22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



since it took little expenditure to answer questions, distribute ma- 

 terials, and write brief reports. For future consideration, however, it 

 must be remembered that the total costs amounted to about $30,000 

 a year which would have to be met by grants if no convenient Smith- 

 sonian Institution were available and willing. 



BOARD ACTIVITIES 



The chapters which follow present a description and analysis of 

 the actual activities of the Ethnogeographic Board. No attempt has 

 been made to arrange these in chronological order, a procedure which 

 would be exceedingly difficult and of little general significance. In- 

 stead the treatment is a topical one, with an emphasis on techniques 

 and the different types of service. 



Service is a multifarious concept, but for the purpose of this 

 description it has been limited to those aspects which actually are 

 demonstrated by the Board's endeavors. Convenient labels have 

 been attached, such as Information, Distributions, Reports, Confer- 

 ences, and Projects. Each of these covers a rather wide range of 

 activities, as will be illustrated. The caption "Dead Ends" covers 

 the projects and techniques which the Board discussed or initiated, 

 and then abandoned for one reason or another. 



It must always be remembered that the Ethnogeographic Board 

 was primarily an emergency body intent on using academic knowledge 

 for the successful execution of the war. There was, to be sure, a 

 secondary purpose, as stated in the published brochure, "to encourage 

 the promulgation ... of more extensive research projects along 

 the lines of applicable social science, linguistics and human geog- 

 raphy." It was the primary purpose, however, that motivated the 

 Director and his staff, and that colored the activities of the Board 

 throughout the first 2 years of its existence. Requests from the 

 Army, Navy, and other war agencies were given precedence above 

 all others. Longer term and more academic projects were consistently 

 postponed in favor of the immediate. It is natural then that the 

 category "Information" stands out most prominently in this history. 



Information includes the spot questions about areas or personnel 

 which could be answered by phone or short letter. It includes short 

 reports in answer to requests that required a certain amount of 

 investigation. It includes long reports involving one or more staff 

 members, or the most competent outsiders available. The promotion 

 techniques of the Washington office were intended to spread the 

 scope of this service. The principal files, such as the Area Roster, 



