Gifts.
Dr. Charles D. Hart, a Fiji Island kava bowl and a drinking cup.
Dr. L. Webster Fox, a shrunken head from Ecuador.
Mr. E. Marshall Scull, two Eskimo models of sailing boats.
Mrs. Benjamin Denver Coppage, two pieces of Mexican pottery.
Mr. Kirkor Minassian, three leaves of Coptic writing.
Mr. George G. Heye, an Indian ethnological collection from the Northwest Coast tribes.
A statue of Vishnu from Southern India made in the eleventh century.
Purchases.
Three Persian rugs.
Four pieces of Persian and Asia Minor pottery.
One piece of Persian metal work.
One piece of Chinese celadon, Sung Dynasty.
One Chinese black hawthorne porcelain vase, Kang-hsi period.
Two pieces of Chinese porcelain, Kang-hsi period.
A large ethnological collection from Polynesia assembled by the late Mr. Frederick T. Agard.
Another ethnological collection comprising South Pacific and African specimens.
A large ethnological collection from the Upper Congo region.
An Eskimo collection from the Lower Yukon.
Fourteen pieces of prehistoric gold from Panama.
Mr. Theodoor de Booy returned in August from his expedition to the Sierra de Perijá in Venezuela. In this successful journey Mr. de Booy penetrated into the Sierra de Perijá, hitherto unexplored, and remained for six weeks with the Macoa Indians who had not previously been visited or described. Among the valuable results of this journey are a series of over one hundred ethnological photographs and an ethnological collection from the Macoa Indians as well as some archaeological finds. Since his return to America Mr. de Booy has been in the service of the United States Government. Considering the objectives attained in this expedition and the objects achieved, it is remarkable among other things for the fact that it occupied in all not more than three months.
Mr. W. B. Van Valin, who has been at work for the Museum on the Arctic Coast of Alaska in the region of Point Barrow since the summer of 1917 has made his preparations to remain there during the present winter and to return in the summer of 1919. The Museum has received already from Mr. Van Valin a quantity of motion picture film and letters in which he describes, among other things, an interesting discovery of a buried Eskimo village which he was excavating from the frozen tundra during the past summer. In all of the houses the bodies of Eskimo were found, showing that they had died in their houses and remained unburied.
Mr. Louis Shotridge in Southeastern Alaska, has carried his investigations from Sitka southward into northern British Columbia and has included the Naas River and the Skeena River in his journeys. Collections received from Mr. Shotridge are of the first importance, whereas his linguistic studies and his studies of the social culture of the country continue to throw new light upon the ethnology of that region.
Letters received from Mr. Alexander Scott relate that after journey in the Himalaya Mountains in the course of which he had visited the sacred cave of Amranath, he had gone to Kashmir where he was resting and painting landscapes and ruins. Mr. Scott whose work on behalf of the Museum has been of the greatest interest will return to the Museum bringing his collections with him.
The work of the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., Expedition to Egypt has been suspended for one year in order to enable Mr. Fisher to ship the collections to Philadelphia. These collections, the results o his excavations at Memphis, Dendereh and Giza, have been accumulating at his camp, and in Cairo during the last four years. Under the present improved conditions, it has been decided to have these valuable collections brought to Philadelphia as soon as shipping accommodations can be made available. Mr. Fisher will himsel return for a time to America.
Mr. Ashton Sanborn, the Assistant Curator of the Egyptian Section, who has been with Mr. Fisher in Egypt, has accepted a Commission in the American Red Cross in Palestine.
The Patty Stuart Jewett Collection, the gift of which was announced in the last number of the JOURNAL, has now been placed on exhibition. A full description of this collection will be found at another place in this JOURNAL.
The Exhibition of Mohammedan Art has been continued until December 31st by special arrangement with as many of the Exhibitors as were able to extend to the Museum the privilege of retaining their collections for the additional four months.
At the beginning of October the Museum was able to extend considerably its regular educational work by the appointment of two docents to interpret and explain the artistic resources of the Museum to visitors who may be interested. This work is further facilitated by the establishment of an Information Bureau which is equipped to put all visitors to the Museum in immediate touch with all the information and guidance that they may desire concerning the Museum’s collections and concerning its work.
Dr. Eleanor F. Rambo has been appointed Assistant Curator of the Mediterranean Section for one year to take the place of Dr. Luce during the period of his service in the Navy.
A room has been provided in the Museum for the special use of children. On the tables a series of stereographic views illustrating different countries are placed, together with stereographic lenses for the use of the children.
The Saturday afternoon lectures was to have begun on October 11th but owing to the epidemic of influenza which caused all meetings to be closed, the opening date was postponed until November 2d. The course was to have opened by a lecture by Lt. Col. Wardlaw Milne on the Mesopotamian Campaign. Col. Milne had to return to England before the lifting of the ban on lectures and we were therefore unable to arrange to have him at a later date. The lectures by Sir John Foster Fraser and Prof. Lewis Bayles Paton were postponed until Wednesday the 27th of November and Wednesday the 20th of November respectively. The program for the two months ending December 31st is as follows.
November 2. Theodoor de Booy. The Finding of the Macoa Indians.
November 9. Charles Theodore Carruth. Florentine Sculptors: Luca della Robbia.
November 16. Charles Theodore Carruth. Florentine Sculptors: Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia.
November 20. Lewis Bayles Paton. The Capture of Jerusalem.
November 23. Alfred D. F. Hamlin. The Architecture ofDevastated Flanders.
November 27. Sir John Foster Fraser. The Checkerboard of Europe.
November 30. Charles Upson Clark. Fighting above the Clouds. Italy’s part in the War.
December 7. Charles C. Torrey. The Glories of Mohammedan Art.
December 14. Frederick Moore. Teutonizing Turkey.
The Children’s Course of lectures on Wednesday afternoons for the pupils of the Elementary Schools and the High Schools start on December 4th and run through the season.
Mr. William H. Hutt, Treasurer of the Museum, retired on the 1st of July to take up the position of Deputy Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of this District.
Mr. C. W. Bishop having received a Commission in the Navy left the Museum on the 1st of October for service abroad.
Mr. B. Franklin Pepper, for many years Secretary and a Member of the Board of Managers of the Museum, died of wounds received in battle in France on September 26th.
An important work by Dr. William Curtis Farabee, entitled THE CENTRAL ARAWAK and consisting of a study of the tribes of that stock inhabiting Northern Brazil and Southern British Guiana, is now in press and will shortly be issued by the University Museum. The divisions of the book include the material culture, physical anthropology and linguistics of the tribes of the Arawak stock visited by the expedition of the University Museum to South America.