REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT OF ETHNOLOGY IN THE U. S. NATIONAL 



MUSEUM, 1888. 



By Otis T. Mason, Curator. 



At the commencement of the year a new assingment of halls was 

 made, rendering it necessary to modify the distribution of specimens in 

 west hall. In pursuance of the Museum policy to find a significant 

 place for everything that has a name, three concepts of different values 

 have been worked out. At the east door all the material from various 

 sources used in transportation on land has been brought together, com- 

 mencing with the simplest device for carrying burdens by the human 

 (freight carrier) pack animal or for traveling over snow, and ending 

 with the locomotive. All this material, after its selection, was turned 

 over to Mr. Watkins, in charge of the new section of transportation. 



Another method of treatment is seen in the Eskimo department, just 

 completed by the help of Lieut. T. Dix Bolles, IT. S. Navy. Here the 

 primary and ruling concept is a definite and well characterized area. 

 All the conditions of life are written. The highest realizations of this 

 life are from home resources. In later years European wrecks and 

 European influences have brought iron, tobacco, rum, etc. But anterior 

 to this the Eskimo lived in his Arctic home as though there were no 

 other people on the earth. In the court devoted to this area each Eskimo 

 art is traced from Greenland to Kadiak by specimens. If the Museum 

 lacks example from any one of these, a vacant space is left and speci- 

 mens sought to supply the deficiency. 



During the coming year the same attempt will be made with the 

 region lying between Mount St. Elias and the Columbia Eiver, the 

 Great Interior Basin, and Polynesia. 



Another line of investigation has been still more special and all the ma- 

 terial is arranged accordingly. I refer to bows and arrows. The object 

 is to file away type bows and arrows from every tribe on earth, so that 

 they can belaid side by side for comparison or can be treated ethnically. 

 Shallow boxes 5 feet long, 2 inches deep, and 2, 4, and 6 inches wide 

 are made of thin pine, all interchangeable. These boxes fit in a crate 

 which in its turn fits on a shelf like a book. On the outer edge or back 

 of this crate may be pasted a label indicating the contents. It is just 

 as easy to refer to the arrows ot a particular tribe as it would be to find 



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