1 8 Report of the President. 



entering in the inventories the accession number of each specimen. 

 All information relating to the accession is placed in a numbered 

 envelope, so that it is possible, whenever desired, to find the whole 

 correspondence relating to a given specimen or collection. A 

 card catalogue is kept of all the accessions. 



As a provision of safety, the envelopes containing these im- 

 portant records are placed in a document room, where they may 

 be subject to the call of the department. In connection with this 

 matter, the curator also suggests that a copy should be made of all 

 inventories of the department for filing in the document room in 

 another part of the building, in order to guard against the loss of 

 these records by accident to the inventories in daily use in the 

 department. Besides the inventories, the department is begin- 

 ning a card catalogue of specimens. Instructions were given to 

 assistants in the department to prepare cards for every addition in 

 their sections as received during this year, and to continue the 

 work on past accessions whenever practicable. For this great 

 work, additional assistants are required in order to bring it to the 

 desired speedy conclusion. Nine thousand eight hundred and 

 seventy-six entries of specimens received have been made in the 

 catalogues during the year, and 3,219 negatives and lantern-slides 

 have been catalogued. 



The work of installation of the Ethnological Section, which is 

 under the special charge of Dr. Boas, was carried on in the North 

 Hall on the first floor, which, according to the plans of the depart- 

 ment, is to contain only the collections from the North Pacific 

 coast of America. The remainder of the Emmons Collection has 

 been placed on exhibition, and the collections of the Jesup North 

 Pacific Expedition are now exhibited in this hall. A descriptive 

 pamphlet showing the arrangement of the hall, and giving much 

 valuable information, was prepared by Dr. Boas, and has been 

 distributed to visitors specially interested. In the western vesti- 

 bule there has been placed a number of large totem-poles, grave- 

 posts, and house-posts, and several casts of rock inscriptions 

 belonging to the collection in the adjoining North Hall, where 

 there is not room for their exhibit owing to their size. In this 

 vestibule, also, the Omaha skin tent presented by Dr. F. E. Hyde 

 has been pitched. 



