FOGG AND PEABODY MUSEUMS REVIEW YEAR'S VARIED ACTIVITIES IN ANNUAL REPORTS

The annual reports of the Peabody Museum and the Fogg Art Museum made public this week show an increasing activity on the part of the representatives of these museums in the fields of research and exploration. There have also been many valuable additions to the stock of the two museums, some of which are recent discoveries and others transfers from other collections.

Professor C. C. Willoughby, Director of the Peabody Museum comments as follows on the field work which has been done in American Archaeology and Ethnolagy:

Dr. Kidder Works in Southwest

"The explorations by the Museum in the southwest were under the general direction of Dr. Kidder, Curator of Southwestern American Archaeology. Mr. C. B. Cosgrave continued the excavations begun last year of a pueblo in the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. In the pueblo proper and in the plaza connected there with 41 rooms were cleared of debris and soil which filled and covered them. The number of burials unearthed this season was 254. In addition to the usual types of implements and ornaments common in the region, 178 bowls and other forms of pottery vessels were recovered.

"The decorations appearing upon the pottery found in the ruins of this valley are peculiar to this area. While numerous geometic designs appear, there are in addition many well-drawn figures of birds, quadrupeds, fishes, and reptiles; also representations of the human figure, shown singly of interesting groups.

Inspect Tse-a-chang Canyon

"A short time was spent investigation the ruins in the Tse-a-chang Canyon, Southwest of Carrizo Mountains. Promontory Ruin, one of the larger of these, containing about 40 rooms, was of special interest. Several of the kivas or ceremonial rooms found here were in a nearly perfect state of preservation.

"As in former years many specimens and several important collections have been received as gifts. Of special interest is the collection brought together by Dr. Phillips while traveling among the various times of the leganda region in East Africa in 1923-24. Among the groups represented are the Mad Watusi, Bahutu, Bazanda, Bamboosa, and Wambuti. Dr. Phillips also presented the Museum with very fine collection of photographs taken during the expedition, showing the people, their villages, houses, and various occupations."

In connection with excavation and exploration Professor E. W. Forbes '95, Director of the Fogg Art Museum, says:

Goldman In Asia Minor for Fogg

"Of more than University interest has been the work of excavation carried on in Greece and Asia Minor by Dr. Hety Goldman. Dr. Goldman is engaged in archaeological research for the Fogg Art Museum and is worki9ngg in cooperation with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. In the fall of 1924 excavations at Eutresis, Boeotia, resulted in valuable finds; a Greek male torso of the type of the early fifth century; the lower half of an archale seated female figure; and various kinds of pottery and other minor arts.

"In Colophon, Asia Minor, excavations which were suspended owing to political conditions in 1922 were resumed in August, and it is hoped that results of real value will develop.

"A second expedition to China under the leadership of Mr. Langdon Warner, '03, Fellow of the Fogg Museum for Research in Asia, accompanied by Mr. Horace H. Jayne, Curator of Oriental Art in the Pennsylvania Museum, Mr. Alan R. Priest, '20, Horace p. Steinson '22, and R. F. Starr sailed from Vancouver on December 19, 1924. In China Mr. Daniel v. Thompson '22, and Mr. Allan Clark, the American sculptor, also joined the party. The expedition reached its objective the caves of Tun Huang, but owing to the unsettled conditions in China it was not possible to work in the Caves or to procure the photographic record which was hoped for. The members of the expedition were allowed to go under guard to the caves on three days only. Mr. Jayne, was the leader of the party at this time.

Jayne's Work is Lauded

"Great credit is due to Mr. Jayne for his skilful handling of very difficult situation. However, other caves were found where measurements, records, and photographs were taken which, when published, will prove valuable to the students of Chinese art. In all, five different early Buddhist sites hitherto unrecorded were studied by the party tow of these before Mr. Warner's arrival.

"In the field of technical research interesting experiments have been tarried on with the x-ray under the direction of Mr. Alan Burrougas, Curator of Paintings of the Minneapolis institute of Arts, with a grant from the Milton Fund for Research. To quote from Mr. Burroughs' report to the Director, these experiments show that the x-ray has developed into a valuable addition to the expert's equipment for judging the antiqritv or genuineness of paintings more than 100 years old, or for estimating in some cases the evidence of authorship on more tangible grounds than style and feeling. This development involves the detection of repaint. . . Also a new method or studying the materials used by the artist, including woods, canvasses, gesso, and other rounds, pigment--both old and new--and the various methods of manipulating these materials."

Summer Institute is Denarture

"A new development in the work of the Fine Arts Department was the inauguration of Summer Institute of Fine Arts. The first session of the Institute was held at Princetion from August 24 to September 19. The purpose of the Institute, is to provide advanced instruction and opportunity for discussion in the general field of Fine Arts, with particular reference to the history and archaeology." The lecturer for the session of 1925 was Professor Milk hail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, of the University of Wisconsin, who conducted two courses.

"Some of the acquisitions made on the first expedition to China have arrived this year. Notable among them is a painting on silk of the Tang Dynasty, which is thought to have come originally from the great Tun Huang Library, long sealed and low removed for the most part to London, Paris, and Calcutta Most of the object secured by the second expedition have not arrived. They include a few fresco fragments of different periods and an early wooden statue of historical importance."

'Professor Forbes' report contains an outline of the plans for the new Museum.

$10,000 Spend On Peabody

Professor Willoughby tells of certain important improvements to the Peabody Museum as follows:

"The fourth-floor gallery of the new section has been furnished with wall and alcove cause at a cost of approximately ten thousand dollars, the greater part of this work being made possible through the generosity of friends of the Museum. These cases furnish more than 3300 square feet of exhibition space, and in them are now being installed the ethnological collections form Tibet, Burma, and northern India, secured by professor Dixon; the collections recently acquired from the native peoples of Siberia, including the Chukchi, Yakut, Samoyed, and Goldi; and those from the Malay Archipelago, the Philippine Island, and certain other group of the western pacific.

"The one vacant hall remaining in the new section includes practically all of the fifth floor. This has been occupied during the year by a portion of the offices of the Graduate School of Business Administration, pending the completion of the new building for this department."