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RETURN TO WASHINGTON FROM CHICAGO

In 1897 I had the great good fortune to secure my release from the Curatorship of Anthropology in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and to return to Washington, taking up again the Head Curatorship of the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum. The return to Washington was due largely to the friendship and good management of Dr. Charles D. Walcott, who had just become Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The change was the outcome of a series of differences with Director Skiff of the Field Columbian Museum. He assumed to direct the scientific work without even a smattering knowledge of what it was or should be. He had the backing of the Museum Directors, Higgenbotham, Field and the rest, who knew nothing of the requirements of the Museum and its staff beyond what Skiff chose to tell them. It was a most agravating and hopeless situation for me, and to most of the staff for that matter. Skiff's attitude toward me was doubtless due in part to jealousy, due to his fear that I was undermining him with the view of becoming Director.