REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR igi2 45 



VIII 



REPORT OF THE ARCHEOLOGIST 



The work of the archeology section, as of all other sections of 

 the Museum, has this year been modified to a considerable extent 

 by the necessity of preparing to move its collections and office 

 quarters into the Education Building. 



With the close of the fiscal year 1911 the Archeologist had 

 about completed the preliminary Avork necessary for the exhibi- 

 tion of the Seneca Hunter group, in the ethnological series. A 

 photograph of this group was reproduced in this report last year. 

 With the assured success of the plan for this series of groups 

 depicting Iroquois culture, steps were taken to complete all the 

 preliminary work necessary for the plan. 



The field painting of the Nichol's pond site was enlarged by Mr 

 D. C. Lithgow, whose artistic ability and skill have been use- 

 ful. This painting now complete is nearly fifty feet long and 

 eighteen feet high and, like all others, is designed as a back- 

 ground for one of the groups. Further mention of this work will 

 be made in the succeeding pages. 



All the collections in the Archeologist's quarters in the Uni- 

 versalist Church building w^ere packed and prepared for moving. 

 It has therefore been impossible to make any further study of 

 this material. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



In cooperation with the United States Bureau of Ethnology, 

 this section of the State Museum during the year has sent out 

 several thousand requests for information concerning the sites 

 and remains of former aboriginal occupancy. Reply envelops 

 and blank forms for filling out were sent and about 75 per cent 

 were returned with data filled in. In the majority of cases, these 

 request forms had been sent to the presidents of local boards of 

 education, to library presidents, to county clerks and to collect- 

 ors, and thus to citizens who were familiar with the localities in 

 which they lived. Several hundred new sites were added to the 

 long list already in the possession of the Museum and will be 

 properly tabulated. This information will not only be of the 

 highest importance to the State Museum, but will form the body 

 of the material used by the Bureau of Ethnology in its " Hand- 

 book of Aboriginal Sites and Remains." 



