Appointments
At the stated meeting of the Board of Managers held on February 15, 1929, Mr. John S. Jenks was elected a Manager of the Museum to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of General Harry C. Trexler.
At the meeting of the Board held on January 18, 1929, Mr. Horace H. F. Jayne, the Chief of the Division of Eastern Art in the Pennsylvania Museum, was appointed Adviser in Far Eastern Art in this Museum.
Dr. Leon Legrain, the Curator of the Babylonian Section of the Museum, has been appointed by the Trustees of the University, Clark Research Professor of Assyriology. This chair was founded in 1902 by the Messrs. Edward W. and Clarence H. Clark, who for many years were benefactors of the Museum and whose interest was largely concerned with the Museum’s excavations in the East.
Expeditions
Reports of the current season’s work at both Ur of the Chaldees and Beth-shan appear in the pages of this JOURNAL. At the conclusion of the work at Beth-shan, Mr. Rowe came to this country for his first visit. He is now engaged in preparing his reports on THE TOPOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF BETH-SHAN and THE FOUR CANAANITE TEMPLES OF BETH-SHAN.
Mr. C. Leonard Woolley, the Field Director of the Joint Expedition of this Museum and the British Museum to Mesopotamia, arrived in this country on March 15 to deliver a course of lectures in the Museum and also to lecture throughout the United States and Canada. He will return to England in May to prepare for exhibition at the British Museum the finds of the present season which later in the year will be divided between the two museums.
Mr. Louis Shotridge, the assistant in the American Section, has spent the winter in southeastern Alaska collecting legends and folklore of his people, the Tlingit Indians.
Exhibitions and Receptions
On the afternoon of February 22, the Faculty of the University held its annual Reception and Tea in the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., Memorial Wing.
The private view of the finds made in the royal tombs and in the other tombs of the predynastic cemetery at Ur during the seasons 1926-27 and 1927-28 will be held in the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., Memorial Wing on the afternoon of May 24. On the following day, the exhibition will be open to the public.
Gifts and Loans
The Museum has received as gifts the following specimens.
From Mr. Eldridge R. Johnson, a crystal sphere, two jade screens, two lapis lazuli screens, one jade figure, three coral figures, a bronze sacrificial bowl. These form a part of the George Byron Gordon Memorial Collection, of which a description was published in the March, 1928, number of the JOURNAL.
From Mr. T. Broom Belfield, a collection of Japanese netsuké and a large Japanese ivory carving, which were published in the June, 1928, JOURNAL. Mr. Belfield’s gift also included two chairs with ivory frames and a work on netsuké.
From Mr. C. T. Loo, a Chinese stone altar.
From the Misses Bonsall, a Japanese mask, a set of Chinese carved ivory games, three palmleaf fans and a piece of decorated tapa cloth.
From Mrs. F. C. Durant, an Inca ceremonial stone bowl which had been on loan in the Museum for some time and which was described in the September, 1926, number of the JOURNAL.
From Mrs. Ebenezer Cary, a Maya painted pottery vase which she has placed on deposit in memory of her late husband, Mr. Ebenezer Cary. This superb example of the art of the Mayas is included in the portfolio of MAYA POTTERY published by the Museum.
From Mr. Guy R. Johnson, ornaments from the Indians of Peru.
From Dr. Richard J. Campion, four stone ornaments and seventeen pottery figurines from Venezuela.
From Mr. Francis Gow-Smith, two bows and six arrows, probably from Brazil.
From Miss Ada J. Gordon, in memory of her brother, the late Dr. George Byron Gordon, nineteen ethnological specimens from the Indians of Chile and Bolivia.
From Dr. Joao Alves da Cunha, a bow and fifteen arrows from South America.
From Mrs. Edward Bok, an Aleutian Island basket to be added to her collection of baskets already in the Museum.
From Mr. James M. Willcox, nineteen Eskimo ethnological specimens.
From Dr. Judson Daland, a cane from Bergen, Norway.
From Mrs. C. E. Dickerson, a pair of sandals and a beaded bag from Kodiak Island.
From Mrs. Edgar Fahs Smith, an Indian basket and a plate.
From Mr. Louis C. Clarke, a spearhead and five arrowheads from western Pennsylvania. Mr. Clarke has also deposited in the Museum as a loan nine arrowheads from Washington and two lanceheads from Utah.
From Mr. Philip Gabriel, an arrowhead.
From Mrs. Joshua Clayton, a Philippine shield, arrows and a wood carving.
From Dr. George S. Crampton, tom-toms from southwest Africa and a club from New Caledonia.
From Mr. John Frederick Lewis, South Sea Island clubs and paddles.
From Mrs. John Sparhawk, Jr., a carved wooden window and panel from a Syrian house.
From the late Dr. Charles C. Harrison, an Aubusson rug.
From Mrs. Theron I. Crane, a collection of seven American Indian ethnological specimens and forty-seven Oriental objects.
There have been received as a loan from Dr. Hermann B. Parker four stone specimens from Equador.
From Dr. Charles W. Burr, MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN and thirteen volumes of Maspero’s HISTORY OF EGYPT.
From Mr. George Brinton Phillips, two copies of his work, PREHISTORIC METALLURGY.
From Miss Blanche Hunter, in memory of her sister, Miss Annie G. Hunter, books, drawings and plates prepared by her for Maudsley’s work on Central America.
Purchases
The following specimens have been added by purchase to
the collections in the Museum.
A limestone head of an Egyptian woman, V Dynasty.
A porphyry head of King Akhenaten.
A diorite head of Gudea.
Two colossal stone chimeras from a Chinese royal tomb; which formed the subject of an article in the June, 1927, number of the JOURNAL.
A Chinese bronze gilt vase of the Han Dynasty.
5 T’ang pottery figures.
2 unglazed pottery horses of the T’ang Dynasty.
Chinese fresco from Moon Hill Monastery in Honan which has been installed on the east wall of Harrison Hall and which was described in the JOURNAL for June, 1928; also a panel completing the fresco from the same temple which is installed on the west wall of Harrison Hall.
A piece of Persian velvet.
2 tiles from Damascus.
1 Cinghalese mask.
A collection of 169 Wayang shadow figures from Java.
A group of approximately two hundred and fifty ethnological specimens collected by Dr. Amandus Johnson in West Africa.
Collections of African woodcarvings and other ethnological specimens mainly from French New Guinea.
An ethnological collection from the Islands of the Pacific.
31 specimens from the North American Indians.
Publications
Since the last announcement in the MUSEUM JOURNAL the following publications have been issued.
CULTURE OF THE BABYLONIANS, 2 volumes, by Leon Legrain.
ROYAL INSCRIPTIONS FROM NIPPUR AND BABYLON, by Leon Legrain.
AL ‘UBAID, by H. R. Hall and C. Leonard Woolley.
UR TEXTS: ROYAL INSCRIPTIONS, by C. J. Gadd and L. Legrain.
EXAMPLES OF MAYA POTTERY IN THE MUSEUM AND OTHER COLLECTIONS, Part II, edited by J. Alden Mason.
In addition to the two volumes which are being prepared by Mr. Rowe, the Museum has in press a volume by Mr. G. M. FitzGerald on the pottery from the four Canaanite temples of Beisan.
Building
The new wing of the Museum on which work was started on February 18, 1927, has been completed and the installation of collections which have long been in storage in the Museum will begin in the near future.
Casts
In September of this year the Museum entered upon a new activity when, in response to a demand on the part of members and the public, it placed on sale casts of objects in the Museum.