REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1916 69 



stant curatoral oversight, each specimen having been selected by 

 the Archeologist and given its place in the exhibition series. The 

 painstaking labors of Mr Howard A. Lansing in cataloging and 

 preparing labels have contributed much to the preservation of the 

 facts associated with the specimens, but the work yet to be done 

 remains enormous. 



Our complete plan calls for a typewritten or printed guide 

 book on each case, whereby the student may have a proper under- 

 standing of the meaning of each exhibit. 



Office work. The work in the office, besidefs the labor of pre- 

 paring the catalog and making the proper entries on the records, 

 consists of answering numerous requests for information, for 

 names of Indian localities, and for publications. It is the study 

 and classification of specimens, however, that consumes the greater 

 portion of the time. About ten thousand objects have been placed 

 on exhibition but nearly ninety thousand are stored in drawers for 

 study purposes. These have received attention during the year. 

 Our researches have covered the subjects of industry, experi- 

 ments in primitive methods of manufacture and experiments to 

 determine the uses of certain forms of " problematical " objects. 

 These latter include banner stones, boat stones, gorgets and bird 

 stones. On these specimens we have made extended notes. 



Public interest. The interest of the public, and particularly 

 of the special student, grows from year to year, as is evidenced 

 by the number of letters received, by the personal visits of col- 

 lectors, historians, museum curators from other states and from 

 foreign lands, and especially by the visits of teachers and pupils 

 in the public schools. Our section is becoming known, as it should 

 be, as a repository of Indian lore of widely varied subjects. Our 

 facilities make possible the answering of appeals for service from 

 the several state departments and in several instances from the 

 federal government. The interest and cooperation of the surviving 

 Iroquois Indians must also be mentioned, and our records are 

 frequently used as a source of information by them. An unusual 

 example is the appeal of the " last remnants of the Mohicans " for 

 assistance in locating Indians in New York State related by blood 

 to them. This was in order to distribute certain funds that the 

 tribe, now living in Wisconsin, had recovered. 



Utility of the archeology section. Beyond the scientific and 

 historical value of this section and its value in the study and preser- 

 vation of New York's prehistory, it has a distinctly utilitarian 



