t^OURTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR IQO^ 8/ 



and Symbolism of the New York Indians, it is hoped, will fill a 

 want felt by artists, designers and craftsmen in general. It will 

 set forth the forms of artistic creations, decorations by incision, 

 quill embroidery, bead work, carving, stamping, painting and metal 

 work devised by the New York Indians. 



Public interest. That public interest in the archeology of this 

 State is steadily increasing is attested by the large numbers of 

 inquiries received by mail and by the number of visitors who person- 

 ally state the inquiries. Full replies in all cases have been given. 



Collections acquired. Several valuable collections of arche- 

 ologic and ethnologic material have been acquired for the museum 

 during the past year. 



Among these are collections from W. H. Hill and M. R. Harring- 

 ton, of New York city; and L. I. Fitch of Manlius, N. Y. 



The Hill collection embraces a number of valuable pieces of 

 silver work such as disks and crowns, bead work and two pieces of 

 wampum, one a belt and one a wristlet. 



The Harrington collection is one of the most valuable acquired 

 for many years and consists of ethnologic material purchased from 

 the Iroquois on the Grand River reservation in Canada. Many of 

 the specimens were lacking in our collections and could not be 

 obtained among the New York Iroquois. 



The Fitch collection consists of Onondaga archeologic material 

 obtained from Pompey Hill, N. Y., and includes specimens that 

 range from the prehistoric forms down to articles of modern time. 



The Archeologist visited the Indian reservations during the 

 summer and acquired a number of valuable objects which up to 

 this time had not been represented among the ethnologic series. 

 Among these objects may be mentioned prayer rattles, ceremonial 

 headdresses, an Indian silversmith's outfit of tools, blow guns, cere- 

 monial robes and mats. 



FIELD WORK IN ARCHEOLOGY, 1907 



Following out the plan to thoroughly examine each culture dis- 

 trict in New York State, the field researches in archeology during 

 the season of 1907 were made in the territory reputed to be that 

 of the Eries. The coast or lake shore culture having been examined 

 la^t year with splendid result, it seemed advisable to examine the 

 region upon and about the Chautauqua hills. Numbers of sites 

 had been noted here and for at least 60 years it had been a territory 

 interesting to archeologists, although no excavation had ever been 



