THE COLLECTION OF JEWISH CEREMONIAL OBJECTS 
IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
By Cyrus Apter and I. M. Casanowicz, 
Of the U. S. National Museum. 
INTRODUCTION. 
When the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, in 
1847, first planned that which was to grow into the United States 
National Museum they laid out a comprehensive programme in all 
departments of human knowledge and endeavor capable of repre- 
sentation by collections. In describing the ethnological section; they 
specifically mentioned religions as one of the subjects suitable for 
museum collections. During the course of years objects pertaining to 
religious cults formed a considerable part of the series. ‘The Museum, 
differing from most others at that time, abandoned the severely geo- 
graphical classification and, though to a certain extent such considera- 
tions dictated the arrangement and installation of the objects, special 
subjects were treated independently of either areas or national limita- 
tions, in order to show the history of given ideas or endeavors in the 
human race treated as an entirety. 
In 1890 the question was taken up of the possibility of applying 
such treatment to religion, a subject of whose importance in the his- 
tory of humanity there has never been any question. There was a 
doubt, however, in the minds of many as to whether the abstract 
ideas which group themselves about the word “ religion ” could be 
adequately or even fairly portrayed through ceremonial objects, 
numerous as they might be. Two members of the staff were in- 
structed, while abroad, to examine into this subject, with the result 
that, in 1891, it was decided to secure objects of religious ceremony 
with the view primarily to exhibit them at the World’s Columbian 
Exposition in Chicago, and ultimately with the intention of bringing 
them together for installation in the National Museum. 
At that time the tendency in museums abroad, and to a certain 
extent among the students of the history of religions generally, was 
PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL Museum, VoL. XXXIV—No. 1630. 
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