REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1922. 4l 



field costume of the African explorer, the work of Sir William 

 Goscombe John. 



On the side of primitive metallurgy practiced in Africa, the col- 

 lection contains a wonderful series of objects proclaiming the 

 African skill in arts and crafts. Assagais, throwing knives, swords, 

 daggers, and other metal objects not only are remarkable examples 

 of aptitude in working iron, copper, and brass, but show a high 

 appreciation of esthetic form and decoration, considered of course 

 with regard to the grade of culture represented by the natives. 

 Some of these works would be regarded as worthy of favorable re- 

 mark if assigned to any stage of culture. Wood carvings in the 

 Ward collection also present interesting phases of aboriginal art, 

 especially in the representation of the human form and in decora- 

 tive design. Ivory also, that beautiful and enduring material, is 

 worked into war trumpets, pestles, bark beaters, ornaments, and 

 fetiches of anthropomorphic and animal forms. 



While textiles are of limited use in the environment of the tropical 

 Kongo and textile materials here are few and coarse, the specimens 

 shown in the Ward collection indicate the fertile ingenuity of the 

 natives. In this class are baskets, shields, mats, cloth headdresses, 

 etc., appropriately ornamented by texture designs and dyes. 



Chief among the natural history collection are a huge elephant 

 head, the skeleton of a gorilla, a python, and other animals of the 

 environment. 



Mr. Ward carried out the African art in the designing and 

 ornamenting of the bases of his sculptures. 



The whole collection forms a harmonious museum unit and is 

 appropriately installed, both as to setting and arrangement, for 

 which the taste of Mrs. Ward is largely responsible. 



It is not too much to say that the installation of the Ward collec- 

 tion represents a high standard of museum achievement. 



A large addition to the Eskimo material was seen in the transfer 

 from the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Rev. Sheldon Jack- 

 son Alaskan collection, purchased from his daughters, the Misses 

 Jackson. The collection consists of baskets, ivory implements and 

 carvings, needlework, costume, games, etc., numbering 692 speci- 

 mens, in great part from the Eskimo, with some specimens from 

 the Aleuts and Indians. Doctor Jackson, during his long service 

 in Alaska, had unusual facilities for collecting select objects of 

 native arts and industries, and for this reason the material is ac- 

 ceptable to increase the national collections. 



Ten imperial Chinese robes of silk "were presented by Maj. Murray 

 Warner, through his widow, Mrs. Gertrude Bass Warner, of 

 Eugene, Oreg. Products of the royal looms, they are regarded as 

 among the finest examples of the textile art. The decoration in- 



