36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I07 



tion on materials. In some earlier individual requests, the correspon- 

 dents had been asked to send their information directly to the Board, 

 which would turn it over to the Army or Navy. This had sometimes 

 aroused suspicion. Consequently, the later requests enclosed Navy 

 or Army franks so that the materials could be sent directly. By this 

 means it was unnecessary to give any elaborate explanation about the 

 Ethnogeographic Board, although the printed brochure was enclosed 

 for good measure. If the roster did not contain enough names, other 

 sources were used. For example, good materials on the Mediterranean 

 were obtained by circularizing the membership list of the Archaeo- 

 logical Institute of America and of the American School at Athens. 

 A recent illustration shows the results of this circularizing tech- 

 nique because it was handled entirely by the Board. The American 

 Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic 

 Monuments in War Areas wanted Baedeker's Guides to Germany and 

 Austria for its special Army officers. As the Commission had already 

 canvassed the large art galleries and museums and the second-hand 

 book dealers, supplies of Guides were exhausted and the Board was 

 asked to assist. A mimeographed letter which explained the need and 

 requested the sale or donation of such Guides, was sent out at the end 

 of April 1945 (See Appendix C4). The statistics on June 15, 1945, 

 were as follows: 



Total requests mailed 473 



Requests not answered to date 288 



Negative answers with no new names suggested 92 



Negative answers, but with new names suggested 58 



Affirmative answers 35 



Baedeker's Guides received 63 



The Guides received in response to this request proved sufficient 

 for the needs of the American Commission and circularization was 

 stopped. The Director, however, offered to send out a new batch of 

 letters if the situation changed. Many of the Guides were received 

 from members of the Archaeological Institute of America of which 

 William B. Dinsmoor, a member of the American Commission, is 

 president. 



Appraisal 



It was inevitable that the Ethnogeographic Board with its emphasis 

 on world areas would build up a roster of area specialists. From the 

 point of view of technique of procedure the job was well done. 

 The emphasis on area and language, the simplicity of the question- 

 naire and the filing system, the concept of usefulness rather than 



