26 Report of the President 



Schiff, is an example of the difficulties that beset the publi- 

 cation of certain of our most important and interesting enter- 

 prises. Mr. Schiff donated the sum of $18,000 to the making 

 of collections and investigations in China, which was supple- 

 mented by contributions to the extent of $6,850 by Messrs. 

 Edward D. Adams, Cornelius N. Bliss, Henry C. Frick, 

 Edward H. Harriman, George A. Hearn, Morris K. Jesup, 

 Clarence H. Mackay, J. Henry Smith and Samuel Thorne. 

 The work was entrusted to Dr. Berthold Laufer, who went to 

 China in September of 1901 and remained there nearly three 

 years, returning in October, 1904, and bringing back superb 

 collections of antique pottery and bronzes, also new and 

 precious information regarding ancient Chinese and Mongolian 

 inscriptions, ancient paintings, popular amusements, modern 

 industries, and ancient and modern art. It was decided to 

 prepare for immediate publication the " Shadow and Puppet 

 Plays," the ''Iconography of Confucianism," "Household 

 Pottery, "and the precious "Metal Mirrors " of ancient bronze. 

 Of this splendid program, the completion of which would have 

 been so gratifying to the benefactors of this expedition, only 

 a fraction has been carried out, namely, the memoir of Doctor 

 Laufer on the pottery of the Han Period.* The ancient metal 

 mirrors, the collection of ancient bronze vessels and the ancient 

 bas-reliefs of the Han Period all remain unpublished. Unfor- 

 tunately for the American Museum, Doctor Laufer was called 

 to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1907 

 and has now been made Curator of Anthropology, so that 

 the carrying out of any portion of the original publication 

 plan, which represented the results of the expenditure of 

 $24,850, is made very difficult. At the same time it may be 

 mentioned that the Director and certain of the Trustees of 

 the Metropolitan Museum of Art have made overtures to the 

 American Museum for the transfer of portions of our Chinese 

 collections to the Art Museum. In this connection acknowl- 

 edgment should be made to the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

 for collections representing the archaeology of Mexico and 

 Peru, which form welcome additions to our Mexican and 

 Peruvian Halls. 



" Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty." Published at Leiden, 1909. 



