NO. I ETHNOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD — BENNETT 45 



circulated in Washington and helped to make the Board known, if 

 anyone in pamphlet-showered Washington found time to read it. 

 The distribution outside of Washington was more limited. It was 

 customary to include the brochure in each of the circular letter re- 

 quests for area photographs or information, but there was no syste- 

 matic coverage of the universities and scholars, 



Two supplementary statements about the Board's services were 

 also sent to many Washington agencies. One was a "List of Mimeo- 

 graphed Materials Available to National War Agencies upon Official 

 Request to the Ethnogeographic Board." The other was a descrip- 

 tion of the World File of Area and Language Specialists, and the 

 Cross-Cultural Survey file on the Japanese Mandated Islands in 

 the Pacific. The true effectiveness of these is demonstrated by the 

 numerous requests for the mimeographed materials, and the many 

 representatives who appeared to consult the two files. 



The publicity in newspapers and journals was limited. An article 

 was prepared for Science, October 23, 1942, one for The Scientific 

 Monthly, August 1943, and a general review was included in an 

 article on "Smithsonian Enterprises" which appeared in Science, 

 November 6, 1942. A news release through the Smithsonian press 

 service reached many local papers in abbreviated form. This brought 

 in a number of letters from world travelers, some of whom were 

 sent questionnaires and added to the Area Roster. Periodic state- 

 ments of progress were sent to the Sponsors who made summaries 

 for their annual reports. 



Two admirable qualities of the Ethnogeographic Board are that it 

 did not seek flashy publicity (although some of the queries were 

 tempting, e. g., "Are there snowshoes for horses ?" and "What are 

 the results of eating bearded seal liver?"), and that it was not jealous 

 about credit. Many of its reports were published, in part or in whole, 

 in Army and Navy service journals. The Board placed no restric- 

 tions on the use of these materials, although it did ask for the 

 courtesy of a credit line. However, when this was not given, as was 

 usually the case, no complaints were registered. 



In over-all appraisal, the Board was successful in establishing wide 

 and effective relationships with Government agencies, particularly 

 those most likely to use its information services. However, if the 

 Board had decided to undertake projects of a longer term, and more 

 academic nature, once its information service had largely ceased, 

 new promotion efforts would have been needed. 



