THE following collections have been purchased since the last number of the JOURNAL went to press:
A South Pacific Collection consisting of very rare, old, ethnological pieces chiefly from New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.
A Chilkat blanket.
A large ethnological collection from the Congo collected by the well known explorers Frobenius and Brandt. This collection was purchased in Hamburg during the summer by the Director.
A small collection of North American ethnology.
In addition to these purchases, Mr. George G. Heye has added extensively to his collection of North American ethnology.
The following gifts have been received:
From Mrs. Talcott Williams, an Indian basket.
An Indian war club, presented by Mr. John Moss.
An Egyptian mummy, presented by Mrs. L. A. Barakat.
A ceremonial vase from the ruins of a Greek Church in Messina presented by Chev. Baldi, through Dr. Allen J. Smith.
An ethnological collection from Sierra Leone, presented by Bishop O’Gorman of West Africa.
A collection of photographs of natives in Sierra Leone, presented by Bishop O’Gorman of West Africa.
Prof. W. M. Flinders-Petrie, Director of the Egyptian Research Account and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, has sent as a gift an ancient Egyptian oil portrait on a wooden panel.
The excavations in Crete were carried on during the summer at Vrokastro ‘in the eastern end of the island, where a late Minoan town and cemetery were opened up by Mr. Richard B. Seager and Dr. Edith H. Hall. In another part of this JOURNAL will be found Dr. Hall’s account of the summer’s work.
Mr. Wilson D. Wallis spent the summer among the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia making ethnological studies and collections.
Mr. Louis Shotridge is engaged in making a model of his native village of Klukwan on the Chilkat River, south-eastern Alaska. Mr. W. C. Orchard has finished a model representing an encampment of the Plains Indians. It is proposed to continue with other models representing other tribes. These models, while they are at once attractive and instructive to all visitors, are especially liked by the school children, to whom the little tents and houses with the men, women and children going about their regular occupations, have an especial appeal.
An invitation has been issued to all the school teachers of the city to bring their classes to the Museum and offering them assistance in explaining the collections to the children and giving illustrated talks on topics selected by the teachers themselves. These children’s afternoons at the Museum, which were started last winter, have proved one of the most interesting features of the Museum work. The teachers have responded enthusiastically to the invitations, and this year we expect a large increase in the number of classes which will take advantage of this opportunity for work of an entertaining kind outside the class room. This number of the JOURNAL has as a special feature an account of this school-work.
The success of last year’s lecture course has encouraged the authorities to make a still greater effort this year to secure the best lecturers and the most interesting subjects, and also to make a larger outlay for the lecture course. The program which will begin on November 16th and now in the course of preparation, contains the names of several Distinguished authorities on the subjects relating to the history of man.
The architects engaged upon the plans ‘or the building extension have been at work during the entire summer and after a careful series of studies have finished the plans and specifications. An early number of the JOURNAL will contain an account of these plans and the proposed building operations.
In connection with the proposed Amazon expedition a one hundred and eighty-two ton boat has been purchased and her hull rebuilt and remodeled to fit her for the work contemplated. Owing to these extended preparations, the expedition has been delayed and will probably not reach the field until the early months of 1913. The next number of the JOURNAL will be devoted to a full account of the expedition.
Prof. George A. Barton, of Bryn Mawr College, who has been granted special permission to copy tablets in the Museum, has undertaken a volume of cuneiform texts for the Babylonian Series. Dr. Barton devoted much of his time during the summer recess to copying the tablets assigned to him, but owing to illness was unable to complete the work. He has therefore arranged to devote part of his time to this work during the coming winter.
Dr. Arno Poebel, of Johns Hopkins University, having been granted special permission to work upon the Babylonian collection in the Museum, spent the summer copying tablets and preparing a volume for publication in the Babylonian series. Dr. Poebel copied in all about two hundred texts, many of which are of unusual interest.
An expedition has been sent to the Philippine Islands in charge of Mr. Otto Hanson for the purpose of making ethnological collections among the Bagobos of Southern Mindanao. Mr. Ranson has lived for ten years at Davao and is well known to all the wild tribes in his neighborhood and has also the advantage of a knowledge of their language.