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, bes:ides 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 especiaUy 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 
Cahforma 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 arch^ological collection brought to the Museum 
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