Museum Grows
COLLECTIONS IN THE College Museumhave more than doubled since they were moved to Wilson Hall in 1929, growing from about 35,000 to 89,500 specimens, it has recently been reported by Prof. Wilfrid Wedgwood Bowen, curator. This growth, in large measure due to the generous interest of alumni and others, has been accompanied by an even more striking increase in the number of visitors to the Museum. Compared with 1932, which was the first year any attempt was made to record the attendance, more than five times as many students and nearly four times as many Hanover residents visited the Museum in 1938.
The most important gains of the past year were achieved in the Anthropology department and were made possible through two important gifts: a collection of Central American archaeological material presented by Mrs. Victor M. Cutter, wife of the Dartmouth trustee, and an Oriental ethnological collection made by the late Dr. John Barrett '89 when he was United States Minister to Siam in 1894-97, and presented by Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Barrett of Freeport, Ill.
The Cutter gift, numbering 455 specimens, is displayed in five exhibition cases which were also presented by Mrs. Cutter. Nearly all the specimens are extremely valuable, and many are unique. The most noteworthy item in the collection is a lifesized sculptured head obtained from the ruins of the Old Mayan temple built at Quirigua, Guatemala, about 810 A.D. This was one of the five heads which adorned the facade of the latest of the buildings surrounding the temple plaza. Only one other of these heads survives, the other three having been lost by fire in Guatemala ten years ago.
Other valuable specimens in the Cutter collection include stone carvings from the Black River Valley, Honduras; jade beads and ornaments from Honduras; and many examples of pottery from Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. Apart from the rarity of many of its specimens, the collection is noteworthy because it thoroughly represents the cultures of these pre-Columbian peoples.
The Barrett gift of 298 Oriental items, which was placed on public exhibition early in January, constitutes the most completely representative Oriental ethnographic unit in the College Museum. A series of silver tobacco pipes of exquisite workmanship is one of the chief attractions of the collection. Also outstanding is the series of knives and swords, the handles and sheaths of which display ornamentation in silver, ivory, brass and wood. Rare examples of lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay work are included, as are many musical instruments, among them gongs, clappers, horns, jew's-harps, stringed and wind instruments. An eight-foot "ken" or reedorgan, consisting of 14 reeds, said to be one of the sweetest toned and most complete wind instruments in the Far East, is also part of the collection.
The Buddhism in Siamese life is represented by a number of silver, bronze and gilded images of the Buddha, an elaborately ornamented chest containing an illuminated sacred manuscript, several old religious manuscript books, and the robe and insignia of a Buddhist monk. Among the specimens illustrative of the culture of the more primitive northern tribes are a group of silver-alloy tokens, or "shell money," used in connection with marriages and divorces. A Karen bronze ceremonial gong, a rarity which few museums possess, is also part of the Barrett collection. The Chinese element in the population of Siam is represented by a number of items, including an elaborately ornamented saddle and equipment, and two miniature replicas of pagodas beautifully carved in stone.
RARE ITEMS IN CUTTER MUSEUM GIFT Outstanding in the collection of pre-Columbian specimens presented to the CollegeMuseum by Mrs. Victor M. Cutter are the above two heads, taken from an Old Mayantemple built at Quirigua, Guatemala, about 810 A.D. The larger and more valuable headon the left adorned the temple facade, while the other came from the interior of thebuilding.
