USNM CURATORS ANNUAL REPORTS - Department of Ethnology, Semi-Annual and Monthly Reports, 1885

The land that makes up Alaska was officially acquired by the United States in 1867, bringing U.S. research expeditions and settlers alike to the region extensively throughout the late 1800s. What types of discoveries and specimens would those explorers send back to the Smithsonian? Find out with this set of curator's reports from the Smithsonian's Department of Ethnology in 1885. Hundreds of specimens that year came to the U.S. National Museum from Alaska and became part of the Smithsonian's collections. Learn more about that process and help transcribe this set of curator's reports!