September 10, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



331 



terest in biological problems led him to lay- 

 particular stress upon arcbeological evidence, 

 and in this field he did his most noteworthy 

 work. 



The Peabody Museum of American Archeol- 

 ogy and Ethnology is, perhaps more than any- 

 thing else, a monument of his life work, for in 

 it are manifested the varied phases of his 

 many-sided interest in the history of mankind, 

 as exhibited by man's handiwork and by the 

 remains of the races of man. The osteological 

 department, surpassed only by the old collec- 

 tions of the Army Medical Museum in Wash- 

 ington, the materials relating to the study of 

 the antiquity of man in America which he 

 pursued with unconquerable tenacity, the col- 

 lections from the mound and village sites of 

 Ohio, the ample and valuable material from 

 Mexico and Central America, the old New 

 England collections, arcbeological as well as 

 ethnological, not to mention others, indicate 

 the lines of his own scientific activities. 



In one respect he revolutionized American 

 museum methods. While it has been cus- 

 tomary to enlarge collections by purchase, he 

 inaugurated scientific expeditions, the prime 

 object of which was the discovery of scientific 

 facts that were sustained by the evidences of 

 collections. Journeys for the purpose of col- 

 lecting had been made before his time, but he 

 had the courage to emphasize that in museum 

 expeditions, as in other scientific work, the 

 method must be determined not by the num- 

 ber of specimens likely to be secured, but by 

 the objects of the inquiry. To him the mu- 

 seum was the storehouse in which the mate- 

 rials accumulated by scientific research were 

 cared for, digested and made accessible to the 

 student. His constant insistance on this 

 point of view gave to his museum work special 

 value. 



The development of the Peabody Museum 

 and his wide acquaintance among American 

 men of science and among those interested in 

 the advancement of science, brought it about 

 that his capacity as an organizer was sought 

 in other centers in which there was a growing 

 interest in archeology and anthropology. It 

 was he who laid the foundation to the Field 



Museum of Natural History by organizing the 

 Anthropological Department of the World's 

 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There he 

 solved the difficult task of bringing together 

 in a short time material illustrating prehis- 

 toric America as well as the primitive life of 

 the historic American Indian. With this ac- 

 cumulation of material he combined scientific 

 investigation that bore fruit in later times in 

 the intensive work among Indian tribes car- 

 ried on by a number of institutions. Some of 

 the important arcbeological results of this 

 period still await publication. Together with 

 the treasures of the Peabody Museum and 

 those of the Museums of Ohio they will eluci- 

 date a remarkable period in the history of early 

 America, the thorough exploration of which 

 was begun and carried along for years by Pro- 

 fessor Putnam. Unfavorable conditions pre- 

 vented the completion of this work that was 

 always near to his heart. The opportunities 

 offered by the World's Columbian Exposition 

 enabled him also to advance the work of se- 

 curing replicas of the monuments of Central 

 America, a subject to which he devoted much 

 of his time and energies. 



At the close of the World's Pair he was 

 called to New York to organize the anthropo- 

 logical work of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, and here we find him introducing 

 the same methods of development that had 

 been so effective in building up the Peabody 

 Museum as a center of scientific research. The 

 field investigations of the New York Museum 

 extended beyond the narrow limits of the 

 North American continent and inaugurated a 

 period of active scientific research. 



His great success as an organizer brought 

 it about that when the development of anthro- 

 pological work, partly owing to his influence, 

 was planned in the University of California, 

 he was called upon to take a vigorous part in 

 the formulation of plans for a museum and 

 for the scientific work of the newly founded 

 department of anthropology which followed 

 much the same lines as those inaugurated by 

 him in other institutions. 



While these four large institutions had the 

 benefit of the stimulus of his sustained per- 



