BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 115 



been made the depository of invaluable collections from the Boston 

 Marine Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston 

 Atheneum, the Boston Society of Natural History, the American Anti- 

 quarian Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 

 old Boston Museum. In the collections from the old Boston Museum 

 are a number of specimens that were once in the famous Peale Museum 

 of Philadelphia, including several from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

 The museum has also a few specimens collected by Catlin. A Massa- 

 chusetts Indian bow, the only one in existence, dating from 1865, 

 was received from the American Antiquarian Society. The museum 

 has been constantly receiving additions from individual patrons. 

 In the tribal exhibits are many old Indian baskets that are espe- 

 cially fine. 



The order of exhibits is as follows: on the first floor, Mississippi 

 Valley archeology and North American ethnology; on the second floor, 

 Old World archeology and North American archeology and ethnology; 

 on the third floor, South American archeology and ethnology, and 

 North American, Mexican, and Central American archeology; on the 

 fourth floor, ethnology of South America, Africa, Borneo, and the 

 Pacific Islands, and Mexican and Central American archeology; on 

 the fifth floor, human skeletons and crania, and the Pueblo collections. 



In the arrangement of exhibits the primary object is to furnish 

 the means for comparative study and thus to make the collections 

 of importance to students, as well as of educational interest to the 

 general public. The geographical and ethnographical system has 

 been followed, so that the student has certain naturally limited 

 groups to study and to compare both in archeology and ethnology. 

 These groups are made as complete as possible in order to present 

 as a whole the archeology of a special region, or the customs, arts, 

 and costumes of each tribe or people represented. In this way all 

 that is possible to glean of the life history of past and present peoples 

 from specimens of their handiwork and from exemplification of their 

 achievements is shown in the various exhibits. The story of man's 

 past and of his condition in savagery, in barbarism, and in the begin- 

 nings of civilization is illustrated. In the somatological collections 

 the opportunity is afforded for a comparative study of the physical 

 characteristics of the various races. 



Historical Sketch. In 1866 George Peabody gave $150,000 

 for the foundation of a museum of American archeology and ethnology 

 and for a professorship for the teaching of these subjects. The exten- 

 sive explorations carried on by the museum and other circumstances 



