77 2 The Smithsonian Institution 



making pottery or basketry, a Navaho silversmith, tells a story 

 much more effectually than can be told in any other way. 

 In this method of installation the Smithsonian Institution is 

 not only a pioneer as far as the American Indians are con- 

 cerned, but preeminent among museums. 



The models of pueblos and cliff-houses in the museum are 

 also unique ; their duplication elsewhere shows that they are 

 appreciated as a method of installation, and yet it is not say- 

 ing too much to declare that the Smithsonian Institution 

 was also a pioneer in this kind of installation. In this con- 

 nection may be mentioned an adaptation of photographs of 

 ethnographic material which has attracted much attention 

 among experts at home and abroad. I refer to the use of 

 transparencies in windows. These pictures of American 

 Indians, of pueblos, and similar objects have certainly not 

 been carried to the same perfection elsewhere. 



From the influences which have been enumerated, and 

 others equally potent, anthropology in the last half century 

 has made enormous strides. In this short time in the history 

 of science many great ethnological museums have been born 

 and grown to exert widespread influences. Trained anthro- 

 pologists have taken the places of amateurs, ethnological re- 

 searches have become more exact, publications more special. 

 The mode of installation of ethnographic material has im- 

 proved, a science of museums is beginning to be recognized. 

 The history of the influences which have brought about all 

 this growth interests every one who studies the glorious part 

 which the Smithsonian Institution has played in the fifty 

 years now closing. The new anthropology nurtured into 

 vigor by great institutions reciprocates by claims which can- 

 not be disregarded ; it instinctively looks for future growth to 

 that influence to which it owes so much in the past. 



