SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
December cd, 1955 
Dear Dr* Sclunitt: 
I am' enclosing an original and carbon of John^s report. A second 
carbon is here* 
I went over to Dr. Eall*s office yesterday to see about a microsco- 
He suggested a Mr. John Patton who is at present employed under C.W.A. 
as a messenger in the Agriculture Adjusibment Administration, but Dr* Hall 
said he wanted to get into scientific ?/ork. I hunted the man dom, and he 
seems to be a fair possibility* He is a graduate of Horth Carolina University 
(1918, before Coker’s day there) and gave H.V. fJilson as reference. Said he 
had mounted slides for tvra years while in the university. Has taught school 
(high school) some of the time since graduation. I wrote to H. V. Wilson 
asking about him, and asked Wilson to consult vfith Dr. Coker before replying, 
since the latter knows the collection and has some idea of what v/ould have to 
be done to it. Mr. Patton came over tliis morning and looked at the slides a 
little. He had already been talking to the teciinician in Mimal Industi^" 
about different techniques, and we let him take a half dozen of Marsh’s slides 
back for the aforesaid technician to look at. Ee thought if he saw the 
slides he could better advise what methods should be used in the work. I 
also wrote to Dr. Coker explaining the matter and asked him to be good enough 
to talk it over with Dr. Wilson. As soon as I hear from them, we can decide 
v/hether Mr. Patton should be turned loose on the work or not. He is about 
thirty~five, I should guess, and looks neither exceptionally bright nor dumb. 
I wasn’t especially impressed by him yesterday, but he rose a little in my 
estimation today when I found that he had been smart enough to look up a 
teclinician and begin brushing up in the work since I saw him yesterday. If 
Dr. Wilson can give him any kind of a send-off at all, we wall proba^bly 
ti^^ him. 
Howard and the rest of that bunch are nearly through the Concilium 
cards. They had thought they would be through today, but the library turned 
up a few more. They may be through next week . I have the other work 
planned out a little better than I did, and have the girls tentatively 
assigned to the various jobs. I thought if they finished the cards early 
next week, Howard could put in the tab cards while Pdppey is working for 
Clark four days to make up for the four days this V!?eek that we have had his 
man. (I don’t know whether his man has been any asset to our bunch, or not.) 
At any rate, I ’m going to ask Clark to wait until such time as the cards are 
finished before I let Rippey go to him. Howard thinks that be can do the 
tab cards alone in the four days, and then he and Rippey would be ready to 
start in together on the sponges in the stack. 
