Anthropology 767 



valuable collections of Indian portraits which has ever been 

 made. George Catlin was a wonderful man, and his work 

 as artist and ethnologist among the wildest tribes of Indians 

 did much to increase the scanty knowledge of the aborigines 

 of North America. He was one of the first to live among the 

 Indians, camping with them and following them in their mi- 

 grations. His accounts of several of the tribes are about all 

 that is known of them, and, as some of them have now disap- 

 peared, will ever remain the source of knowledge in the future. 

 The original paintings of this artist have a unique value and 

 their purchase for the national collection appropriate and 

 necessary. 



In order to make this collection as efficient among eth- 

 nologists as it was widely known, a descriptive account was 

 published with copies in one of the publications of the Institu- 

 tion. A list of the photographic portraits of North American 

 Indians in the gallery of the Smithsonian Institution ap- 

 peared in the "Miscellaneous Collections" for 1867. The 

 unparalleled facilities for photographing typical Indians who 

 visit the capital have led to the collection of an unique assem- 

 blage of pictures of our aborigines nowhere equaled in the 

 world. It was an opportunity which can never recur, for 

 many of the famous Indians who sat for these photographs 

 are no longer living. 



The publications on somatology have taken a wide range, 

 treating of physiology, anatomy, and craniology. Among 

 other articles of merit may be mentioned those of Carter and 

 Holmgren on "Color Blindness," Shute on the "Anatomy of 

 the Brain," Turner and Romanes on " Heredity." Doctor 

 Baker's " Ascent of Man " more properly belongs to another 

 line of Smithsonian work, but may well be mentioned in 

 our consideration of contributions by the Smithsonian to 

 somatology. 



