88 Report of the President 



Our general collections have been made far more useful than 

 heretofore by the increase of large tribal labels each with its 



distribution map. Almost every geographi- 

 Exhibition and ca j un j t j n our j^g now j ias j ts general topi- 



Study Collections . . . & * 



cal label, from which the visitor may, if he 



wishes, get the bearing and place of the exhibit in the subject 

 as a whole. 



Two special exhibits, occupying one small case each, have 

 been arranged in the Hall of the Woodland Indians to present 

 in compact form two typical synthetic studies. One deals with 

 agriculture in the New World, showing the range of plant life 

 domesticated by the natives and the geographical distributions 

 of the different types. The other deals with the influence of 

 form upon the style of decoration, presenting concrete cases 

 of the natural objective development of design types resulting 

 from the structural patterns in moccasins. Though these 

 exhibits occupy relatively small space, they represent more 

 research and far broader knowledge than many of our largest 

 presentations. 



The demands upon our reserve and study collections have 

 been unusual. Developments in this line have so far outstripped 

 our physical expansion that we have neither the space nor the 

 necessary assistance to meet all the legitimate calls. This is 

 truly a misfortune, for if our work has any justification at all, 

 it is in providing reference material to every serious student 

 who calls. The chief cause of our delinquency in this case is 

 that, while the city and the people's interest in the Museum 

 have grown, the facilities of the department have not been 

 augmented. 



The usual January lectures dealing with the methods and 



interpretations of anthropological data were given by Curator 



Goddard and Associate Curator Lowie. The subject 



Public this year was the culture classification of North 

 Lectures J . . 



American natives. A special series of four lectures 



on primitive textile art was given in October by the Curator, 

 assisted by Assistant Curator Herbert J. Spinden and Mr. 

 M. D. C. Crawford, Research Associate in Textiles. Both 

 courses were well attended. 



