layer of black varnish. Next he arbitrar- 
ily raised the rib cage and backbone two 
feet above the shoulder blades, thereby 
increasing the mastodon’s height from 
nine feet to twelve. Finally he made a 
brand-new set of gigantic papier-mache 
tusks, which swept outward in artistic 
but purely fictitious curves. In the small 
museum he had established at 92 
Chestnut Street in Boston, Warren ex- 
hibited the refurbished mastodon along 
with his rapidly growing collection of 
mastodon remains from all over the 
United States and Europe. In 1906, 
after a respectable length of time had 
elapsed since Warren’s death, the trus- 
tee of the collection wrote to Henry 
Fairfield Osborn, president of the 
American Museum of Natural History, 
and discreetly suggested that the entire 
collection “might be offered for sale un- 
der certain conditions.” Osborn, who 
had had his acquisitive eye on the War- 
ren Mastodon for some time, set out for 
Boston on the Friday afternoon he re- 
ceived the letter and traveled all night, 
arriving at the Warren Museum the 
next morning. Osborn reviewed its 
treasures with the trustee, Thomas 
Dwight. They chatted for a while and 
soon agreed on a price of $30,000 for 
the entire collection. On Monday, Os- 
born telephoned his friend J. Pierpont 
Morgan and asked him to give the Mu- 
seum $30,000 to buy the collection; 
Morgan readily agreed, and the skele- 
ton was dismantled and shipped back 
to its home state. 
Before mounting the skeleton, Os- 
born wanted the black varnish re- 
moved. After a number of experiments, 
Museum technicians built a series of 
large vats and filled them with benzine 
in which the bones soaked for many 
weeks. A final scrubbing with alcohol 
brought out “all the purity and beauty 
of color that characterized the skele- 
ton,” according to Osborn. 
Repairing the original tusks present- 
ed a more serious problem. These exist- 
ed only as two boxes of fragments. The 
piecing together of the tusks took 
several months of painstaking and ex- 
acting work. 
Adam Hermann, the preparator who 
mounted the skeleton for the Museum, 
spent a day riding an elephant in a zoo, 
feeling its shoulder bones and back- 
bones with his hands to figure out how 
they were related. This information led 
him to calculate that the height of the 
Warren Mastodon should be nine feet 
two inches, and its length from skull to 
tail should be fourteen feet eleven inch- 
es. He posed the skeleton in a walking 
position, head held high, a reminder of 
the days, not so long ago, when mast- 
odons roamed the Hudson Highlands. 
Douglas J. Preston 
Lectures for Adults 
The popular fall lecture series will start 
in October. The lecture courses cover a 
wide variety of subjects in anthropology, 
archeology, art, and the natural sciences. 
The programs will include: 
Asian Dancing. Three performances of 
Asian dance will be given in the Audito- 
rium beginning Monday, October 19. 
They will be introduced and narrated by 
Beate Gordon, director of the Performing 
Arts Program for the Asia Society. Kore- 
an Shaman Rituals and Mask Dances, 
performed by Duyee Chang, is the first 
program in the series. On Monday, Octo- 
ber 26, Suarti and Suarni Desar will per- 
form Balinese and Sudanese Dances, and 
Endo Suanda will demonstrate Sudanese 
Mask Making. Concluding the series on 
November 2, Eastern and Western Japa- 
nese Dance will be performed by Sachio 
Ito and Saeko Ichinohe. The price for the 
three-evening series is $20; tickets may 
also be purchased separately. 
Tibet: The Buddhist Tradition. Three 
speakers will discuss the culture and reli- 
gion of this remote land, illustrating their 
talks with slides and film. Edwin Bern- 
baum, author of The Way to Shambhala, 
will begin the series of Thursday evening 
lectures on October 22 with Hidden Val- 
leys of the Himalayas. Next, on October 29 
and November 5, Franz Michael, profes- 
sor emeritus of East Asian history and 
government at George Washington Uni- 
versity, will lecture on the cultural history 
of Tibet .'On November 12 and 19, Valrae 
Reynolds, curator of Oriental collections 
at the Newark Museum, will speak on Ti- 
bet’s religion and art. Tickets for the series 
cost $30. 
Audubon Nature Films. Four filmmak- 
ers will introduce and screen their latest 
films about the wildlife of four areas of 
North America. The first film is Dennis 
Holt’s Okefenokee, Land of Trembling 
Earth, which will be shown on Tuesday, 
October 20. It examines the animal life of 
the largest virgin swamp in the United 
States. On Tuesday, October 27, Richard 
Kern will show his film, Florida Cypress 
Sanctuary: Fishing Creek, about the sea- 
sonal wildlife of this habitat. The third 
film, on Tuesday, November 10, isT Nat- 
uralist Afield: Part II by Karl Maslowski, 
a study of animal behavior in Yellowstone 
and Grand Teton National Parks. The last 
film, on Tuesday, November 17, is Foot- 
loose in Newfoundland, by Thomas Ster- 
ling, an exploration of Newfoundland’s 
history, people, and culture. Tickets for 
the series are $25. 
Other subjects in the lecture series are 
American archeology, wetland botany, 
and weaving — a total of seventeen courses 
will be given this fall. Prices range from 
$20 to $65. Contact the Education De- 
partment at the Museum for details and a 
course registration form. 
Discovery Tours 
C. Bruce Hunter will lead an in-depth 
Discovery Tour to the People’s Republic 
of China, from October 24 to November 
14, 1981. Limited to twenty-four partici- 
pants, this intriguing tour focuses on the 
outstanding art and archeological sites of 
China. Highlights will include extended 
visits to Peking, Sian, Nanking, Shanghai, 
Datong, and Taiyuan. 
Two other Discovery Tours to China 
are being planned for the spring and fall of 
1982. For information regarding China 
programs and other exciting destinations, 
please write to Discovery Tours at the 
Museum or call (212) 873-1440. 
Workshops for Young People 
Five exciting courses this fall will help 
children explore the world around them. 
Photographing New York, taught by a so- 
cial scientist and professional photogra- 
pher, will show students how to take and 
develop pictures of New Yorkers at work 
and play. In Exploring with the Micro- 
scope, children will learn about a variety of 
cells and microorganisms. Other courses 
are The World of Dinosaurs, Reptiles and 
Amphibians, and Human Origins. The 
workshops start the weekend of October 
25, and cost from $14 to $25. 
Night of the Hunter 
The Drama of the Universe, the current 
sky show in the Hayden Planetarium, will 
close September 14. Night of the Hunter, 
an exploration of the constellation Orion, 
opens Thursday, September 17. 
Planetarium Courses 
This fall adults and children can choose 
from a variety of courses in astronomy, 
meteorology, navigation, and aviation. 
Some examples are Life Beyond the Earth, 
which will explain why some scientists be- 
lieve that intelligent life must exist else- 
where in the universe; Meteorology, an 
introduction to the atmosphere and 
weather forecasting; and Cosmos, based 
on Carl Sagan’s television series. There are 
a number of basic astronomy courses for 
young people, including Introduction to 
the Sky, a study of stars and other objects 
in space. Classes begin at the end of Sep- 
tember. For a free course catalog, call 
(212)873-1300, ext. 206. 
Microhistory 
Through the Looking Glass, an exhibi- 
tion tracing the development of the micro- 
scope from its most primitive form to the 
highly advanced models of the present 
day, opens in the Akeley Gallery on 
Wednesday, September 23. Examples 
from many periods will be on view, with 
illustrations depicting what could be seen 
through each. One exhibit deals with the 
sophisticated scanning electron micro- 
scope and includes a videotape showing 
what this $ 1 50,000 instrument can do. 
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