Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/628



VERY great international exposition is, in a certain sense, a practical study in anthropology. Recent world's fairs have, however, shown more and more a tendency to make an especial exhibit in anthropology and kindred sciences. This was very noticeable in 1880 at Paris, and in our own World's Columbian Exposition there is an especial department—Department M—of Anthropology, under the directorship of Prof. Frederick W. Putnam. A building has been erected for its purposes, and the larger part of it is occupied in illustrating "man and his works." Naturally, to this building the student in anthropology will first turn in looking up the matter of anthropology at the fair.

In this building he will find collections in ethnography, in archæology, and in physical anthropology. As one passes through the main entrance he sees reproductions of Assyrian sculptures; to the right are collections in North American ethnography; to the left series illustrating North American prehistoric archæology. Among the notable private collections illustrating the ethnography of our American Indians are those of D. B. Dyer and Edward E. Ayer. Mr. Dyer's collection is mainly representative of plains tribes, and is rich in cradles or papoose-boards and in implements for gambling. Mr. Ayer's collection is from a larger range of peoples and represents quite fully the dress, implements, and arts not only of the plains tribes, but also of the peoples of the Northwest coast and of the Southwest. His collection of modern Pueblo pottery, the straw dresses of the California Indians, the carved work from the Northwest coast, are of special interest. Near these collections is the large series from the Northwest coast gathered by Dr. Franz Boas and his helpers, particularly rich in dancing paraphernalia, masks, bark necklets, and the like. On a raised platform, extending for many feet, near this, Dr. Boas has set up a reconstruction of the village of Skidgate, one of the most important villages of the Haidah Indians. The models of houses and totem posts which make up this reconstruction are of native workmanship.

Among the archæological collections are some of unusual interest. Prof. George Frederick Wright, of Oberlin, illustrates the material and structure of the terminal moraine of the United States by specimens of bowlders, striated surfaces, photographs, and diagrams. The exhibit is made with reference to the question of palæolithic man in America, and in the collection are pictures representing localities where claimed "palæoliths" have been found. The largest collection of implements from glacial gravels in this