CATALOGUE OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE 

 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE SMITHSONIAN 

 INSTITUTION. 



By WALTER HOUGH, Assistant in the Department of Ethnology. 



This collection, which relates to the present condition of the Indian 

 tribes north of Mexico, is a part of that intended for the Chicago exhi 

 bition, and is displayed here for the first time. 



In accordance with the method of the National Museum, by which 

 Dr. Goode and his colleagues propose to unite popular education with 

 scientific education, the specimens exhibited are described and 

 explained, so far as possible, by means of maps, diagrams, illustrated 

 books, photographs, and labels. 



Although in forming this partial collection, under the personal super 

 vision and care of Prof. O. T. Mason, articles of the greatest importance 

 from their artistic or unusual character have been selected from the 

 collection, their scientific and comparative order has not been changed. 



The series, consisting of more than 5,000 photographs, transparen 

 cies, lithographs, paintings, and engravings from illustrated books, 

 represents, as a whole, the various phases of Indian life, and form a 

 complete museum of drawings. 



Independently of the large collection of works on this subject by 

 American authors here brought together, the publications of the 

 Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of Ethnology form an impor 

 tant library for study. 



The exhibit contains sufficient materials for writing and illustrating 

 a work on the aborigines of the northern part of the two great conti 

 nents discovered by Columbus. 



This collection has also for its object the display of the method of 

 study and installation of the Department of Ethnology of the United 

 States National Museum. 



All human activities and industries should be regarded as a part, or 

 small part, of the system of nature, and should be studied in accord 

 ance with the laws and operations of natural history. Every article 

 which is the result of a human action should be studied, first, in the 

 mode of its manufacture (ontogeny) ; secondly, in its relation to other 



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