Indian exhibit — Hopi snake dance. This grouj) too is 

 discussed and illustrated in the Annual Report for 1920. 

 To take the photograph— probably in the J 910s or 1920s, 

 for the model behind this case is not o)i a stcnid — the sides 



by shorter curtains.'"^ A third set of curtains, black, 

 was drawn after closing time as extra protection for the 

 mammal and bird exhibits. 



Shortly after the exhibits work began, F. W. True, 

 the head of Biology, was promoted by Secretary Walcott 

 to Assistant Secretary in charge of library and ex- 

 changes, and on June 1, 191 1, Leonhard Stejneger took 

 over. Stejneger had had less experience with exposi- 

 tions than Holmes and Merrill, who in a sense had 

 stockpiled some displays, but he kept things moving. 

 Because "a satisfactory display of plant life present[s] 

 difficulties which have not yet been worked out,'" * (to 

 this day the Museum has not developed a major bo- 

 tanical display). Biology's exhibits related to zoology 

 only. Even without botany, they occupied a large num- 

 ber of halls. 



"The first story is devoted to the mounted skins of 

 mammals and birds arranged faunally, " Ralhljun wrote, 

 "the latter group occupying the [west] range and a por- 

 tion of the north hall of the [west] wing. . . . The Amer- 

 ican mammals, consisting principally of Noi th Amer- 



aiid back of the case were covered u'ith fabric to cut down 

 on reflection and to mask adjacent cases. The display is in 

 Hall 11 in the west north range, first floor. 



ican representatives, have been assigned to the large 

 skylighted hall, the African mammals to the outer end 

 of the wing, and the Australian and oriental mammals 

 the south hall, while the palearctic fauna will share the 

 north hall with the birds. Pending their arrangement 

 a few large mammals mounted separately on pedestals 

 have been exhibited in the rotunda.'"^ 



William T. Hornaday 



One of the major items transferred to the central sky- 

 lighted Hall 16 of the west wing — the site of the tein- 

 porary Freer exhibit — was the group of six buffalo that 

 William T. Hornaday had mounted in 1888. One of 

 the finest taxidermists of his generation and the person 

 most to be credited for the founding of the National 

 Zoological Park, Hornaday had personally shot three 

 of the specimens in one of the last buffalo hunts in the 

 United States. He was one of the first, if not the first, 

 to develop the notion of placing specimens in natural 

 settings, and he had brought back sufficient material 

 from Montana to provide a realistic environment. ("The 



New ExhibiLs, New Offices 



61 



