HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



Briggs 

 Collection. 



collection — the exhibition series alone taking up half of one of our 

 exhibition halls. One of the largest gifts to the basketry collection 

 was received in 1901 from Mr. George Foster Peabody. It contained 

 435 baskets made by the Indians of California, Oregon, Washington, 

 Alaska, and British Columbia, constituting what is known as the 

 "Briggs Collection." 



Other large contributors are Messrs. Archer M. Huntington and 

 J. G. Phelps Stokes, and Mmes. Frank L. Cross, T. K. Gibbs, and C. P. 

 Huntington. The tribes by which the baskets were made are the 

 Maidu, Pomo, and Mission, baskets from each of which fill several 

 cases, also the Moquehumnian, Yana, and Wylakie, Yokuts, Shasta, 

 Pitt River, and Hat Creek, Modoc, and Hupa. Other material was 

 collected from the California Indians under the North American Re- 

 search Fund. 



Jesup North 



Pacific 



Expedition. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



The extensive collections of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 

 embrace specimens illustrating the archaeology of the interior and 

 the coast of British Columbia, and the ethnology of the most im- 

 portant tribes of that region — the Thompson River Indians, the 

 Bella Coola, the Kwakiutl, and the Nootka. 



The archaeological survey of the Thompson River Region was 

 begun by Mr. Harlan I. Smith for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 

 in 1897 and continued through 1899. Extensive excavations were 

 conducted near Kamloops and Lytton, where numerous remains of 

 previous inhabitants were discovered. Almost all of the finds ante- 

 date the advent of the whites, and give an excellent insight into the 

 culture of the early people. The shell mounds on the Lower Frazer 

 River, and prehistoric stone monuments of Vancouver Island, were 

 also studied by Mr. Smith, resulting in many valuable additions to 

 the Museum's collection. 



The ethnological research among the Indians of British Columbia 

 was carried on by Dr. Franz Boas and Messrs. Livingston Farrand and 

 Harlan I. Smith, assisted by the Messrs. James Teit, George Hunt, 



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