Gifts.
The following gifts have been received.
Mrs. William Lyttleton Savage, two Roman glass vases.
Mr. and Mrs. Hampton L. Carson, five lithographs of American Indians dated 1837.
Dr. William Pepper, one volume, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA, two volumes, Garcillasso de la Vega, HISTOIRE DES INCAS, ROIS DU PEROU.
Purchases.
The following purchases have been made.
A gold collection from Ecuador.
A Cypriote head of a period about B. C. 600.
Two Chinese sculptures representing saddled horses from the Tomb of Tang T’ai-Tsung.
Resignation.
Mr. John H. Mason has resigned his membership on the Board of Managers.
Publications.
Handbooks have been issued for the Mediterranean Section and the American Section. A Handbook of Primitive Art has been published to describe the exhibition of African and South Pacific Arts recently installed. A complete Catalogue of the Mediterranean Section has been published. An Important Kekchi Indian text from Guatemala has been published with an introduction, translation and extensive notes by Mr. Robert Burkitt.
Collections received.
Mr. Alexander Scott has returned from India bringing with him the purchases which he made on behalf of the Museum and the Museum has received from M. Robert Burkitt the collections which he has made among the Indians of Guatemala. These include numerous examples of the weavings of the different tribes and models showing their occupations.
New Exhibits.
The collections of South American gold have been placed on exhibition in the American Section which has undergone extensive rearrangement.
In the east wing of the first floor there has been installed an exhibition of Mohammedan Art made up chiefly of the objects obtained in Cairo and Damascus in 1919 by the Director. It includes mosaic work, tiles, carved and inlaid woodwork, an illuminated Koran, glass, textiles and pottery. The arts represented in this collection are both Eastern and Western Mohammedan. It includes a group of Fostat pottery as well as pottery from sites in Persia and Mesopotamia.
In the same wing of the Museum there has been arranged a new exhibition of the decorative and industrial arts of the African Negro and of peoples of the South Pacific. The third hall of this wing will be occupied by an entirely new exhibition of North American Indian basketry.
There has been placed on exhibition in the Oriental Section a group of Japanese lacquers deposited by Captain Mitchell MacDonald who also deposited the six Japanese screens which have been long on exhibition
Lectures.
The Saturday afternoon lectures began on November 3d with the usual full attendance. The program for the year 1920-21 with the exception of the March dates, which have not yet been announced, is as follows.
November 6. Charles Theodore Carruth, The Art of Giotto. The Story of St. Francis.
November 13. Charles Theodore Carruth. The Art of Giotto. Giotto at Padua.
November 20. William Curtis Farabee. Iceland, The Country and its People
November 27. Charles Wellington Furlong. The Lost Kingdom of Montenegro.
December 4. George Byron Gordon. A Post-War Pilgrim in the Holy Land.
December 11. Donald B. MacMillan. Among the Polar Eskimo.
December 18. Ales Hrdlicka. The Peoples of Asia.
January 8. David M. Robinson. War Memorials Past and Present.
January 15. George Byron Gordon. The Eckley B. Coxe, Jr. Egyptian Expedition.
January 22. Clement Heaton. The Origins of Mediaeval Art.
January 29. W. B. Dinsmoor. The Restoration of Greek Buildings.
February 5. Fred Payne Clatworthy. Pictures of the West.
February 12. David George Hogarth. The Hittites in Asia Minor.
February 19. David George Hogarth. The Greeks in Asia Minor.
February 26. David George Hogarth. The Situation in the Near East.
The Wednesday afternoon course of lectures for school children were begun on October 6 and were continued until December 15. The demand for these lectures is increasing on the part of the teachers in the Public Schools so that each of the lectures has been repeated on successive afternoons. A further lecture program for the schools will begin in March.
Arrangements have been made for public lectures in the Auditorium of the Museum on Sunday afternoons beginning with the Sunday before Christmas. These lectures are regularly announced in the daily papers.
Docent Service.
The Docent service in the Museum has been resumed.