KEPORT ON THE SECTION OF AMERICAN ABORIGINAL POTTERY IN THE 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



By W. H. Holmes, Honorary Curator. 



The work of the Department of Aboriginal Pottery has been carried 

 forward in the lines indicated in the report of the preceding year. A 

 number of new cases have been constructed and series of representative 

 groups of relics have been transferred to them from the Smithsonian 

 hall. 



Accessions have been numerous and important, but not equal in value 

 to those of the years immediately preceding. The agencies through 

 which the acquisitions were made are, first, those of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution and the National Museum, including donations, purchases, and 

 the products of original researches ; and second, those of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology through corresponding channels. A series of pueblo pottery, 

 ancient and modern, collected in 1886 by Mr. James Stevenson, of the 

 Geological Survey, was turned over to this department during the year. 



Amongst the 160 numbers are some extremely fine specimens of the 

 white and the polychrome wares of ancient Tusayan. A small series of 

 vessels of the ancient white ware were secured by purchase from Mr. 

 '0. M. Landar, of Lawrence, Kansas. Capt. J. G. Bourke, of the U. S. 

 Army, presented a series of small plain and coiled vases obtained by 

 him from cliff dwellings and caves in Arizona. 



A few small collections were made in the Mississippi Valley and in 

 the eastern States by Dr. Gyrus Thomas and his assistants. 



From Mexico some interesting accessions have been made. Dr. Ed- 

 ward Palmer obtained from the State of Chihuahua a number of vases 

 and fragments of ancient earthenware, besides a series of modern works 

 and a most instructive set of pottery- making utensils. This collection 

 was purchased for the Museum by the Bureau of Ethnology. A small 

 number of interesting pieces of ancient ware, collected in the valley of 

 Mexico, were acquired by purchase from Mr. Ward Batchelor. 



By exchange with museums in France, through the agency of Mr. 

 John Durand, we have acquired a number of interesting pieces of Mex- 

 ican and Peruvian work. 



A valuable collection of vases and other earthenware relics from the 

 graves of ancient Peru, was purchased by the Bureau of Eth nology from 

 Mr. W. E. Curtis, and is now exhibited in the pottery court. 



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