r Professor Holmes Is not only an artist. 
| whose achievements have scientific value, 
but his work in other fields of art has re- i 
ceived great praise. At the recent salon of 
the Arche Club he exhibited several water- 
colors of rare delicacy, one of which, a pic- 
ture of two little girls dancing in a sun- 
bright meadow, received special mention. 
His water-color work, which lias been re- 
produced in the reports of the bureau of 
ethnology, has drawn the admiration and in- 
terest of the scientific world to those publi- 
cations. 
As United States Geologist. 
After the survey of the west was finished 
Professor Holmes was made geologist to 
the United States survey, in which capacity 
he served ten years, his intimate connection 
with the vast western country then just 
opening to the scientific world making him 
an invaluable assistant. 
A new interest now began to claim his at- 
tention. He was already a geologist of 
world-wide reputation, with a brilliant fu- 
ture before him, but the new interest became 
stronger every day, and he soon left the 
ranks of geologists to become an ardent an- 
thropologist. While in the southwest he 
had seen many evidences of the ancient civ- 
ilization of the west, and had had his ar- 
tistic interest aroused by the aboriginal pot- 
tery which was found in profusion in the 
undisturbed homes of the cliff dwellers. His 
wish to work in a new field led to hiS' ap- 
pointment as curat'or of the department of 
aboriginal pottery in the United States Na- 
tional Museum in 1882, where he worked 
with enthusiasm eleven years, arranging, 
cataloguing, sketching and publishing the 
rich material in his possession. 
But Professor Holmes was too valuable 
a practical field worker to be left quietly in 
his museum, and he was called in 1889 to the 
position of chief of all the explorations then 
being made by the United States bureau of 
ethnology. Ancient village sites were care- 
fully examined, cliffs were scaled and lost 
cities unearthed during his administration 
and invaluable data brought before the sci- j 
entifie world. 
Cane in Chicago. j 
The Columbian exposition brought Pro- i 
lessor Holmes to Chicago, and as his work of 
exploration was over he* was induced in 
1891 to become curator of the department of 
anthropology at the Field Museum, which 
position he now holds 1 . 
Two years ago he went with Allison Y. 
Armour in his yacht Itune to Mexico and 
Central America. On this trip he went into 
Mexico and secured the material for his re- 
cent “Archaeological Studies Among the An- 
cient Cities of Mexico.” 
Head Professor Chamberlain said to-day, 
when told of the appointment: “I am very 
sorry that we are going to' lose him. He was 
professor of anthropic geology in my de- 
partment, and we hoped that he would con- 
tinue with us. He was a geologist in the 
early days, and was one of the few men of 
science who went into the far west. It was 
■a great loss to geology when he became an 
, ethnologist, but he has won laurels in his 
chosen field. His last book was a beautiful 
memoir upon ‘Stone Relics About Wash- 
ington,’ in which he shows that all the so- 
called ‘paleoliths’ or rude stone chippings 
are merely chippings and rejected pieces 
from the shops of later stone Implement 
makers. His recent expression of his theo- 
ries at Toronto puts a new face upon our 
studies.” 
“Dou you think his theories will cause 
fresh study and inquiry along these lines?” 
was asked. 
“No. I consider it the last chapter. His 
new book, now about to go to press,, will be a 
study of the Trenton gravels, and will add 
fresh weight to his theory.” 
Professor Holmes returned from Toronto 
to-day and was not willing to say much 
about his new position. 
“I will have to stay here a short time,” 
said he, “in order to finish some of the work 
that I have begun. After the death of Dr. 
Goode recently the Smithsonian Institution 
was reorganized under three heads, one of 
which was anthropology. This includes all 
departments of the subject, and I will have 
the collections of the Smithsonian and the 
National Museum to work upon. These 
three departments will be under the control 
of Dr. E. B. "Wolcott, the acting head.” 
