GENERAL ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CANADA 
By W. H. Collins, Acting Director 
No field work was carried on by the staff of the National Museum of 
Canada during the summer of 1933 owing to the continued financial strin- 
gency. Activities were chiefly limited to laboratory work, to the revision 
of exhibits in the public halls, and to the scientific study of materials col- 
lected in previous years and donated, and to the preparation of reports on 
the same. 
In the Hall of Anthropology the Eskimo habitat group showing the 
interior of an igloo has been finished and is attracting much attention. An 
excellent series of framed, enlarged photographs, showing Indian and Eskimo 
types, their clothing and ceremonial dances, has been hung on the walls 
and adds greatly to the attractiveness of the hall. 
Attention has been given in the Hall of Palaeontology to the perfecting 
of certain exhibits illustrated by the fossils of lower forms of animal life. 
The attractiveness of these exhibits is greatly enhanced by the use of 
coloured sections, photographs, and paintings showing animals in their 
habitats. 
In the Hall of Biology additions have been made to the small habitat 
groups of mammals and birds that have excited the admiration of visitors. 
Special attention has been directed in all the exhibition halls to improv- 
ing the labelling. Labels that were of a temporary nature have been 
replaced by those that may be considered more permanent in character. 
Many have been wholly re-written, the purpose being to make them more 
readily intelligible to the average museum-visiting public. 
Four booths in the manufacturers’ hall were placed at the disposal 
of the department for the purpose of making a display at the Central 
Canada Exhibition held in Ottawa in August. In one booth an exhibit of 
Indian material illustrated the differences between peoples of a nomadic 
and a sedentary life; one booth showed the corner of an old forest slashing 
with debris, tree-trunks, growing plants, sod, birds, mammals, reptiles, and 
amphibians as in nature; two booths were used by the Geological Survey 
to exhibit specimens of minerals mined in Canada and to illustrate the 
industrial application of minerals. Two special loan exhibits were prepared 
by the Division of Anthropology, one for the Handicrafts Guild, Toronto, 
and one for the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, Ontario. 
On request of the National Parks Branch, Department of the Interior, 
three exhibits were prepared for display in the Riding Mountain Park 
Museum, Manitoba, to be opened during the summer of 1934. These are: 
(a) a collection of articles used by the aborigines of Manitoba; (6) repre- 
sentative fossils from the geological formations of the Mesozoic and 
Palaeozoic systems represented in Manitoba; and (c) a collection of mounted 
birds. 
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