RETURN TO WASHINGTON OCTOBER 1, 1897. 
and Ornament in the Ceramic Art, Textile Art in Prehistoric Ar- 
cheology ; A Study of the Textile Art in its Relations to the Develop- 
ment of Form and Ornament, On the Evolution of Ornament, An 
American Lesson , and Evolution of the Aésthetic. 
In 1889, and for the five following years, Mr. Holmes was in 
ehargewof the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology. During this time he 
gave much attention to the antiquities of the Atlantic States, and 
more especially to the ancient quarrying and mining industries of 
the native peoples, among whom the manufacturing of stone im- 
plements seems to have been a most important industry. An im- 
portant result of this work was a more complete knowledge of the 
range of art in stone, and an insight into the significance of the 
countless rudely flaked stones, usually attributed, on account of their 
strange character and undetermined functions, to a very ancient 
paleolithic race. Having clearly demonstrated that these puzzling 
objects were merely the chips or refuse of manufacture and without 
function or intrinsic value, Mr. Holmes proceeded to show that the 
theory of a paleolithic and glacial Water Country. 
man in America, based largely 
upon these unfinished or rejected 
forms, is untenable. This conclu- 
sion has led to a revision of the 
evidence, and a reopening of the 
whole question of an American 
occupation, corresponding to the 
glacial, paleolithic occupation of 
-Europe. Among the important 
papers on this subject, published 
by Mr. Holmes, the following are 
particularly notable: Ave there 
Traces of Man in the Trenton 
Gravels,, Vestiges of Early Man 
in Minnesota, Traces of Glacial 
Man in Ohio; Natural History of 
Llaked-stone Implements ; Order 
of Development of the Primeval 
Shaping Arts; andArcheology 
of the FPotomac-Chesapeake Tide- 
In 1893 Mr. Holmes became 
associated with the geological 
department of the Chicago Uni- 
versity, where he gave one course 
of lectures on Anthropic Geology, 
and another on Graphic Methods 
Applied to Geologic ILllustraton. 
In 1894 he was appointed Curator 
of anthropology in the Field 
Columbian Museum, Chicago, 
where he served three and a half 
years classifying, installing, and 
describing the rich collection of 
that institution. The winter of 
1894 was spent in Mexico, study- 
Ing its ancient monuments. His 
report on this work has been pub- 
lished in two parts: I. Monuments 
of Yucatan, and Il. Monuments of 
Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the Valley 
of Mexico. In July, 1897, Professor Holmes was again called to 
Washington, where on October 1 he took the position of head 
Curator of Anthropology in the U. S. National Museum. 
From this brief sketch it will be seen that Professor Holmes’ life 
has been a busy and undoubtedly a happy one, for he early found 
that his life-calling and its pursuits brought him happiness. He has 
published fifty-four papers, many of them voluminous, and all of 
them crammed with valuable additions to those sciences which he 
has studied so carefully and continuously. 
Professor Holmes is a graceful speaker, and he has mastered a. 
style that is a surprise and a delight to the purely literary man. His 
illustrations made, it is said, with marvelous rapidity, are the very 
-best we have seen. ‘They are not simply superior as works of art, 
but they illustrate his text in a way that makes his reports clear to 
the veriest novice. 
Professor Holmes is in the midst of his great work, and, as it pro- 
ceeds, it is our hope that the readers of MONUMENTAL RecorDs will 
know more and more of this scholarly and gifted American. 
ALFRED R. CaLHoun. 
