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Thomas Wilson

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The Curator of Prehistoric Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution is the Hon. Thomas Wilson, who at one time represented our Government in Europe. While there he had unusual opportunities for field-work in the famous localities, for study of museums, and for acquaintance with the workers. He has charge of a vast mass of material. Here are surface-found specimens from every State in the Union; the beautiful objects from the mounds which supplied the illustrations for Holmes's Art in Shell; the famous copper plates from the Etowah mounds; the Perkins collection of copper implements from Wisconsin; the Latimer collection of stone implements from Porto Rico; good series from Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America. Here, too, are the results of Dr. Cyrus Thomas's mound explorations and Warren K. Moorehead's deposit. A large space is devoted to Mr. Mindeleff's wonderfully natural and interesting miniature reproductions of the pueblos of New Mexico. There is, in fact, such a wealth of material that one is confused by its very abundance. Mr. Wilson has done a very wise and instructive thing in arranging “synoptical cases.” These are tablecases, placed in two groups, one on each side of the entrance-door. In one is given, by a few carefully selected, carefully labeled, and illustratedly explained specimens, a synopsis of the prehistoric

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archeology of Europe, the arrangement following De Mortillet's classification. In the second group of cases a similar synoptical arrangement illustrates American archaeology. As to the general collection, it is arranged strictly on a geographical basis, specimens from one State being together. Under this grouping a sub-classification according to form or type is carried out. One important work undertaken by Mr. Wilson deserves mention. From specimens in the museum a series of about one hundred has been selected, from which copies in plaster have been carefully made. One hundred such sets of casts have been prepared, and printed labels accompany them. These sets of casts are to be distributed to various institutions of learning in the United States, and considerable public interest in archaeology should be the result.