1 
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 Npotka. 
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, 
[92] 
