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4. INDICATE BRIEFLY THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE EXHIBITION SERIES AND THE STUDY SERIES, IN YOUR DEPARTMENT.

The exhibition series in the Department of Ethnology at the close of the fiscal year was to be found in two groups; the materials actually on exhibition for public inspection, and the exhibition series returned from the Chicago Exposition which had been filed away for future use. A great many of these were also designated to be sent to Atlanta. The series actually displayed is exhibited under two motives. The first that of technology; the second, that of ethnology. Wherever the material is sufficiently abundant and from a great number of localities the whole of mankind are considered to be of one species, and all objects belonging to a certain class are assembled and arranged for the purpose of showing their historical elaboration and their geographic distribution. This is called the technographic series especially in the West Hall; however, where there is a large mass of material of great variety from many people and not exhaustively collected from any one, the specimens are displayed at present in ethnographic groups and arranged around the hall so that the spaces do belong to peoples that are in contact. There are sections devoted to Negroid Africa, Caucasian peoples in Africa and Asia, the peoples of Eastern Asia including Siam, Birmah, China, Japan, Corea, Tibet and the Ural-alta group.

This arrangement enables the Curator to place before the public, at least in its proper national and geographic connection, desultory material from all parts of the world. As regards the American collection a great change has been proposed to set apart the north-