HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



Collections 

 Exhibited 

 when the 

 Building was 

 Opened. 



Sturgis 



Collection, 



$39,001. 



Terry 



Collection, 



$29,744. 



of Anthropology in the early part of 1877, when the material was 

 being removed from the Arsenal. 



The collections exhibited when the new building was opened on 

 December 22, 1877, besides those brought from the Arsenal, included 

 the following: a series of stone implements of Ireland, presented by 

 Mr. T. W. U. Robinson; three cases of stone and bronze implements 

 and pottery from the Swiss Lakes, and bones and stone implements from 

 the Dordogne Caves of southern France, deposited by Mr. G. L. 

 Feuardent; Indian and Eskimo dresses and implements from Hudson 

 Bay, the gift of Mr. Hugh Auchincloss. The collection gathered by 

 Mr. A. W. Sturgis illustrating the island life of the Pacific and Indian 

 oceans was also exhibited. This was on deposit only, but was finally 

 (in 1891) purchased for the Museum by the Trustees. This collec- 

 tion, which surpassed all the combined public collections of this class 

 in the country, contained 2,200 specimens illustrative of the arts, 

 customs, dress, ornaments, and weapons of the people of the Hervey 

 Islands, Mangara, Samoa, and Solomon Islands. 



In 1880, Mr. James Terry also deposited with the Museum the great 

 collection, comprising nearly 26,000 catalogued specimens, which he 

 had obtained during his extended researches. This was purchased 

 by the Museum in 1891. The collection, while especially rich in 

 material pertaining to the native races of the west coast of North 

 America, between Mexico and British Columbia, contained over 500 

 vessels of great ethnological interest from the Mississippi Valley; 

 stone pipes and implements from Tennessee; copper weapons from 

 Wisconsin; 2,500 specimens from Long Island, Westchester County, 

 and Staten Island, and many objects from Maine, Connecticut, and 

 northern New York; also sculptures of great antiquity from the Co- 

 lumbia River Valley. The large series of archaeological material from 

 California is especially important, since it illustrates the prehistoric 

 culture condition of the Indians of Southern California more com- 

 pletely than any other. The collection also embraces interesting 

 objects from Alaska and the South Seas. 



Another valuable archaeological collection brought to the Museum 



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