians of Ecuador, and examined a number of mounds in Georgia 

 and Florida. Dr. Swanton, as chairman of the United States De 

 Soto Expedition Commission, made two field trips through that part 

 of the South crossed by De Soto's route; he later completed a 600- 

 page report, which was submitted by the Commission to Congress. 

 Dr. Michelson continued his ethnological researches among the Algon- 

 quian tribes of James and Hudson Bays, Canada. Dr. Harrington 

 prepared papers on ethnological and linguistic subjects relating 

 to a number of tribes including the Karuk, Kiowa, Navaho, Apache, 

 Hopi, and Shoshonean; he also completed a report on the Siberian 

 origin of the American Indian. Dr. Roberts continued his archeo- 



