mSTRUCTIONS TO COLLECTORS OF HISTORICAL AND 

 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SPECIMENS/' 



By William Henry Holmes, 



Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, 



AND 



Otis Tufton Mason, 



Curator, Division of Ethnology. 



The Smithsonian Institution desires to obtain for the National Mu- 

 seum from the islands recently brought under the jurisdiction of the 

 United States two principal classes of objects: (1) Those relating- to 

 persons and events connected with our National History and (2) those 

 included under the general head of Anthropology. The former are 

 derived from a wide range of sources, but a majority relate to the 

 progress of military and naval operations at home and abroad. The 

 latter illustrate the peoples, and especially the more primitive tribes, 

 with whom civilized men come onlj^ occasionally in contact. It is 

 clear that the Army and the Nav}", and the diplomatic service are 

 the best equipped agencies of the Government for the gathering of 

 historical materials, and at the present time, as a result of the occu- 

 pation of remote and little known territory, they are also the agencies 

 to which the country must largely look for additions to its anthropo- 

 logical treasures. 



Museums in other countries are engaged in amassing collections, and 

 are so enterprising that unless prompt measures are taken b}^ our 

 Government much will be lost to us. The need of action is therefore 

 immediate. 



In prosecuting the work it is important that the collector should 

 note that there are some classes of objects having great museum inter- 

 est, yet not available for museum purposes on account of their bulk, 

 such as heavy ordnance, boats, and vehicles of large size, heavy machin- 

 ery, houses, etc. The limitations of space in the National Museum 

 have always to be considered. Large objects may be represented by 

 models (houses, ^^j boats, yV)? ^^^d these can be constructed by Museum 



« Specially designed for collectors in the insular possessions of the United States. 

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