XIV PREFACE 



state, and at the same time are the chief reliance of the historian and 

 chronologist wlio seeks to write the earl}^ chapters of the story of 

 humanity. xVdditional vohimes are expected to treat of all the re- 

 maining materials — mineral, animal, and vegetable — and it is fur- 

 ther planned to give separate consideration to the more important 

 arts and industries practiced by the native peoples, as building, 

 sculpture, the textile and fictile arts, and metallurgy. 



While the preliminary studies for this work were under way, 



the writer Avas called upon to take charge of the 



The National archeological collections of the National Museum, 



Collections ^ „ ... . 



with which he had been more or less fannliar tor 40 

 years. These collections, at the time of his transfer from the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology to the Museum, were in process of 

 removal from the old to the new Museum building and had to be 

 reassembled, classified, labeled, and installed in exhibition cases 

 designed and built for the purpose. This arduous and prolonged 

 yet agreeable task was executed in the most painstaking manner 

 and extended over the years 1909-1913. In this way the collections, 

 which had accumulated in a somewhat random way during half a 

 century, became intimately familiar to the writer, and their study 

 led not only to a more complete understanding of the characteristics, 

 technical history, and functions of the many classes of objects. l)ut 

 opened the way to suitable methods of museum presentation and 

 to their rational aj)i)lication to the solution of the various problems 

 of aboriginal history. 



Dr. Charles Rau, an archeologist of exceptional acumen, was the 



lirst custodian of antiquities in the Museum and 

 Early Publications published a nuuibcr of Valuable papers relating to 



the collecticm as it existed during his incumbency 

 (1S77-8T), and for a number of years Mr. Frank H. Cushing was 

 associated with him in the work, gaining a mastery of the subject 

 which proved of great service to him in his subsequent valuable field 

 i-esearches among the tribes. Dr. Thomas Wilson followed Dr. Eau 

 (1887-1902), and during his custodianship published a number of 

 volumes, in which portions of the national collections were described 

 and illustrated. The work of this early period was, however, in 

 the main preliminary to a more systematic and comprehensive dis- 

 cussion of the materials of American archeology. An elaborate 

 catalogue of the national collections was begun by Dr. Ran, but re- 

 mained unfinished at the time of his death. Numerous excellent illus- 

 trations prepared under his direction by Mr. Charles F. Trill, a 

 master draftsman, were utilized by Dr. Wilson, and selections from 

 the. same will appear in the present work. 



