REPORT ON THE DIVISION OF HISTORY 

 By T. T. Belote, Curator 



COMPARISON OF INCREMENT OF SPECIMENS OF 1923-24 WITH THAT OF 1922-23 



The additions to the historical collections received during the past 

 fiscal year do not equal in size and in scientific importance those 

 received during the previous year. It should be noted in this con- 

 nection, however, that the additions to the collections received dur- 

 ing the previous year were unusually large and of exceptional scien- 

 tific importance. 



ACCESSIONS DESERVING SPECIAL NOTICE 



The accessions of the present year represent a steady even in- 

 crease in all departments of the historical work. The most important 

 of these will now be described in the order of the section to which 

 they have been assigned. 



The most notable addition to the antiquarian collections has been 

 a number of objects representing the interior furnishings of an 

 American colonial room, which have been presented to the Museum 

 by Mrs. Gertrude D. Bitter, of Washington, D. C. This collection 

 includes wall paneling, furniture, chinaware, glassware, pewterware, 

 pictures, textiles, and miscellaneous objects. The wall paneling is 

 made of American pine carved with plain designs and fastened 

 with pegs. This paneling which was taken intact from the old Bliss 

 homestead located at Springfield, Mass., includes a corner cupboard 

 of three shelves with original glass doors and hinges and latches of 

 wrought iron. The furniture includes a small oval pine table made 

 about 1700 ; a walnut dining room table of the early part of the eight- 

 eenth century with original brasses on the drawers and scalloped 

 apron underframe; a graceful Windsor rocking chair of 1765; an 

 easy chair made by Savery of Philadelphia, between 1750 and 1775, 

 with ball and claw foot, shell ornaments and cabriole legs; a ma- 

 hogany ladder-back chair of the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, of exceptional beauty of design, with carved top rail and arms 

 and pierced splats; a side chair and an armchair of Queen Anne 

 type with fiddle back and Spanish feet; an infant's walnut cradle 

 of about 1700 of very interesting general design; a Pennsylvania 

 Dutch love chest, dated 1765, with the initials of the bride and 



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