GIFTS.
The following gifts have been received.
A piece of tapa cloth from Samoa from Mrs. Walter J. Freeman.
Twenty ethnological specimens from Mr. William West Frazier, Jr.
Two North American Indian baskets from Mrs. Richard Wain Meirs.
An Eskimo rain coat from Mr. J. W. Grosscup.
An Egyptian stela from Mrs. William A. Rambo.
An iridescent bottle from Mr. Samuel J. Castner.
Thirty ethnographical photographs from Mr. Langdon Warner.
PURCHASES.
A carved wooden image from the Congo.
A devil dancer’s mask from Java.
Ten Eskimo ivory carvings.
A Benin wooden drum and a bronze plaque.
A Marquesas Island shell trumpet.
EXPEDITIONS.
Dr. Farabee, Curator of the American Section, started for Peru on February 4 for the purpose of making archaeological investigations. Dr. Farabee will be absent from the Museum for a year.
The Eckley B. Coxe expedition has obtained a concession at Thebes near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings where excavations were undertaken in November. Later the work of the Egyptian Expedition was transferred to Memphis, where the excavations which began at that site in 1915 have been prosecuted for several months each year.
On April 6 Mr. Fisher will take up the work at Beisan, Palestine, at the point where it was left off last September. An account of last year’s work at Beisan will be found in this JOURNAL.
Mr. Robert Burkitt continues his investigations in Guatemala where his studies of the native languages, customs and folklore have already furnished the Museum with many interesting records.
BUILDING.
It has been decided to build an extension of the Museum to include the gallery lying to the eastward of the present dome. This will provide on the ground floor an Egyptian Hall to accommodate the Egyptian collections which are now in the Museum, together with those which are stored in Egypt. The upper floor will be used to relieve the congestion in the other sections of the Museum while the basement will provide needed space for storage and workrooms.
CHINESE EXHIBITION.
Plans are being completed for holding a Special Exhibition of Chinese Art which will be opened on April 8 with a reception to which all members and their friends have been invited. For the purposes of this Exhibition a rearrangement has been made of the Chinese collections. In the Charles Custis Harrison Hall will be shown objects from the earliest period through the Ming Period. They include the following.
Potteries of the Han, T’ang, Sung and Ming dynasties.
Bronze vessels of the Shang and Chow Dynasties.
Sculpture of the Wei, Six Dynasties and T’ang.
Paintings of the Five Dynasties, Sung, Yuan and Ming.
Cloisonné of the Ming Dynasty.
A lacquer screen of the late Ming Dynasty.
Among these exhibits are a number of loans from Mr. C. T. Loo of Paris and one bronze vessel from Messrs. Ton-Ying and Company of New York.
In addition to these objects of Chinese Art there was placed in the exhibition a small terracotta head of the Gandhara type, an example of the Indo-Greek sculpture of Northern India dating from the 1st century B. C. to the 5th century A. D. This specimen is the gift of Alexander Scott, Esq.
A collection of K’ang Hsi porcelains which completes the Chinese collections is now placed in Pepper Hall between the main stairs and the entrance to Charles Custis Harrison Hall. With these are exhibited a pair of Chinese embroidered hangings of the K’ang Hsi Period loaned to the Museum by Mrs. Offly Shore. In the same Hall are also shown the Tibetan collections.
EGYPTIAN EXHIBITION.
During the winter the Egyptian Section of the Museum was closed to the public for painting and repairs and for rearrangement of the collections. At the same time part of the older exhibits were removed and a few of the smaller objects discovered in recent years in the excavations of the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr. Expedition at Giza, Dendereh and Memphis were installed. This work is completed and the room will be reopened at the same time as the opening of the Chinese exhibit.
STORY HOUR FOR CHILDREN OF MEMBERS.
During the months of April and May arrangements have been made to provide Story Hours for Children of Members at the Museum on Saturday morning at eleven o’clock. These talks will be given by Miss Helen E. Fernald and Mrs. Loring Dam and the program, copies of which will be sent to all members of the Museum, is as follows.
April 1. Kumagdlat and Aselok, Eskimo Cousins; and Kater-parsuk, the Poor Orphan Boy.
April 8. Hercules, a Favorite Hero of Greek Story.
April 15. How the Amazon Indians Think the World Began.
April 22, The Story of Prince Rice-Ear-Ruddy-Plenty, and of His Brother, Prince Fire-Subside.
April 29. Wee Rabbit, and His Adventures in Guatemala.
May 6. The Stories of the Siege of Troy; and of Theseus and the Minotaur.
May 13. He who was Dead and Lives Again, a Famous Indian Medicine-Man.
May 20. What Some Pictures on the Chinese Porcelains Tell.
May 27. The Story of Merytaten, a Real Egyptian Child.
POPULAR EDUCATION IN THE AUDITORIUM AND IN THE GALLERIES.
The lectures for the elementary classes in the public schools which were resumed on March 15, will be continued until the end of May. The lectures for the high schools extend from March 21 through April. The program of these two series of lectures is as follows.