SECRETARY'S REPORT 17 
Southeast Pacific, assembled over a period of more than a century, 
was presented by Georgetown University. President Harry 8S. Tru- 
man presented to the Smithsonian Institution 17 gold-embossed silver 
vessels received at the White House as a gift from the Government 
of Tibet in appreciation of an American gift of wireless receiving and 
transmitting sets made during World War II. Included are two 
butter lamps and stands, four teacup stands and covers, two bowls 
for grain offerings, one teapot, and two beer mugs, all decorated in 
gold-embossed designs derived from Chinese-Tibetan folklore and 
Buddhist religious art. A collection of 287 folk, costume, and his- 
torical portrait dolls, representing the native dress of peoples of many 
lands, was received as a bequest from the late Mrs. Frank Brett Noyes. 
The Don Diego Columbus mahogany table, traditionally known as 
the writing desk of Diego Columbus, was conditionally bequeathed 
by Mrs. Edith Keyes Benton. This table had been preserved for 
centuries in the cathedral of Santo Domingo City and was presented 
by Archbishop Nouel to Commander Frederick L. Benton, U.S.N., in 
recognition of his work in Santo Domingo during the influenza epidemic 
of 1918. One of the rarest of musical instruments, a musical gong, 
kyung, carved from white marble, was presented by Ju Whan Lee, 
director of the Korean Court Music Conservatory at Seoul, Korea. 
The largest accession received by the division of physical anthro- 
pology consisted of the skeletal remains recovered in northern Australia 
by Frank M. Setzler, a member of the Commonwealth of Australia- 
National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution Expedition to 
Arnhem Land. Australian skeletal material available for study in 
the United States is rather limited. Four casts of African fossil 
primates, which illustrate certain characteristics of antecedent special- 
ization, were also acquired during the year. 
Zoology.—The collections made by the Museum staff detailed to the 
Arnhem Land field expedition, under the joint sponsorship of the 
Commonwealth of Australia, National Geographic Society, and the 
Smithsonian Institution, have added many previously unrepresented 
forms of animal life to the National collections. These collections 
included not only vertebrates but invertebrates as well. 
Accessions that enhanced the usefulness of the mammalian collec- 
tion came from the Northern Territory of Australia, Nepal, Malay 
Peninsula, Korea, Okinawa, Philippine Islands, New Guinea, and New 
Hampshire. Field work financed wholly or in part by the W. L. 
Abbott fund resulted in the addition of birds not hitherto represented 
in the National collection. Included among these accessions were 
2,815 skins and 388 eggs of Colombian birds; 900 skins, 24 skeletons, and 
2 sets of eggs of Panamanian birds; 778 bird skins, many of which were 
not represented in the collection, as well as 51 skeletons and 2 eggs 
