THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 771 



ture almost unknown, for the crude compilations of Drake and the unreliable de- 

 scriptions of Hunter are scarce worth mention. 



Catlin has been to the aborigines of America what Wilson was to its birds — the real 

 originator and expounder of their lore. .Audubon has simply improved upon Wilson* 

 taking advantage of the latter's laborious researches, and Bonaparte has added to 

 Audubon. But Catlin has had no Audubon, no Bonaparte, not even a Nuttall or Cas- 

 sin, for the speculative sketches of Gallatin * * * have rather obscured than 

 elucidated the subject. — Mayne Reid, "Onward," page 399, May, 1869. 



PROF. JOSEPH HENRY. 



Prof. Joseph Henry, Secretary Smithsonian Institution, in his reports 

 for 1871 to 1872, says: 



They are certainly of great value as faithful representation of the persons, features 

 manners, customs, implements, superstitions, festivals, and everything which relates 

 to the ethnological characteristics of the primitive inhabitants of our country. 



Letter from Professor Henry. 



Washington, D. C, December 13, 1873. 

 To the Chairman of the Library Committee of Congress : 



I would respectfully urge the importance of purchasing these valuable records of 

 the previous inhabitants of North America, which, if not secured at this time, will be 

 dissipated and lost to the world. They will grow in importance with advancing 

 years, and when the race of which they are the representation shall have entirely 

 disappeared their value will be inestimable. 



No scientific subject of the present day is exciting more interest than that of the 

 past history of the world, as it is now being reconstructed, as it were, from the ma- 

 terials hitherto almost neglected of the remains of ancient times, which are now being 

 collected and presented for scientific study by every enlightened government of Eu- 

 rope. It is proved by cumulative arguments the most irresistible that the ancestors 

 of the most civilized races of the present day were at one time savages, of whom the 

 manners and customs can only be understood by a comparative study of the lives or 

 savages now existing in different parts of the world. Comparative ethnology forms 

 the basis of pre-historic science. Unfortunately the data of this science exhibits many 

 gaps to be filled up, and our Government would be j ustly censured by the intelligence of 

 the world were it to permit the valuable documents, as they may be called, of a dis- 

 appearing race to be suffered to be lost by the failure to grant the small appropria- 

 tion necessary to procure them. 



Joseph Henry, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



PROF. L. AGASSIZ. 



At a meeting* of the Board of Eegents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 January 20, 1873, Prof. L. Agassiz " commended the Catlin collection 

 as of great ethnological value." 



PROF. S. F. BAIRD. 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird, in his letter to Mrs. Joseph Harrison, jr., of 

 June 11, 1879, accepting the gift of the Catlin collection, speaking of its 

 value, said : 



We beg to assure you that, as aids to the study of ethnology, these pictures will 

 meet with a most welcome reception at the hands of American students, as well as 

 those who may visit the United States to examine its collections in ethnology. 



