64 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Governor Myron H. Clark Museum of Iroquois Ethnology 



To illustrate the culture history of the Iroquois we have 

 designed a series of six ethnological groups. 



To formulate plans and to select proper models, sites for 

 painting and to carry out the numerous details incident to so 

 large an undertaking has consumed the greater part of the past 

 12 months and has required constant activity. 



The object is to portray in a material way the characteristic 

 habits of Iroquois life. These life activities it will be realized 

 in general were similar to those of other peoples Hving in the 

 eastern forest areas and in the same cultural stage. 



Ethnological groups have been installed in most oi the larger 

 educational museums in the United States and elsewhere and 

 have universally proven most instructive exhibits. They add 

 an element of realism impossible to secure by any other method. 

 A group of casts properly arranged shows at a glance what 

 would take many pages to describe and a great deal of shelf 

 room to illustrate. The virtue of such groups is that the cos- 

 tumes, ornaments, implements and utensils are all properly cor- 

 related and their uses shown. 



The most primitive activity of any people is the food quest. 

 The greater part of savage man's food was secured by hunting. 

 The hunting stage is one of the most romantic in the develop- 

 ment of mankind. Its influence is so strong because of its 

 character, and its period so extended in the history of all races 

 that it has left an indelible impress upon the minds of all races, 

 even those whose cultural stage is far above it. To this day the 

 gratification of the hunting instinct gives enlightened men a 

 great amount of pleasure. 



A second activity of races is warfare. The conflict of man 

 with man in warfare has gone on for thousands of years and 

 until now there has been no thought of its abandonment. War- 

 fare, cruel as it is and destructive as it is, has seemed a necessary 

 part of human development. Art and inventions, heroism and 

 intellect seem to have been stimulated by it. This is probably 

 because each party in the conflict saw his own life and the exist- 

 ence of his tribe or nation in immediate peril and sought every 

 means to avert it. 



The logical outcome of any emergency is a council. Men 

 congregate to discuss the means of warding off danger, defeating 



