58 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884 



(c.) Department of American Prehistoric Pottery. 



Mr. William H. Holmes, having been assigned by the director of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution to the work of 

 preparing a report upon American aboriginal pottery, has been ap- 

 pointed honorary curator of this section of the Museum. He has been 

 engaged during the year in classifying the entire collection and in pre- 

 paring the exhibition series. The northwest court, which has been as- 

 signed to this section, will be opened to the public as soon as cases can 

 be provided and the specimens installed. More than 10,000 specimens 

 have been added to this department during the year. By far the most 

 prominent among the contributors is the Bureau of Ethnology, which 

 has added 6,000 pieces of pottery to this department. A magnificent 

 accession of 3,000 vases from the tombs of Chiriqui was bought from 

 Mr. J. C. McNeil, and a very valuable collection from Peru has been re- 

 ceived through the agency of Dr. William H. Jones, U. S. N. 



(d) Department of Antiquities. 



The Department of Prehistoric Antiquities, under the charge of Dr. 

 Charles Eau, has kept pace with all the others in growth and general 

 progress. The present somewhat unsettled condition of the upper main 

 hali of the Smithsonian building, in which these collections are exhib- 

 ited, is due to the fact that the arts and industries collections, formerly 

 placed here, have not been entirely removed, owing to the lack of ex- 

 hibition cases in the new building. The arrangement of the gallery of 

 antiquities is, however, as far advanced as any in the Museum. To as 

 great an extent as opportunity and case-room have permitted, Dr. Rau 

 has carried out his double system of arrangement, placing in one ex- 

 tensive series, which is for the most part exhibited in flat cases, col- 

 lections grouped according to material and form, enabling visitors to 

 take in at a glance " the whole culture of prehistoric North America, in 

 so far as can be represented by tangible tokens." In another series are 

 placed special collections, including the articles found in given single 

 localities, whether mounds, graves, or shell-deposit districts. It is in 

 the arrangement of these special collections that the most noticeable 

 changes have been made. 



Here, as elsewhere, the preparations for the New Orleans Exposition * 

 have seriously interfered with the general work. An extensive educa- 

 tional series of stone implements, illustrating American arch geology, has, 

 however, been prepared, and casts have been made of every character- 

 istic form of stone implement. The collection, when complete, will con- 

 stitute., in fact, a set of illustrations in actuality of the text of Dr. Rau's 

 paper entitled " The Archseological Collection of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum,"* and the work, which has been done well, will be of 



"Published by the Smithsonian Institution, 187(5, as No. 287, Smithsonian Contri- 

 butions to Knowledge. 



