Volume 39, Number 7 January, 1968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The Museum Trademark'

i^

by Patricia M. Williams, Field Museum Press

Steve Kovar, on this month's cover, has been with the Museum maintenance staff
for nearly forty years. Twice a year or so, he has vacuumed the elephants in Stanley
Field Hall. Mr. Kovar and the elephants are going strong, but the Museum buys
a new vacuum cleaner every four or five years. In the following story, Patricia
Williams tells the story of the elephants and the man who produced Field Museum's
most familiar exhibit.

Engaged in mortal combat, they loom in massive majesty
over awestruck children, footsore parents and clusters of
toursts happily posing for snapshots. The African elephants
dominating Stanley Field Hall serve as an unmistakable
"trademark"' of the Museum and have appeared on Mu-
seum stationery and checks, publications, postcards, souve-
nirs and paper bags.

This "trademark" is largely the product of the talents of
Carl .\keley, both as a hunter and a taxidermist. In 1896
Akeley joined the Museum staff as Taxidermist and in Feb-
ruary, 1905, Marshall Field approved Akeley's planned ex-
pedition to East Africa, providing the expense would "not
exceed say S5000."

Following a physical examination at the Chicago Home
for Incurables, the physician deemed Akeley to be expedi-
tion-worthy in that he was "free from any organic trouble.
His lungs and heart are sound, and strong, and although he
is not robust nor muscular in appearance, his vitality is good.

and his muscles are firm." The doctor went on to say that
he also thought that the long ocean voyage would do Ake-
ley's nervous temperament good.

On August 13, 1905 Akeley's British East African Expedi-
tion left Chicago. In addition to Akeley, the party included
Vernon Shaw-Kennedy, Edmund Heller and Mrs. Akeley.
They arrived at the port of Mombasa on October 8, 1905,
and by November 7 Akeley had written to the Museum re-
questing an additional $5,000, stating that "something over
Four thousand dollars of the original appropriation has been
expended and your decision can scarcely reach me before
the entire amount (Five thousand dollars) is gone." In
addition to the hiring of porters, gun bearers and personal
servants, Akeley explained that he had "received practi-
cally no concessions from the government without paying
handsomely for them. . . ."

The following day, November 8, Akeley wrote to the
President of the Museum, H. N. Higinbotham, enlarging

Vernon Shaw- Kennedy, who accompanied the Akeleys, buying a
sheep from a Wakamba native.

Akeley took nearly a thousand photos during the 1 906 expedition.
Many of the glass negatives remain on file in Field Museum.

Carl Akeley in Somaliland. He was mauled by the leopard before he man-
aged to bring it down.

Page 2 JANUARY

upon the difficulties of the expedition as follows: "For several
weeks, while I realized that the funds were melting away
twice as fast as anticipated and prospects were uncertain,
I often regretted having undertaken the trip. My state of
mind caused by the uncertain conditions has made it im-
possible to decide anything in regard to future movements.
Now that we are well under way, have had splendid success
for the three weeks here with every prospect of a continua-
tion of the good work, I make this recommendation (for
funds) unhesitatingly and in full confidence that the returns
will more than justify the expenditure.

"Mr. Shaw-Kennedy has been as greatly disappointed
with the necessity of heavy expenses as I, but he is "game"
and will see the trip through to the end and I feel that the
least we can do is to keep our end up.

"In material the country is rich far beyond my fondest
hopes and our working force is efficient."

In Akeley's own words, the expedition proved to be "a
good return for the money invested." This "good return"
totalled, in 12 months of active field work, over 17 tons of
natural history material. This included 400 mammal skins
ranging in size from that of a rabbit to that of an elephant,
about 1200 small mammal skins, 800 bird skins and a "fair
number" of mammal and bird skeletons. Collection of
large mammal skins included material for groups of about
20 species of antelopes; a buflfalo group of six; a fine series
of eight lions; two large male elephants, complete; one rhi-
noceros; one hippopotamus. There were also about 1000
photographic negatives as well as other studies of collected
material, such as plaster casts, measurements, leaves, etc.
The two elephants included in this listing are those now on

display in Stanley Field Hall. One was shot by Akeley on
July 27, 1906 in the Aberdare Mountains and the other was
shot by Mrs. Akeley on August 31, 1906 on Mt. Kenya.

In describing the elephant hunt, Akeley wrote, "The
trans-Tana trip had been indefinitely postponed on account
of trouble with the natives at the base of Mt. Kenya, where
the government had sent troops that were at this time,
July 10th, engaged in warfare, but as it seemed likely that
the trouble was nearing the end, the services of Mr. R. J.
Cunningham, professional hunter and safari runner, were
secured, and we headed for Fort Hall and the Tana River,
with the intention of looking for Elephants on the way;
three weeks were spent on the Aberdare Mountains, during
which time we prepared the skin of one Elephant, a series
of Duiker, and a number of other specimens. . . . the edge
of the forest at the base of Mt. Kenya was reached, and here
work with the Elephants was begun. The five weeks spent
among the Elephants was eminently satisfactory in point of
experience, and knowledge gained of the habits of these in-
teresting animals, but disappointing in that we failed, for
want of time, in securing all the specimens required for the
group. The return from Mt. Kenya to the Tana River was
distressingly slow and tedious, owing to the difficulties en-
countered in securing porters to move the material, but the
Tana was finally reached on October 2nd, and a few days
later we proceeded down the river in search of BufTalo.
. . . The three months in trans-Tana country were months
of hard work and bitter disappointments, but results, on the
whole, were satisfactory, in that the material obtained was
eminently desirable, and difficult to secure. We returned
to Fort Hall on November 22nd, and with 175 porters pro-

The Wakikuku people gathered at a joint camp of the
Governor of British East Africa, Sir James Hayes-Saddler,
and the members of the Field Museum Expedition, in
Trans-Tana Province.

I

-v

'it. *-|i.:r*-

The expedition coming down from Mount Kenya, where
one of the elephants was shot.

JANUARY Page 3

ceeded to Nairobi with the collections. Mr. Cunningham
returned by way of the Aberdare, to bring in the Elephant
and other skins that had been left on the summit of the
mountains, nearly four months previously."

The elephants, with the rest of the collection, were packed
in Nairobi, shipped by rail to Mombasa, trans-shipped at
Naples, arrived at New York on January 28, 1 907 and then
proceeded to the Museum to await the next stage in their
evolution as the Museum's "trademark."

When Akeley entered the field of taxidermy the methods
used were far short of ideal. As Akeley described them,
these methods consisted "of first treating the skin, then wir-
ing and wrapping the bones, which were inserted in the legs
of the animal while the body was hung upside down and
stuffed with straw until it would hold no more." The ani-
mal was then endowed with a pair of Raggedy Ann-type
eyes and popped into a display case.

Apparently, the crudeness of the procedure did not
bother Akeley as much as the stiff and unlifelike result.

The first elephant Akeley worked on was Barnum's fa-
mous Jumbo. In mounting Jumbo, Akeley was under the
direction of J. William Critchley, and the elephant was
mounted much after the fashion of the specimen in the
Museum of Natural History, Paris, which had been done
more than a century earlier.

Critchley was a most proficient taxidermist "who had few
equals in mounting birds and few superiors with the average
mammal." However, before Jumbo was finished, Akeley
had become the dominant member of the team.

It became apparent at this time, about 1885, that Ake-
ley's "superb neuromuscular organization seemed to have

been specially designed to give plastic expression to the re-
factory hide of the huge quadruped, and the successful ac-
complishment of the task furnished the inspiration for his
later work in Africa, the Field Museum, and the American
Museum."

It was basic to old-time taxidermy that skins be tanned
in a salt and alum bath, both to "set" the epidermis and to
dry hard, so that the skin would retain shape. Unfortu-
nately, specimens, particularly the larger quadrupeds, pre-
pared by this method soon went to pieces when exposed to
the changing atmosphere of museum halls. Akeley, how-
ever, discovered a vegetable tan that fullfilled all the necessary
conditions and yet permitted the hide to remain soft and
flexible for many days without losing any epidermis. This
discovery was essential to Akeley's revolutionary technique
of taxidermy. The Museum's pair of African elephants rep-
resent its first application to such large animals.

Although Mr. Akeley described his method in detail in a
speech before the American Association of Museums in
May, 1908, no written record of his speech can be located.
Carl Cotton, the present Museum taxidermist, can only
assume, therefore, on the basis of his own professional knowl-
edge, that the following steps are those that Akeley must
have followed in the mounting of the African elephants.

First, the elephant's skin was tanned and shaved. Akeley
then sculpted a life-sized clay figure following accurate and
detailed measurements made from the actual animal. That
Akeley was a talented and able sculptor was most evident
in this second step. Next, the skin, which was in precisely
numbered sections, was applied directly to the clay model
and carefully worked into all the musculature, curves and

^s/'

Porters carrying an elephant skull. Animal skins were
treated with salt and wrapped in matting for the journey
back from Mount Kenya to Nairobi. The collections went
by the newly completed Uganda Railway to Mombasa,
thence by ship to the United States. It was on the Uganda
Railway, a scant eight years before, that the famous man-
eating lions of Tsavo terrorized the construction parties,
killing 1 35 workmen over a nine month period and actually
halting construction for three months until they were killed
by Colonel J. H. Patterson, a contruction engineer. Years
later, Patterson presented the skins to Field Museum, and
they are now on display in Hall 22.

Akeley relaxing at day's end. The drink is cognac.

Page 4 JANUARY

wrinkles. Then plaster was applied over the entire skin-
covered model. After the plaster had hardened, the joined
plaster and skin sections were removed from the clay model.
(The clay model had now served its purpose and was dis-
pensed with.) These sections were now reinforced on the
inside. At this stage, the sections were composed of three
fused layers — reinforcement, on the inside, skin, in the mid-
dle, and plaster, on the outside. These layered sections were
next reassembled and joined together with the reinforcing
substance. When assembled, they were further strength-
ened as a imit. Finally, the outer plaster shell was removed
and the seams in the skin were covered. Last, the finishing
touches, such as the application of a gluten coating and the
insertion of tusks and artificial eyes were accomplished.

This pair of elephants was noteworthy not only because
they were the product of this remarkable new technique, but
because they were posed in such a dramatic and life-like
manner. The static, vmimaginative eflforts of earlier taxi-
dermy seem particularly lifeless when viewed in contrast to
this pair. They are an excellent testimony to the statement
that Akeley "did more for taxidermy than any other man,
and but for him, museum exhibits would not be what they
are today."

The elephants were placed on display in 1909 in the cen-
tral rotunda of the Field Museum, then located in Jackson
Park, where they remained until April 26, 1920 — the Muse-
um's moving day. It had required three years of work by the
entire Museum staff to dismantle exhibits and pack collec-
tions preparing them for the move. This move was un-
doubtedly one of the largest transfer operations ever seen
anywhere, involving 321 freight car loads, 354 five-ton

truck loads and a total cost of just under $70,000.

The pair of elephants travelled by rail and the Museum's
Annual Report for 1920 states that, "The African elephants,
after removing the head of the one mounted with its trunk
elevated, were placed on an open flat-car and came through
without mishap."

The move was completed on June 1, 1920 and the staflF
began the huge task of arranging and reinstalling material.
A year later, May 2, 1921, the Museum was opened in
its present location and the elephants were again on display
to the public.

It seems incongruous that so noble a pair should be in-
volved in anything so prosaic, but the elephants are dusted
regularly and vacuumed with an ordinary household vacuum
cleaner. They are periodically checked for signs of wear or
damage and are patched and treated as necessary, insuring
their continued standard of quality.

Even being crushed by a charging elephant in 1912 ap-
parently never dimmed Akeley's enthusiasm for the great
beast. In a tribute to the taxidermist, Henry Fairfield Os-
born said, "Akeley's first love was perhaps for the elephant.
. . . Often did he dwell upon the nobility of the elephant, its
courage in the charge, its sympathy in removing the wounded
comrade. . . . Little wonder that, in the confines of the . . .
city ... he longed for the sweep of the African plains and
savannahs, for the unspoiled beauty of the African forests,
for the majestic march and trumpeting of the elephant. . . ."

These sentiments were eloquently expressed by Akeley in
the superbly mounted pair of African elephants which re-
main a unique, impressive and enduring "trademark" of
the Museum.

E^

Lake Elementeita, a small lake just west of the Aber-
dare Range, where Akeley shot one of the elephants.

Christmas in Kenya, 1 906.

JANUARY Paged

a fossil comes

to life

by William D. Turnbull, Associate Curator. Fossil Mammals

The mammal Burramys was known only from fossil remains until
1966, when Dr. K. Shortman of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
of Medical Research, Melbourne, discovered and collected a liv-
ing specimen. Identification was made by Mr. R. M. Warneke,
Senior Research Officer of Fisheries and Wildlife De-
partment, Victoria. The photos of the living animal
are by Mr. James Cooper of the same agency.

In august 1966, in the hut of a ski lodge
at Mt. Hotham, Victoria, Australia, a
most unusual and unexpected zoological
discovery was made. The appealing
little animal shown here, a small pha-
langerine possum, was seen and cap-
tured. When put into the hands of sci-
entists of the Victorian Fisheries and
Wildlife Department, the animal was
recognized to be the first living repre-
sentative of the genus Burramys, which
heretofore had been known only from
fossil remains. It is indeed remarkable
that an animal as distinctive in its den-
tition as Burramys has survived so long
without zoologists being aware of its
presence. However, its small size, wary
nature and outward similarity to other
related small possums can account for
this oversight. Nevertheless, in this day
of world-wide, extensive alteration of
natural environments by man, it is truly
astonishing to discover a living repre-
sentative of a mammalian genus previ-
ously thought to be extinct.

Burramys is a familiar name in the Ge-
ology Department, since fossils of this ge-
nus have been studied for many years. In
1895, the paleontologist Robert Broom
(who subsequently became well known
for his work on South African Permian
fossils from the Karoo) gave the name

Paged JANUARY

Burramys parvus to a few cave fossils from
a travertine deposit from the Wombeyan
Caves of southeastern New South Wales,
Australia. This material consisted of six
jaws and three or four skull fragments of
animals characterized by the form of
their high, serrate, grooved and ridged
last premolar teeth. For over 50 years
Broom's original description and other
brief notes published in 1896 were all
that was known about the genus Bur-
ramys. In the 1950's two advances were
made. The first of these was made by
W. D. L. Ride (presently the director
of the Western Australian Museum at
Perth). He restudied Broom's original
materials and prepared and studied
other materials which Broom had col-
lected but not worked on.

In Broom's day, the preparation tech-
nique for exposing travertine-encased
bones was to scratch away the lime rock

to expose the contained bones. This
procedure could only be done after the
presence of bone was ascertained, by
breaking the rock or seeing suggestive
surface irregularities. Ride began to
restudy Broom's materials, using an acid
preparation technique which enabled
him to recover more of the contained
bones with minimum damage to the
small, delicate fossils. The reports on
Ride's findings, including a redescrip-
tion of Burramys parvus, appeared in the
Proceedings of the Zoological Society (Lon-
don) in 1956 and 1960.

At about the same time that Ride was
working on the New South Wales fos-
sils, another discovery of Burramys re-
mains was made in southeastern Victoria
at the Buchan Caves. There, Norman
Wakefield (presently associated with
Monash University) discovered numer-
ous remains of Burramys which he re-

ported in 1960. This fossil deposit con-
tains a mixed sample, as far as time of
deposition is concerned. Some of the
bones are reddish, and these Wakefield
believes to be the older specimens, pos-
sibly several thousand years old. Other
bones are white, and Wakefield gives
evidence that they are very recent, per-
haps only a few hundred years old or less.
This evidence led to informal specula-
tion on the possibility of the existence
of a living Burramys.

The first Burramys materials obtained
for the Field Museum collections consist
of three tooth fragments and a complete
molar tooth from the Late Pliocene of
the Grange Burn, Hamilton Fauna that
Dr. E. L. Lundelius and I collected in
1963-64. This material is insufficient
to form the basis of a new species, but
nevertheless it is adequate to show the
unique ridging of the premolar teeth
which suggest that the material repre-
sents an undescribed species. The fauna
to which these four teeth belong has
been dated at 4.35 million years by the
potassium-argon method. Hence Bur-
ramys now has a time range of nearly
four and one-half million years, and a
geographic range that extends in an arc
from within 100 miles of Sydney in the
East to within about 150 miles of Ade-
laide in the West — a straight line dis-
tance of about 500 miles.

In 1963 it was arranged through Mr.
Harold Fletcher, then the Assistant Di-
rector of the Australian Museum, Syd-
ney, that 185 unprepared Wombeyan
Cave travertine blocks belonging to that
institution be loaned to Field Museum
for preparation and study by Dr. Lun-
delius, myself and associates. Frederick
Schram and I have completed a prelim-
inary report on the first of the rodent re-
mains recovered from that fauna. Work
is going ahead on the other groups. The
entire lot of travertine blocks has been
acid prepared, leaving us with thousands
of bones, teeth and fragments for study.
Among these are additional unreported
specimens of Burramys parvus.

Thus, the Museum is in a unique po-
sition of involvement with the work on
this little-known inammalian genus, and
the 1966 discovery gives us the great ad-
vantage of working from a live specimen
in addition to fossil remains.

Pleistocene fossil Burramys
larvus known since 1895
redescribed in 1956

Living Burramys found in
1966

Post-Pleistocene fossil
Burramys reported in
1960

Pliocene fossil Burramys
collected in 1963-1964,
reported in 1965 and 1967

~1

Each of the fossil Burramys specimens shown here are mounted on pins {the rough shafts
beneath the teeth). They are not all to the same magnification, but the common pin mount-
ings will serve to scale them. Top Row; Three of the oldest teeth {If.SS million years) re-
covered from a fossil soil near Hamilton Victoria. Two of them (left and center) are
partial lower premx>lars seen in side view, and the third is a complete upper molar seen in
crown view. Bottom; A left lower jaw of a Burramys parvus specimen from the Wom-
beyan Caves of New South Wales, the locality that yielded the original materials upon
which the genus was based. The relatively large incisor tooth and the distinctively ridged,
serrate premolar are clearly shown.

JANUARY Page?

ONE DAY ADDED TO TOUR,

RESERVATIONS STILL OPEN

Places still remain available on Field Museum's Mexican Tour, which now
will include an additional day in Mexico City and a day's earlier departure —
April 3-21. The shift from Thursday to Wednesday, the 3rd, as a departure
date was made because of airline schedule changes and because an additional
day in Mexico City seemed desirable — for those interested in seeing the new
Museum of Modern Art and the new Museum of Natural History, and for those
wishing a free day for independent activities.

Price of the Tour will be raised to include a still undetermined charge for
the extra day. All other Tour expenses are included in the Tour price, $975,
including a $200 tax-deductible donation to Field Museum.

Tour membership will close on February 4, due to the necessity of making
reservations early for the usually busy Mexican Easter season. Those interested
in taking the Tour should mail their $200 deposits together with their reserva-
tions. Final payment should also be completed by February 4.

The Tour will be the first to travel over the newly-completed highway from
Villahermosa, capital of Tabasco, to the ruins of Palenque, in Chiapas, which
according to many archaeologists, artists and photographers are the most beau-
tiful of the ruins of ancient Mexico. The Maya ruins are deep in tropical
jungle, a setting which adds much to the impressiveness of the temples and the
unique palace building.

Other major stops of the 1 9 day tour include : Mexico City, Villa Guadalupe,
Teotihuacan, Colonial San Angel, University City, Cuicuilco, Xochimilco,
Cuernavaca, Xochicalco, Taxco, Merida, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Oaxaca City,
Monte Alban, Mitla and Santa Maria del Tule.

For reservations or further information, write Field Museum's Mexican
Tour, Field Museum.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

January hours: Open from 9 a.m. to
4 p.m. daily and until 5 p.m. on Satur-
days and Sundays.

January 1 Field Museum is closed.

Through January 21 Exhibit: New Guine.\: Birds, Books .\nd Stamps, show-
ing the variety and color of the avifauna in the jungles and mountains of
New Guinea, including birds of paradise, parakeets and bower birds. Ac-
companying the exhibit are color slides and commentary, a collection of
postage stamps featuring birds from 52 countries, and a set of first-day postal
covers of parrot stamps issued by the Government of New Guinea. The
exhibit also announces the American release of the Handbook of Birds of New
Guinea by Dr. Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator, Zoology and the late Dr.
E. T. Gilliard of the American Museum. Hall 9 Gallery.

Through February Winter Journey : Magic, Medicine and Minerals.

February 1 -25 23rd Chicago International Exhibition of Nature Photo-
graphy, bringing hundreds of wildlife photographs to the Museum.

February 6 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music: Alfonso Mon-
TECiNO, Pianist. Mr. Montecino, famed Chilean pianist, is a professor at
I. U. School of Music. He has just returned from a triumphant tour of
Russia and Hungary and has been re-engaged to return to Russia and
Czechoslovakia in 1969. Mr. Montecino made his debut in Carnegie Hall
in 1950. In 1954 he received the Bach Medal, granted by the Harriet
Cohen International Foundation, for his outstanding interpretations of Bach
in London. Complimentary tickets to this concert are available to Members
by request to the Museum. 8:15 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.
Nature Camera Club, Jan. 10, 7:45 p.m.
Chicago Shell Club, Jan. 14, 2 p.m.

MEETINGS: Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter, Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m.

Orchid Society, Jan. 21, 2 p.m.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

Roosevelt Rd. & Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, iliinois 60605

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893
BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour
Harry 0. Bercher
William McCormick Blair
Bowen Blair

William R. Dickinson, Jr.
Joseph N. Field
Marshall Field
Paul W. Goodrich
Clifford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull, Jr.
Henry P. Isham
Hughston M. McBain
Remick McDowell
J. Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
James L. Palmer
John T. Pirie, Jr.
John Shedd Reed
John G. Searle
John M. Simpson
Gerald A. Sivage
Edward Byron Smith
William Swartchild, Jr.
Louis Ware
E. Leland Webber
J. Howard Wood

HONORARY TRUSTEE

William V. Kahler

OFFICERS

James L. Palmer, President
Clifford C. Gregg, First Vice-President
Joseph N. Field, Second Vice-President
Bowen Blair, Third Vice-President

Edward Byron Smith,

Treasurer and Assistant Secretary
E. Leland Webber, Secretary

DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM

E. Leland Webber

CHIEF CURATORS

Donald Collier,

Department of Anthropology
Louis 0. Williams,

Department oj Botany
Rainer ^angerl.

Department oj Geology
Austin L. Rand

Department of Zoology

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Pages JANUARY

Volume 39, Number 2 February 1968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Local Universities and Field Museum in joint project

NEW GRADUATE CENTER OPENS

by Robert F. Inger, Curator, Reptiles and Amphibians

The x«ajor natural history museums in this country are well
known for their exhibit halls and the educational programs
tied in with these exhibits. They are perhaps less widely
recognized by the general public as institutions that are en-
gaged in research. Probably their least publicized function
is their direct contribution to the formal training of univer-
sity students. Although it is easy to arrange these three func-
tions or activities of museums in order of their public ac-
knowledgment, it is difficult to say which is most important.

To carry out the last function more effectively, Field
Museum of Natural History in cooperation with Northwest-
ern University and the University of Chicago recently or-
ganized a Center for Graduate Studies. At present the
scope of the Center is limited to systematic zoology and
paleontology, which involve problems in classifying organ-
isms and in evolutionary biology. We hope eventually to
include the other scientific areas of interest to the Museum's
staff. The next few paragraphs will outline the purposes,
program and organization of the Center.

The purpose of the Center is to provide for the graduate
training of university students. Museum scientists will par-
ticipate in the supervision of the research done by gradu-
ate students for their advanced degrees and the Museum
will provide laboratory space, library facilities, and speci-
mens for those students. Museum staff may also conduct
graduate classes as the need arises. (As of this writing,
eleven members of the Museum's staff are giving such
a course at the Museum, for the University of Chicago.)
The universities will provide the remainder of the training
and instruction necessary for the Ph.D. degree and will
award the degrees.

The program of the Center is regulated by an Advisory
Committee consisting of three curators from the Museum,
Drs. Zangerl, Wenzel, and Inger, and two faculty members
from each of the universities, Drs. Peter Bretsky and Or-
lando Park from Northwestern and Drs. E. C. Olson and
Ronald Singer from Chicago. The Advisory Committee is
also responsible for admission of students to the Center.

In mid-1967 the Museum received a grant from the
National Science Foundation to help support the activities
of the Center for two years. Funds from the grant will be
used for two main purposes: to provide support for students
in the form of fellowships, equipment, and supplies, and to
hire additional supporting staff at the Museum. The last
is essential if curators are to be relieved of certain duties in
in order to devote time to students.

This grant represents a new venture for the National

Science Foundation. It is the first research training grant
made to a non-university museum from the Foundation's
research funds. The Museum's monetary contribution to
the Center, largely in the form of the time of its staff, facil-
ities, and money from its Dee Fund, is approximately 35%
of the total budget.

All of the preceding is the bare bones skeleton, so to
speak. What is the motivation for initiating the Center?
What do we hope to accomplish through it?

The principal motivation is the desire to contribute to
the development of an area of science with which the Mu-
seum and its staff are concerned. One of the most effective
ways of advancing any scientific or professional field is by
providing better training for the young men or women en-
tering the field. One man trains two and thereby enlarges
the field. If, in addition, he gives them better training than
he had as a student, the growth of our knowledge proceeds
at an even faster rate. \Ve hope through the Center to im-
prove and increase the opportvmities for professional train-
ing in systematic zoology and paleontology.

Beyond our hope to advance these academic fields, there
are several more "practical" motives. Our nation, through
several major scientific-technological programs, has uncov-
ered a shortage of persons trained in these fields. The big
push in exploring the oceans has come up against a hard
fact — there simply are not enough people with the training
required to identify and classify the animals collected by the
great oceanographic programs. Many ambitious medical
projects concerned with insect-borne diseases, projects being
conducted in Vietnam and other tropical areas, require the
services of systematic zoologists and again the demand ex-
ceeds the supply. As a nation we are becoming increasingly
concerned with a variety of environmental problems at
home and abroad: the active participation of systematic
zoologists is needed if we are to solve these problems. The
Center can help relieve this manpower shortage.

There is still another motive for the Center. Good grad-
uate students ask stimulating, sometimes embarassing ques-
tions. The attempt to answer them helps keep university
professors and museum scientists mentally alive. Our third
motive, then, boils down to the selfish desire for an intellec-
tual fountain of youth.

It would be misleading if this article gave the impression
that the Center represents an entirely new approach for the
Field Museum. It does not. On an informal, individual
basis museum curators have been working for years with
graduate students from our great local universities. In fact.

Page 2 FEBRUARY

several members of our present staff are the intellectual
products of university-museum cooperation. These arrange-
ments, which had previously been formalized at the institu-
tional level, will be much more effectively implemented by
the availability of the special funds.

The Center, because of its funds, will make it possible to
expand the Museum's professional training activities. Ex-
pansion is especially important in view of the shortage of
systematists. Tuition and fellowship funds for systematic
biologists have never been adequate on either an absolute
or a relative scale. The funds now available to the Center
for these purposes should help attract good students to this
area. It is not that students are more mercenary now than
they were. It simply costs a good deal more to go to grad-
uate school than it used to. Ask any parent.

The establishment of the Center for Graduate Studies
as a formal administrative entity has another advantage
that, though difficult to measure, is significant. It will force
Museum staff and members of the faculties of the two uni-
versities to meet more often and talk about shared problems
and interests. In effect, we have here another manifestation
of the two-heads-are-better-than-one phenomenon. The
staffs should get together oftener. But biologists, like all
other people, get caught up in day-to-day affairs. The dia-
logue, which the Center will generate, will benefit each in-
stitution and thereby improve higher educational and scien-
tific activities in the Chicago area.

Although at present only the University of Chicago and
Northwestern University are participating with the Mu-
seum in operating the Center, it is understood that other
Chicago-area universities may join in the near future. We
hope, for example, that the University of Illinois (Chicago
Circle) will become an active member of the Center after
the Circle Campus is authorized to award the Ph.D. degree
in appropriate areas of biology and geology.

The pooling of resources on a regional basis, which is
what the Center signifies, is not only highly desirable but
absolutely essential. No city, state or nation is so rich in
scientific resources that it can afford to duplicate facilities
endlessly. The Center for Graduate Studies represents a
formal acknowledgment by these three institutions and the
National Science Foundation of this economic truth.

The Center also represents the recognition by these in-
stitutions that systematic zoology and paleontology are
fields that have played and will continue to play impor-
tant roles in the history of science and human thought.

recent acquisilion — zoology

COELACANTH

A THREE-FOOT-LONG fomialin-fixed specimen of the "liv-
ing fossil" Lalimeria chalumnae, caught on August 25, 1967
at a depth of about 1000 feet off the Comoro Islands near
Madagascar, has been added to the scientific collection
of the Museum through the courtesy of the Department
of Anatomy, University of Illinois College of Medicine.

The coelacanths are members of the fringe-finned
fishes, the Crossopterygii, which made their first appear-
ance in the Devonian some 300 million years ago.

One group of the Crossopterygii, the Rhipidistia, used
their limb-like fins and their ability to breathe air to
scramble ashore and move on land to fresh waters when
the pools they had lived in started to dry up. As they
became progressively better adapted to live on land, their
paired fins evolved into true legs. When this dramatic
evolutionary stage was reached they were no longer fish,
but the first primitive amphibians.

The second air-breathing group among the fringe-
finned fishes, the lung-fishes (Dipnoi), did not evolve
further. Lung-fishes are still found in parts of Austra-
lia, Africa and South America.

The third crossopterygian group, the coelacanths, are
related to our distant ancestors, the Rhipidistia, but they
have never been the direct line of evolution. However,
since the first coelacanths were related to the ancestral
line of all land vertebrates and since they have changed
so little in 275 million years, they may have preserved
some of the primitive features they shared with our far-off
ancestors. A careful study of Lalimeria may, therefore,
throw light on our very remote ancestry. Functional
anatomical studies by scientists of Field Museum and
the University of Illinois will be made on the endocrine
system, the respiratory apparatus, the brain tracts, the
reproductive apparatus and the sensory apparatus.

— By Karel F. Liem, Assistant Curator, Vertebrate Anatomy

FEBRUARY Page 3

by Ida L. Thompson, Geology Department

cuttlefTs

This month's cover shows Geoteuthis, t
years ago. The original was drawn in i
reproduced it here in a sepia to give y(
is on display in Stanley Field Hall durir
Here is the story of Geoteuthis and its I
in the age of the great dinosaurs, whe' r
predators in warm shallow seas that c '

l^/CT SUN and other stars have been photographed by
their own light; many animals leave tracks on their trail.
Why not, we of the Geology Department thought, a picture
of a Jurassic cuttlefish drawn in its own 170 million-year-
old brown ink?

The Museum's Geology Department had a specimen of
the well-known fossil cuttlefish, Geoteuthis, from the Jurassic
Period 1 70 million years ago. This cuttlefish was preserved
with its inksac intact. We also had a squid-like fossil from
the Pennsylvanian Period, about 100 million years earlier.
This squid-like fossil had a small amount of black material
adhering to it in approximately the position the inksac
should have been. Several members of the Geology De-
partment were curious to know if this dark substance was
the fossilized remnant of an inksac. Our plan was to dis-
solve some of the known cuttlefish ink, then see if the same
solvent would dissolve the black material on the squid. This
would have given us circumstantial evidence that the squid
fossil also contained ink. "Project Cuttlefish"' informally
established itself to carry out this experiment.

The ink of the cuttlefish, Geoteuthis, was preserved in a
glassy solid that was soft enough to be cut away with a knife.
The next step was to immerse some flakes of the inky-looking
substance in the "universal solvent," water. Failure! Next,
we tried the other standard solvents : xylene, acetone, alco-
hol, hydrochloric acid and ammonia, .\gain failure. A bit
of research on the chemistry and preparation of cuttlefish ink
produced the needed information. Fresh cuttlefish pigment
is melanin, the same brownish substance that comes to the
surface of your skin when you tan in the sun. Melanin does
not dissolve to produce ink; rather it must be prepared in a
suspension, tiny particles in an alkaline solution.

At this point we realized that "Project Cuttlefish" was
going to fail in its original goal. There just was not enough
black material on the squid fossil to try to make a suspen-
sion. But there was plenty of the cuttlefish fossil ink, so the
project continued out of curiosity to discover what could be
done with this ink.

We applied mortar, pestle and elbow grease to the fossil
ink flakes, then mixed the resultant powder with ammonia.
We were startled to discover a deep brown mixture that
looked like artists' sepia pigment. It even flowed like ink
in a quill crow pen.

Could it be used? We consulted Mr. Lido Lucchesi, an
artist with the Harris Extension of the Museum. He con-
firmed that it was not only sepia ink, but so fine in quality
that he agreed to immortalize the ancient cuttlefish, Geo-
teuthis, by drawing it in its own ink, 170 million years old.
The drawing, shown on the cover, was based on a recon-
struction of the Jurassic Age cuttlefish made by Naef, a
German fossil-cephalopod expert, and on the Museum's
photographs and drawings of extant cuttlefish.

W"hile Mr. Lucchesi worked on the drawing, "Project
Cuttlefish" continued its research. Geoteuthis is a mollusk
of the class Cephalopoda, which also includes nautiloids,
squids and octopuses. Cuttlefish are easy to confuse with
squids, since both have similar body shapes, eight arms and
two long tentacles. The shell of the cuttlefish, though, is
oval and broad, while the squid's is long and narrow. The
shells of both animals are internal, although homologous to
the navitilus' external shell.

The present cuttlefish evolved from an earlier cephalo-
pod with an external shell, perhaps similar to the straight-
shelled ammonites commonly found fossilized in Paleozoic
rocks. In the course of evolution the cuttlefish shell was
reduced in size and eventually enclosed within the mantle,
gaining the animal two important advantages, speed and
maneuverability. However, the price of increased swim-
ming capability was the loss of protection for many of the
animal's soft parts. To compensate for this vulnerability,
somewhere along the evolutionary line cuttlefish ancestors
developed an inksac.

When a cuttlefish is alarmed, it shoots out a jet of ink as
a decoy. After discharging the ink, the cuttlefish changes its
color from sepia-brown to pale beige, almost white. The
brown ink in the water looks like a cuttlefish to witless pred-

Page4 FEBRUARY

V^vstpry^

ttlefish from the Jurassic Age, 170 million
animal's own fossil ink, and we have
1 idea of the original color. The drawing
ibruary.

probably the same color now as it was
cephalopod used it to befuddle
3d Bavaria.

ators, while the real cuttlefish gets safely away.

There is speculation that the melanin ink may also have
an anesthetizing effect on the olfactory nerves of the cuttle-
fish's predator. The decoying ink, and its possible anesthe-
tizing qualities, have proved extraordinarily successful as
adaptations go; cuttlefish and squid are abundant through-
out most of the salt water on the Earth.

Melanin is an organic compound and almost all such
compounds decay. Until recently, scientists did not attempt
to recover organic materials from fossils, but now it is known
that such chemicals can indeed be recovered. Experiments
have been done on shells more than 100 million years old,
and the amino acids of the original proteins are found to
correspond to those composing the protein in shells of living
species. Amino acids have been been found in fossils with
an age as great as 300 million years.

Preservation of organic material requires protection from
attack by oxygen and bacteria. If the body of an animal is
deposited on a quiet lake or ocean bottom with little cur-
rent and an abundance of organic material already present,
then the water may be acid enough to prevent both oxida-
tion and bacterial growth. Cuttlefish are not exceptions.
The inksacs of fresh cuttlefish decay readily and must be
dried quickly if they are to be preserved. The Geoteuthis
specimen must have fallen in a place where conditions were
optimal since the organic inksac was preserved.

At one time, most of the dark brown and black inks used
in writing and drawing came from cuttlefish. Cicero wrote
his Orations and other works in sepia, the Roman name for
cuttlefish and now the name for brown ink.

Cuttlefish ink, like Geoteuthis, eventually lost out in the
struggle for survival. Although sepia is quite permanent
in the dark, prolonged exposure to sunlight fades it. A
longer-lasting ink can be made from lampblack, and there-
fore the market for cuttlefish ink is much reduced today
from its popularity of the last century. Nevertheless, sepia
is still prepared and sold in England.

Cuttlefish themselves still have great commercial value.

^^^^^H v^vj

^^B^ 1 ■ '^^^K'^svi^^^^^^H

Fossil Geoteuthis. The inksac is clearly visibU in black, and the
outline of the internal skeleton of the squid is somewhat less distinct.

especially in the Far East and Mediterranean countries.
Italians, following their Roman forebears, dry and sell the
sacs for ink, eat the flesh and use the cuttlebones for pumice
and bird feed.

While "Project Cuttlefish" continued its research, find-
ing that melanin is a protein attached to a complex carbon
molecule of unknown structure, Mr. Lucchesi finished the
drawing. Everyone was surprised at the result. The 170-
million-year-old ink had flowed as smoothly and beaiuifully
as the best modern ink. The most startling aspect of the
drawing was the warm brown color of the ink, the true color
of fresh cuttlefish ink.

The first man to make ink from fossil specimens was
Dean William Buckland, who was describing Geoteuthis for
the geology and mineralogy volume of The Bndgewater Trea-
tises. The year was 1849, and artists still made regular use
of a pigment prepared from cuttlefish for brown tones.
Buckland chipped off some fossil ink from a specimen, had
it prepared, and handed it over to his artist as a medium
for the Geoteuthis illustration. The quality of that ink was
excellent, too, according to Henry Lee's report of the inci-
dent in his 1875 classic The Octopus.

Fortunately for the safety of museum collections of fossil
sepia, the use of fossil ink did not continue in vogue. As far
as we can determine, Field Museum's "Cuttlefish Project"
is the first in 118 years to prepare a drawing of the fossil
cuttlefish Geoteuthis iro\\\ its own ink. C'onsequently, accord-
ing to caiuious extrapolations, not until the year 2085 will
the cuttlefish be so immortalized again.

FEBRUARY Page 5

YAQUI DEER DANCE, taken by Envin Bach, Chicago
Tribune Camera Editor, at the Ballet Folklorico at the Palacio
de Belles Aries in Mexico City. The photograph was taken
with a Pentax 35 mm. single lens reflex camera from the wings
of the opera house. The Ballet is included in Field Museum's
Mexican Tour itinerary.

speak on "How to Photograph the People and Ruined
Cities of Mexico."

On March 18, Mexican art — from its distinctive begin-
nings in pre-Spanish Mexico to its climax in the mural
movement — will be discussed by George Schneider, staff
lecturer specialized in Mexican art, of the Art Institute.
He will show slides of art from the major sites included on
the Tour.

Phil Clark, Field Musuem Public Relations Counsel
and Tour Leader, on March 22 will discuss Mexico's revo-
lutionary example to Latin America and will show slides
of flowering trees in blossom at the time of the Tour.

On March 29, Dr. Donald Collier, Chief Curator of
Anthropology, will prepare the group for confronting the
cities of ancient Mexico by describing the peoples who
inhabited them and their histories. A motion picture on
Mexico will be shown that same evening.

In addition to Mr. Clark, the Tour will be accompanied
by Mexican archaeologists who will supply background
and answer questions about the ancient sites included in
the Tour — Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Monte Al-
ban, Mitla, Palenque, Uxmal, Kabah and Chichen Itza.
The Tour will also visit private homes and gardens. Short
motor coach trips will be made in each major area, but
long distances will be covered by plane. The Tour will
see Taxco's famous Passion processions on Holy Thursday

MEXICAN TOUR BRIEFINGS

For reservations and information write: Mexican Tour, Field Museum

Members of Field Museum's Mexican Tour, April 3-21,
will participate in a series of programs preparatory for
their South-of-the-Border travels. Talks will be given at
evening gatherings in Museum President James L. Palmer's
office during March, on photography, archaeology, art,
current affairs and flowering plants, with discussion peri-
ods following. The get-togethers will also acquaint Tour
members with each other.

There is still room for a few inore members on the Tour.
Tour price is $975, which includes a tax deductible $200
donation to Field Museum. All expenses are covered by
the price except those for an extra day, which was added
after the Tour budget was completed. Tour membership
will close when the full complement is reached or by March
4. Full payment should be made for any reservations made
after February 4.

Enthusiasm about Mexico and its people, a practiced
artist's eye and specialized knowledge of photography will
characterize the discussions led by Erwin Bach, the Chicago
Tribune's Camera Editor. Mr. Bach is widely known as
an experienced traveler, writer and commentator on cul-
tural matters, and his photographs are distinguished for
their clarity, expressiveness and beauty. He will show some
of his photographs of Tour sites and of people typical of
Tour areas at the gathering on March 15, when he will

and Good Friday, will be in Oaxaca's ornate Church of
Santo Domingo for Easter, and will visit the unique out-
door museum of Olmec monuments in botanical garden-
zoo setting at Villa Hermosa and the great new National

Museum of Anthro-
pology in Mexico
City. We will stay
at hotels in Mexico
City, Cuernavaca,
•%^ ^^B l^sxco, Oaxaca

City, Villa Her-
mosa and Merida.

Erwin Bach, Camera Editor of the Chicago Tribune who will show
slides and discuss photo problems in Mexico al a gathering of Field
Museum's Mexican Tour, on March 15.

Page 6 FEBRUARY

O FILM -LECTURES

The Museum is offering its 129tfi series of Saturday afternoon programs starting Marctt Z
These illustrated lectures, open to adults and the children of Museum Members, are
held in James Simpson Theatre at 2:30; reserved seats are held for Members until 2:25.

CMLAOS BY KENNETH ARMSTRONG

w From Vientiane, the administrative capital, to Luang Prabang, the royal capital, and right
#%up to the Red Pathet Lao headquarters at Khang Khay, Kenneth Armstrong has filmed
tr paradoxical Laos. Inhabitants of a warm, green land, with a taste for fried river moss and
^ toad stew, Laotians simply refuse to see the world as a whole. An area of steep chasms, lime-
2 stone cliffs and rich alluvial plains, Laos can grow enough rice, bamboo, flowers and toads

to keep its people happy forever. But outsiders are interested in their rice if not their toads;

and in their strategic geographical position. Laos is in crisis, and Ken Armstrong shows us

a gentle, dreamy-eyed, flute-playing, explosive Laos.

OOUTDOOR YEARBOOK BY KARL MASLOWSKI

_ Here is a rare combination of the usual and unusual — albinos of catfish and red-tailed hawk;
f^ a patternless copperhead; a blond meadow mouse and a blue bullfrog. Normal wintertime
lY* activity of gray foxes, snowy owls and Cooper's hawks contrast with the exceptional behavior
^ of the bright-colored Baltimore oriole that wintered in snowbound Ohio. Lives of humming-
2 birds, eagles, cricket wasps and whitetailed deer are portrayed against time lapse sequences
of blossoming tulip trees, autumn foliage and snow and ice.

^ALASKA BY HARRY R. REED

The name "Alaska" was derived from an Aleut word meaning "great land" and every inch of
Z Alaska lives up to its name. It is an incredibly big, beautiful land of sharp contrasts. There
O are massive, snow-capped mountain ranges and vast flat tundras, towering forests and ancient
~ glaciers, picturesque villages and modern cities, steep-walled fjords and expansive ice fields,
^ meandering Arctic streams and plunging waterfalls, and much more that makes Alaska a
^ Fantasyland of the North. Alaskan wildlife is well represented by shy caribou, giant moose,

bothersome black bears, rare Toklat grizzlies, busy beavers and little Parka squirrels.

OTWO WORLDS OF POLYNESIA BY STANTON WATERMAN

W Of the two worlds of Polynesia, one involves an island people, both gentle and beautiful, with customs and
qI skills and a way of life that has resisted the impact of Western man. Their land environment includes 110
^ islands, ranging in size from populous Tahiti to the tiny atolls of the Tuamotu Archipelago. The other world
2 of Polynesia is the underwater world of the lagoons and the barrier reefs, abounding with life, color, and action.
In this world the fight for survival is constant and unchanged.

OTHE CONGO BY LEWIS COTLOW

wThe key to Africa is the Congo. The key to the Congo is its tribal system. There, Africa is fragmenting.
flC Blacks are at sword's point; whites are on the run. Economy is in jeopardy. Leadership is a sometime thing.
^ Crisis in the Congo affects the future of all Africa. For more than 25 years sub-Saharan Africa has been
S Louis Cotlow's specialty, primitive people his focus, animals his joy and the Congo's fate his concern.

(OMEXICO BY GENE WIANCKO

I After centuries of colonial rule, followed by violent revolutionary upheavals, Mexico now builds upon the

■~ vast potential and native intelligence of her own people. These people, for the most part, had their origins

jr in the Indian cultures of Mexico. This outstanding motion picture tells their story: the story of the capa-

^ cities and potentials of the Mexican people and their ways of life. For those unable to take the Museum's

Mexican Tour that leaves April 3, this film is a good alternative for seeing that fascinating country.

(continued on page 8)

FEBRUARY Page 7

<

1968 Spring Film-Lectures continued
C2THE HOLY LANDS BY RICHARD LINDE

The Holy Lands are sacred to three great religions : Judaism, Christianity
_ and Islam. Here the Israelites lived; here Christ walked; here Mohammed
CC ascended into the seventh heaven. Today this region is divided, with Arab
^ guns and Israeli barbed wire adding to the paradox of the lands called
^ "holy." These are the hallowed places that live in the hearts and minds

of men throughout the world . . . Bethlehem, Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem

and Jericho. Richard Linde presents the Holy Lands as they are, a dramatic

blend of the past and present.

O INDIA BY FRAN WILLIAM HALL

™ India is less than half as large as the U. S., yet she holds within her borders
>J nearly three times as many people, restless and extremely religious. She
fr encounters great odds in her race to modernize and create a living for her
(^ populace. Beset on the north by external dangers and internally by age-
^ old problems, today India looks to both East and West for solutions to sur-
vival. See India, land of countless temples and colorful people, as filmed
by Fran Hall.

NTHE BAHAMAS BY HARRY PEDERSON

CM The lives of Bahamians are centered on the sea. Nassau waxes wealthy from
_1 visitors beckoned by sun and surf. People in Abaco build boats, mend nets.
Above the surface is a friendly society, gentle and genteel. Below is another
world. There, in the many-hued waters, a different climate prevails.
Neighbors eye each other hungrily. Survival depends on being quick as a
trigger fish, tough as a sea turtle, clever as a shark, elusive as an eel. Harry
Pederson has filmed the people along the shores as well as life in the waters
below.

February Hours: Open from 9 a.m. to
CALENDAR OF EVENTS 4 p.m. daily and unnl 5 p.m. on Satur-
days, Sundays, February 12th and 22nd.

February 1—25 23rd Chicago International Exhibition of Nature Pho-
tography brings hundreds of the world's top wildlife photographs to Field
Museum, Hall 9. The exhibit features black and white photographs, color
transparencies and prints selected from thousands of entries received from
the United States and abroad. Awards will be made by the show's sponsors,
the Chicago Nature Camera Club and Field Museum. Winning color trans-
parencies will be projected at two Sunday showings, 2:30 p.m. February 4
and 1 1 in James Simpson Theatre.

February 6 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music: Alfonso Mon-
TEGiNO, Pianist. Complimentary tickets to this concert are available to
Members by request to the Museum. 8:15 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

February 18 Audubon Wildlife Film: Nature's Plans and Puzzles by G. P.
Lyons. A story of plant and animal adaption in the Northwest. 2:30 in
James Simpson Theatre.

Through February Winter Journey: Magic, Medicine and Minerals.

March 2 Spring Film- Lecture Series: Laos by Kenneth Armstrong. 2:30 in
James Simpson Theatre.

Chicago Shell Club, Feb. 11,2 p.m.
MEETINGS: Chicago N.^ture Camera Club, Feb. 13, 7:45 p.m.

Illinois Orchid Society, Feb. 18, 2 p.m.

NEW
TRUSTEE NAMED

Nicholas Galitzine, Vice President of
the Commonwealth Edison Co., has re-
cently been appointed to the Board of
Trustees of Field Museum. He has been
with the Commonwealth Edison Co.
since 1923. In past years, Mr. Galitzine
has been associated in numerous capaci-
ties with the Crusade of Mercy, serving
as its Campaign Vice Chairman in 1961 .
He is Vice President and Director of
Passavant Memorial Hospital, a Direc-
tor of the Hartford Plaza Bank, the Sears
Roebuck Foundation, the Lyric Opera
of Chicago, the Better Business Bureau
of Metropolitan Chicago and the Ster-
ling Hydraulic Co. In 1958 he was
presented an achievement award by the
Immigrants Protective League for his
civic and charitable activities.

February 6 8:15 p.m.

Indiana University's
Chicago Showcase of Music
presents

ALFONSO MONTECINO,
Chilean Pianist

at Field Museum

Beethoven

33 Variations on a Theme by Diabelli,
Opus 120

Albeniz

El Albaicin (from Iberia)

Schoenberg

5 Piano Pieces, Opus 2S;

GiNASTERA

Sonata {1952)

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60605 A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Page 8 FEBRUARY

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 39, Number 3 March 7968

f^^*

hyena

hunt

by

Dale J. Osborn

Mammologist, Department of

Medical Zoology, United States

Navy Medical Research Unit

Number Three. Cairo Egypt;

Field Associate, Field Museum

This month's cover shows

the author and his party

in March, 1966

on the desolate plains of

Umm Shilman in the

Nubian Desert, in search of

the hyena.

%-

For three years, 1964 to 1967, I ex-
plored the Egyptian deserts, working
for the Naval Medical Research Unit
Number Three, a group which has been
studying the role of animals and ecto-
parasites in the dissemination of human
and animal diseases for the past 20 years.
I collected mammals, plants, and what-
ever else might be useful to our research.
With a small crew of Egyptians, I lived
like a Bedouin for weeks at a time,
camping at wells or carrying precious
water hundreds of miles into the desert.
We traveled in trucks and jeeps, not
on camels, but our fare was often little
better than that of the nomads. If Allah
and the desert provided wood enough,
we sat cross-legged around campfires
at night reminiscing on the pleasures
and hardships of past journeys. To my
Egyptian associates, for whom hunting
is a favorite pastime, pursuing hyenas
had been particularly thrilling. I shared
in that excitement, of course, but to me
the fact that we had collected for the
first time a study series of hyena speci-
mens {Hyaena iiyaena) from Egypt was
of greater importance. Furthermore,
the expedition provided me many spe-
cial memories of desert people and a
part of Egypt that few foreigners had
ever seen.

Wadi Allaqi drains from the moun-
tains of southeastern Egypt and north-
ern Sudan, westward across Nubia and
debouches into the Nile Valley about
100 miles south of Aswan. Around the
turn of the century Wadi Allaqi was
famous for an abundance of good pas-
ture and high quality camels. The last
"year of plenty" was 1907; then fol-
lowed a succession of dry years until the
1930's. The ensuing years of drought
brought drastic changes; however, re-
ports of local rains in 1 965 suggested a
favorable climatic cycle had come again.
With hopes of seeing the desert "bloom-
ing" we decided to explore Wadi Allaqi.

Aswan was our port of exit from civ-
ilization. The High Dam Project had
transformed this once sleepy village into
a bustling town, and on the architects'
drawing boards it was already a city
with a university. Behind the new ave-
nue and modern buildings along the
river, the heart of Aswan remained —
narrow, dirty streets lined with tiny shops
jammed one upon the other where piles
of cheap trinkets, cooking ware, fruits,
vegetables, sweets and bolts of brightly
colored cloth collected dust and flies.
Crowds of Nubians and fellahin in flow-
ing galibeyas, dapper engineers, grimy
laborers and sturdy Russians pushed
their way past honking trucks and taxis,
donkeys, carts, and wagons. We joined
the shoppers and bought food, tea and
sugar for our expedition.

During the hours that it took to pur-
chase supplies and obtain desert passes,
the men who stayed to guard the vehi-
cles were treated to glasses of tea and
"informed" by friendly passers-by about
VVadi AUaqi. Our men were told it
was a verdant valley full of gazelles,
wild sheep, ostriches, ibexes, jackals,
oryxes, and wild asses. A geodetic sur-
vey party, it was rumored, had killed
up to 12 hyenas near the mouth of Wad i
Allaqi. Another less encouraging story
from the townspeople, many of whom
fear the desert, was that Wadi Allaqi
was full of dangerous animals and thieves
who waited beside wells and water holes
to pounce on unsuspecting travelers. A
soldier told of a French expedition that
had gone into Wadi Allaqi a few months
before and had not been heard from.
I surmised that that expedition, if there
were one, had been en route to Sudan.
But strangely enough, we were never
told about the legendary good spirit
who presided over Wadi Allaqi and to
whonl the desert Arabs ceremoniously
sprinkled an offering of dhurra (sorghum)
on the ground upon entering the wadi.

After obtaining a guide named Ab-
dullah Ali Hamid, who claimed to know
the most direct route into Wadi Allaqi
and the location of a dependable source
of good water, we were ready and eager
to enter the desert. Before the sun rose
on March 1, we were moving along in
the deep dust of a truck road east of the
Aswan-High Dam Highway. Here and
there were open areas between the low
hills of granite where waste from the
dam project had been dumped — acres
of trucks, machinery, tires, scrap metal
and wood.

As the sjieedometer indicated 1 05 miles
from Aswan, we coasted down a soft
slope into Wadi Allaqi. There was no
green grass to satisfy our expectations;
only the desiccated stubs of senna bushes,
long dead. I recalled the record that
the last great flood to reach the Nile
flowed past here in 1 830. As we looked
across this broad, desolate streambed
and scanned the low cliffs on the far
side, a grayish haze moved over and
beyond us. Thus warned of an ap-
proaching sand storm, we proceeded
immediately on up the wadi. South-

The route of the expedition.
Asthe waters of Lake Nasser
slowly back up behind the
High Dam at Aswan, much
of this country will be in-
undated. In years to come,
Wadi Allaqi will be flooded
as far back as Umm Qa-
reiyat.

Beyond this lay about 30 miles of
open desert, and then we followed a
narrow pass that wound for 12 miles
through precipitous mountains of gneiss.
Beyond the pass our route was south-
ward through a type of landscape we
had not seen before, the Nubian Des-
ert— broad sandy plains and clusters of
steep pyramidal and flat-topped hills
of reddish sandstone. Once the cry of
"dubbah" rang out, and we stopped to
examine the huge dog-lLke tracks of a
hyena that zig-zagged over the sand.

eastward for the next 20 miles we raced
over hard gravel terraces and plowed
through wide, shallow channels of soft
sand and silt. After a few miles, sculp-
tured sandstones had been replaced by
round, dark hills of granite and schist.
Patches of annual plants grew here and
there where months before local showers
had wetted the mud flows. There were
eight or ten acacia trees in this grim, 20-
mile piece of Wadi Allaqi.

Abdullah bade us stop beside a pile
of stones on a gravel delta that emerged

MARCH Pages

from a narrow tributary. He also pointed
to two cairns on the top of a black,
barren hill to the north. Here was our
destination, a branch of Wadi Allaqi
called Wadi Umin Qareiyat (The Valley
of the Mother of the Village). A short
distance inside this wadi was shaft
number nine of the deserted Umm Qar-
eiyat gold mine. Two of us walked into
the drift carefully, looking for vipers
in the dust and rubble of the floor and
along the ledges. About 20 yards in-
side was the shaft, or well. We got a
rope and bucket and drew water from a
depth of about 90 feet. After sampling
the water, we congratulated Abdullah.
Then we set to work establishing a base
camp — two tents connected by a fly.

The next few days were spent ex-
ploring Wadi Umm Qareiyat and the
adjacent parts of Wadi Allaqi. As I
was checking the cliffs for signs of ani-
mals, I noted the wash of mud several
feet high that marked the local flood
waters of 1902. We trapped jirds (Meri-
ones crassus) and gerbils {Gerbillus gerbil-
lus) that were living on the bitter seeds
of handal or ground gourd {Colocynthis
vulgaris) and senna {Cassia italica), which
grew abundantly in this area. Sand
foxes (Vulpes ruppellii), which lived in
the vicinity, readily entered live traps
for the sardine baits, and we eventually
caught six.

Abdullah shared our desire to explore
and gave freely of his knowledge of the
country. One day he suggested we go
northeast about 40 miles to Bir Haimur
and visit a Bishari friend of his. Gar
el Nabi (Neighbor of the Prophet) who
might know the whereabouts of hyenas.
A few days later we set out for Bir
Haimur via the wadi of the same name.

Gar el Nabi's camp, typically Bisha-
rin, was three low, round, palm-mat
shelters that stood on a rise just beyond
a canyon where several wadis merged.
We stopped at the west side of the can-
yon while Abdullah went to the camp
to arrange our meeting. At the base
of the cliff was an open, shallow, brack-
ish well; one of the few watering places
for the thousands of market camels and
the caravans that pass each year over
the ancient road from Sudan. This,
I suddenly realized, was the last of the
old caravan roads still in use.

Piles of charred remains of dead cam-
els were scattered about the well area.
They had been burned, we found out
later, because the people believed that
the odor of rotting flesh gave the water
a bad taste. Before we realized it, cam-
el ticks {Hyalomma dromedarii) were climb-
ing up our legs and clothing. Hundreds
more were crawling out of the gravel
and racing toward us. We moved to
the shade of the eastern cliffs and got
free of them.

Preparations for the trip to Bir Murra
began early the following morning. A
barrel was filled from the well. The
cook pre-cooked a quantity of rice and
beans and the rest of us made a batch
of Bedouin bread. Unlevened dough
was rolled into thin sheets the size of
a plate and baked on a hot piece of
sheet iron. Abdullah shared in this
operation and was most proficient. Af-
ter rolling the dough out thin he kept
it on the stick and deftly turned it off

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The camel road between Umm Shilman plain and Bir Haimur

Gar el Nabi arrived and unlike most
Arabs, wasted little time with greetings.
He began almost immediately to tell
us about hyenas. He said they lived
in the Shilman mountains and fed upon
the dead camels along the road. He
told us that they sometimes came to
drink at his well, but right now they
were drinking every night at Bir Murra
(Bitter Well), 15 miles to the east. He
thought that would be the best place
to shoot them, and he sounded so con-
vincing that we decided to return the
next day prepared for a two day hunt-
ing trip. Before leaving we gave Gar
el Nabi five gallons of fresh water from
Bir Umm Qareiyat and a promise of
more upon our return. This token se-
cured the bonds of friendship and the
obligations of business.

onto the baking iron. About noontime
everything was in order. We took our
lunch to Bir Haimur and ate in the
shade of the cliffs.

After the heat of the day had passed
we left for Bir Murra via the Umm Shil-
man plains. The ways in and out of the
latter were not easy, we found, even for
four-wheel-drive vehicles. For the first
seven miles we crawled along in low gear
through narrow wadis choked with
steeply-sloping piles of sharp, angular
rubble. Suddenly, the wadi we had been
following opened into the Umm Shil-
man plains. When we saw that vast
spread of sand strewn with mountains,
all thoughts of bad roads were forgotten.
We followed camel trails that meandered
across that fantastic land, criss-crossed
with tracks of gazelles and hyenas. Dead

Page 4 MARCH

camels seemed to be everywhere, and I
coimted 20 half-eaten carcasses in a five-
mile stretch. Hyena tracks encircled al-
most every one. Gar el Nabi remarked
that when a hyena finds a camel car-
cass it eats the fatty hump out first.
Every camel I saw had the hump miss-
ing. Rocks in the vicinity of dead cam-
els were smeared with the bleached ex-
crement of vultures. Probably these di-
urnal scavengers feasted after the hyenas
had torn open the dead bodies.

As we left Umm Shilman via a crooked
pass that led down into Wadi Murra,
some elongated piles of stone and a great
number of camel bones caught our at-
tention. Gar el Nabi told us that a year
ago five people and thirty camels be-
came lost in a sandstorm and died there.
He found the bodies partly eaten by hy-
enas and put the remains under stones.

Wadi Murra was a winding, graded
bed of coarse gravel 100-200 yards wide,
bounded by low, steep hills and cliffs of
disintegrating schist that looked like piles
of rotting wood . Acacias, the only vege-
tation, grew sparingly along the edges of
the wadi and on the terraces. Bir Murra
was another shallow well and easily en-
tered by animals. Hyena, gazelle and
fox tracks were all around it. Gar el
Nabi mentioned that he had seen a large
herd of ostriches here in this wadi 30
years before when there was vegetation
on the ground.

We placed five steel traps beside the
water and then drove north one mile to
another well. There we made our camp
by spreading a canvas on the gravel and
rolling out our sleeping bags. We were
around a big bend in the wadi and
out of sight and hearing of Bir Murra.
Before sundown we put a large, live trap
baited with sardines in a side wadi about
50 yards from camp. A few rodent live-
traps were put under acacia trees and
beside holes in cliffs. As the twilight
deepened and evening prayers began, I
had a sip of zibib, the Egyptian equiva-
lent of the anise-flavored drink of the
eastern Mediterranean.

We ate an early supper and then two
of us and Gar el Nabi walked to Bir
Murra. We carried shotguns loaded
with buckshot and wore headlamps. Gar
el Nabi was certain that we would see a
hyena with the lights and that it would

Abdullah baking bread

stand and let us shoot it. No hyena was
in sight, but a sand fox was in one of the
traps by the well.

When we returned to camp tea was
ready. We lounged around sipping tea
and listening to Gar el Nabi and Abdul-
lah talk about hyenas. We learned that
the bravest Bishari fears the hyena and
considers it to be very dangerous be-
cause of the belief that there is one hair
from the lion on the back of the hyena.
When questioned, Gar el Nabi knew no
case of a hyena attacking a man or a liv-
ing camel. He told of hyenas being at-
tracted by sick or weak camels and hang-
ing around while the owner kept guard.
He told us that two months before, two
hyenas had fought near the well and one
was killed and partly eaten. He believed
that when there are no dead camels to
feed upon, the stronger hyenas kill and
eat the weaker ones and the babies. I
merely listened without comment.

I had read the hyena lore in the writ-
ings of earlier explorers in Egypt. Guides
such as mine had warned them to be
careful when sleeping out in the desert
not to let a limb protrude from the blan-
kets lest a passing hyena snap at it. The
hyena was regarded as a wicked en-
chanter, metamorphosed by the anger
of God. For this reason the hair, teeth,
bones and flesh of the hyena were thought
to possess miraculous powers and were
in great demand. Lying on a hyena skin
was supposed to eliminate pains in the
back. The skull was believed to bring
good luck to the household under whose
doorstep it was buried. Certain parts
were boiled and swallowed by barren

women who wished to become fertile.
Many were the stories of hyenas preying
on dogs, donkeys, men and especially
children. No wonder primitive people
live in awe of this beast.

That evening I determined that if we
were going to get a hyena we had better
drive down to the well and shoot one
before it could escape into the hills. Be-
fore leaving we checked the live-trap
near camp and found that while we were
talking a hyena had dragged it about 25
yards. Four excited men climbed into
the car; two carried shotguns and one, a
spotlight. We hugged the eastern side
of the wadi until we were around the
bend, and then raced in the direction of
the well. There was nothing in sight so
we drove a few miles on down the wadi,
frightening two gazelles that had been
feeding in acacia bushes. At 10:30 we
made another run down the wadi. As
we approached the well, the lights re-
flected white from the eyes of a hyena.

Dead camels. The dry desert air mum-
mifies the carcasses, after the hyenas
and other scavengers take their toll.

It stood still for a moment, and when I
accelerated, it turned and ran across the
wadi. We came within range just be-
fore it reached the hills and killed it with
three quick shots. This was a long-
awaited occasion. Gar el Nabi plucked
a whisker from it and tucked it under
the thong which held the small leather
box of prayers above his right elbow.
This charm from a freshly-killed hyena
he considered to be very strong protec-
tion against the "evil eye." About every

MARCH Pages

hour and a half during the night we
drove down the wadi. Several times we
saw a hyena, and once more we brought
one down.

At dawn we began the work of skin-
ning. Gar el Nabi pulled a double-
edged knife from a sheath on his left arm
and helped us. It was no easy job, for
each animal had a thick layer of fat un-
der a rather thin skin. The fur of these
hyenas was very clean. One smelled
only slightly of dead camel. The stom-
achs contained small pieces of bone and
camel skin. Gar el Nabi took the eyes
of the hyenas, saying that he would dry
them and hang them around the necks
of his yoimg boys to make them brave.
He informed us that this amulet re-
quired about one month to take full ef-
fect. He wanted the canine teeth, too,
because he believed they transmitted
strength and virility to the wearer. He
said that men hang a tooth around the
neck and women hang one in the arm-
pit. I asked him if he ate hyena meat.
He did not, but he told me that the Nile
f>eople ate the flesh as a cure for rheu-
matism and the heart to give them cour-
age. Had I known then that the ancient
Egyptians fattened hyenas and ate them,
I would certainly have tried the clean-
smelling meat myself.

When the skins had been prepared we
drove halfway to Umm Shilman plains
and spent the remainder of the day eat-
ing and resting in the dense shade of an
acacia, .^fter eating the last of our beans
and rice, I fell asleep listening to the
bubbling of a Bedouin's water pipe.

Though we spent the night routinely
hunting the plains, we saw nothing. The
following morning a search in the boul-
der hills indicated that hyenas were no
longer living there; they had undoubt-
edly moved to Wadi Murra. Taking
stock of what we had seen, we figured
we could count on three more hyenas in
Wadi Murra, and decided to return.

Gar el Nabi making coffee

We followed the main camel road out
of Umm Shilman. The individual trails,
diverging and converging between wind-
rows of stones made driving the slowest
I had ever encountered. It took us two
hours to go eight miles. Gar el Nabi re-
marked to one of the Bedouins in my
crew that he had lost a sandal on this
road two years before (and we wondered
if that was the reason we had been guided
this way), .\nyway, our frustration ended
at Gar el Nabi's camp when glasses of
tea were placed in our hands.

Several days later, when we returned
to Bir Haimur, a large herd of camels

Watering Camels at Bir Haimur

was being watered at the well. Three
fuzzy-haired Bisharin with swords hang-
ing down their backs came to meet us.
They had heard of the "hyena hunters"
and held us in esteem. Gar el Nabi
stood by looking very proud.

Before we left for Bir Murra, Gar el
Nabi honored us by making coffee.
Through a hole in one end of an old
water skin he withdrew an odd assort-
ment of coffee-making implements. First
he put some beans in a sardine tin fitted
with a handle of twisted wire and roasted
them over the fire. Then he pulverized
the beans in a wooden mortar with the
end of his cane. The coffee was boiled
in a small, globular tin pot with a nar-
row spout. A bit of ginger was added,
but no sugar. When the brew had boiled
to his satisfaction, a wad of palm fiber
was stuffed into the spout for a filter and
coffee was poured into China demitasses.

While we sipped coffee, we discussed
the likelihood of finding hyenas this trip.
Gar el Nabi told us that the previous
evening his young boys had seen a hyena
beside the well. They had thrown stones
and the dog had barked at it, but it had
not run away. This hyena, he said,
could be expected to return, so we de-
cided to go to Bir Murra as planned and
hunt near Bir Haimur the next night.

This time we detoured the Umm Shil-
man plains and took a route that was
sand and gravel all the way to Bir Murra
— 20 miles in only 45 minutes. Traps
were set and the night hunting routine
was carried on as before. We saw the
three hyenas and succeeded in shooting
one. The following night we shot an-
other near Bir Haimur. This one was
an old female with her teeth worn to the
gums; yet, she was as fat as the others
we had shot.

In our conversations with Gar el Nabi
we learned of a place where the wabr or
hyrax {Procavia syriacus) lived. This is a
rabbit-sized animal with small ears and
no tail and called coney or dassy in the
Bible. Being an opportunist and a col-
lector I decided a few days sf>ent in
search of this animal would be well worth
the time. Our guide took us north of
Bir Haimur over 12 miles of wretched
camel road into a wadi where there were
prehistoric carvings of ostriches in the
rocks. (continued on page 14)

Selections from the 23rd
Chicago International
Exhibition of Nature
Photography

February 1968, Sponsored by

Chicago Nature Camera Club
AND Field Museum

FERN TREE - INCC MEOAL AWARD FOR BEST PLANT PRINT
EUGENE M. SIRE/WICHITA, KANSAS

I AM FREE - INCC MEDAL AWARD FOR BEST ANIMAL PRINT
CHONG PO CHOI/NOVO, MACAU

GHOST PIPES - PSA BEST PRINT OF SHOW
R. H. KLEINSCHMIDT APSA/ROCHESTER, N.Y.

SNOW SHADOWS SOFT - HONORABLE MENTION
LARS N. BOISEN/PELHAM MANOR, N. Y.

1

SEA FURY - INCC MEDAL AWARD FOR BEST GENERAL PRINT
T. V. WHITEHOUSE ARPS/SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

SKUNK CABBAGE - HONORABLE MENTION
DONALD L. LAMBDIN/LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

LONE CLIMBER - H<
S. K. GAJREE ARPS

DANDELION SILHOUETTE - HONORABLE MENTION
RUSSEL K. KOMEN/WARSAW, INDIANA

CARACAL LYNX - HONORABLE MENTION
RICHARD CAPPS/CLARENDON HILLS, ILL.

:w,SS

SCREECH OWL - WALGREEN BOWL FOR BEST COLOR PRINT
PAUL D. YARROWS FPSA, ARPS/ROCHESTER, N.Y.

ISLE MENTION
f'BI, KENYA

I N THE past two summers archaeological excavations have
been carried out at the Horton Site, located in suburban
Flossmoor, just south of Chicago. These excavations were
part of the Field Museum's Summer Training Program in
.Anthropology. This program, which receives its financial
support from the National Science Foundation, is directed
by Miss Miriam Wood, Chief of the Raymond Foundation.

Each summer for one week the 25 students of the class
have been given the opportunity to learn archaeological
theory and field methods by participating in the excava-
tions of a local Indian camp site. This week of field work
is the climax of a six-week course introducing the students
to the field of anthropology. The course is open to all High
School Sophomores and Jimiors who live within commuting
distance of Field Museum. Selection of the 25 students
is based on their academic achievement, recommendations
by their teachers, and personal interviews of the highest rat-
ing applicants with members of the staff of the Raymond
Foundation. Since anthropology is otherwise unavailable
in a high school curriculum, this course provides these high-
ability secondary school students from the Chicago metro-
politan area with an opportimity of receiving an introduc-
tion to this field before they enter college.

Raymond Foundation anthropologists Edith Fleming
and Harriet Smith are the instructors for the course. The
program is intended to provide a general survey of the field
of anthropology, from lectures on Fossil Man, through a
series of lectures on the archaeology
of the Mediterranean region, Mex-
ico, South America, and midwest-
ern United States. The students are
also given lectures on the peoples of
.Africa, North America, China and

other parts of the world. Research specialists in each of
these fields come to the Field Museum to lecture to the
students.

After several weeks of lectures and discussions of the vari-
ous aspects of anthropology, ranging from human evolution
to the social life of various peoples, the students participate
in actual archaeological field research. The intensive train-
ing in anthropology in the weeks preceding the excavations
helps the students to grasp the relationship between archae-
ology and anthropology. They are taught to understand
the kinds of questions about culture that the archaeologist
tries to answer when he goes into the field to excavate a pre-
historic site. An archaeologist does not dig to collect mate-
rials primarily for their esthetic value or for display, but to
gather information which, when analyzed by the archaeol-
ogist with training in the science of culture, provides a re-
construction of the life patterns of an extinct people. The
students are taught that archaeologists are not the collectors
of things, but of information about prehistoric cultures. The
pieces of pottery, arrow points and other artifacts which the
students excavate are valuable as clues to the behavior of
the extinct people. The scientific value of the specimens
can only be retained by collecting this information using
rigorous excavation methods. Before the students began
excavation of the Horton Site they were given lectures on
the methods of scientific archaeology so that when they
picked up a shovel, they knew how to dig and why.

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Page 10 MARCH

The Horton Site

The Horton Site lies in a small meadow near Butterfield
Creek. On the southern edge of expanding metropolitan
Chicago, this area is being rapidly converted into subdivi-
sions and shopping centers. Parts of the Horton Site had
already been destroyed by the construction of a road and
sidewalk for a subdivision. The site was discovered by Ver-
non Grubisch, a high school student and amateur archaeol-
ogist from nearby Chicago Heights. Grubisch had closely
followed the gradual destruction of the ancient settlement;
he collected artifacts in the areas disturbed by power ma-
chinery. Realizing that Horton represented an ideal loca-
tion for its excavation project, and that the total destruction
of the site was imminent, Field Museum contacted Mr.
Michael O'Malley, who granted permission to excavate
portions of the site situated in his subdivision.

The first class of the Anthropology Summer Training
Program, under Struever's direction, began excavations at
Horton in 1966. During the ensuing winter no further de-
struction occurred at the site, and Mr. O'Malley granted
permission for a second season's work. During this second
year of excavation, Rackerby continued the line of excava-
tion units begun the previous summer. By doing so, the
plan of a former Indian house was almost fully exposed, as
well as several storage pits and other types of subterranean
constructions, called features by archaeologists. These fea-
tures reflect the kinds of domestic activities that occurred
at this location some 500-600 years ago.

Excavation Strategy

The purpose of the Horton Site dig was twofold — to
demonstrate to the students proper archaeological excava-
tion methods, while retrieving valuable information on a
prehistoric community before its destruction by the housing
development. On the basis of the pottery fragments — or
sherds — which were found on the surface of the disturbed
area of the site, it was determined that the occupation be-
longed to the cultural tradition known to archaeologists as
Upper Mississippian. The strategy for the excavation the
first summer was primarily to determine the limits and depth
of the occupation, as well as to collect information on the
village plan. A topographic survey map was made of the
area, and a grid system of 10-foot squares was staked out on
the surface of the site. The students were grouped into
teams of three and assigned to excavate one of these squares.
All of the soil from each square was screened and the arti-
facts were bagged and labeled separately for each square
and for each level which the students dug. In this way both
horizontal and vertical relationships of all types of cultural
debris screened from the soil were recorded.

Earlier in the 20th century the entire surface of the site
had been plowed, thus disturbing the cultural remains to a
depth of 8 inches. This level was carefully shoveled off and
screened, and the material recovered was kept separate from
the underlying, undisturbed level. The Horton Site proved
to be very shallow, running to a depth of no more than 1 2
inches. In the second level many larger pieces of pottery.

stone tools, and the tops of pits and post holes were first
encountered.

The first season's exploratory excavation revealed sev-
eral dark, circular stains, 7-8 inches in diameter that are
interpreted as the remains of former house posts. The sec-
ond season's work focused on this area and thereby exposed
the pattern of the house and its associated pits. This part
of the site extended into a lot owned by Mr. William Sik-
kema, who kindly gave permission to continue the excava-
tions on his land.

Author Frank Rackerby shows Andy DePeder the square he will dig. Drawing
on page 12 was done by Artist Roxanne Pearson-Rackerby, the Author's wife.

Each student learned to keep his own notes and to re-
cord detailed observations as the work progressed. These
notes, together with the archaeologists' drawings of the fea-
tures, and the artifacts and natural material (unworked
stone and bone), are the evidence from which archaeolo-
gists reconstruct former cultural activities.

The information recovered by the Horton excavations
can be grouped into three classes: artifacts, features, and
debris. Debris includes such food evidence as discarded
animal bones and shell, as well as items like hearth stones
or waste flakes chipped off" in the manufacture of stone tools.
Features are the observable remains of former building ac-
tivity, such as house construction or the digging of storage
or cooking pits. The artifacts themselves provide clues to
much of the behavior of the extinct people. Artifacts may
be tools which functioned in the technology of the culture,
such as arrow points or flint knives. Other artifacts, such
as ornaments or smoking pipes, functioned in their social
life, either as items for recreation or as symbols to commu-
nicate status.

Cultural Reconstruction

The following reconstruction of the Horton Site occu-
pation is based primarily on the field observations of the
authors. Some preliminary washing and sorting of the arti-
facts from the site was accomplished during laboratory peri-
ods with the class, but the bulk of the material collected

MARCH Page 11

remains to be analyzed. These conclusions illustrate how
archaeologists go about their task of cultural reconstruction
after the excavation is completed.

The Horton Site was found to be primarily a single com-
ponent site; that is, it was only occupied during one prehis-
toric culture period. This occupation belongs to the Upper
Mississippian Period, beginning about 1400 a.d. and ex-
tending into the historic period in this area. This dating
is based upon similarities between pottery from the Horton
Site and from other Upper Mississippian sites of known age.
A few sherds from an apparent earlier occupation period
were observed the first season. Within the Upper Mis-
sissippian period there are several local variations known to
archaeologists, such as the Langford Tradition which is cen-
tered in the Upper Illinois River Valley. A second Upper
Mississippian tradition, similar to the Oneota of Wisconsin,
is the "Blue Island Culture" localized in the southern Chi-
cago area. The Horton pottery places this site in the Blue
Island Culture. The Anker Site, located on the Little Calu-
met River four or five miles away, is very similar in ceramic
and projectile point styles to Horton.

All of the observed Upper Mississippian ceramics from
Horton were shell- tempered. There were few sherds with
incised and punctuated shoulder decorations, and many
rim fragments were notched. Most of the sherds were frag-
ments of plain globular vessels approximately 6 inches or
more in height.

On right, sherd found at Horton Site; on left, complete pot of similar ceramic
tradition from nearby Fisher Site

Although the ceramic remains tell us where to place the
site in time, interpretation of particular activities carried out
at the site is based on other kinds of evidence.

Quantities of large mammal bones were recovered. Most
belonged to the white- tailed deer; buffalo bone was rare or
absent. The archaeologist observed few bird bones, while
fish remains and fresh water mussel shells occurred in small
amounts in different areas of the site.

These observations in part reflect the animals exploited
by the Horton residents, and when correlated with the arti-
fact evidence they enable us to infer a prehistoric subsistence
pattern of which the Horton occupation was part. Projec-
tile points occurred in high frequencies. These reflect a bow
and arrow technology used to hunt the deer and other mam-

mals documented by the Horton bone assemblage. While
there are abundant projectile points on the site, little flint
debris was recovered except for tiny chips of the kind pro-
duced by sharpening and reshaping a tool. It appears that
finished chipped stone tools were being brought to Horton
with only minimal tool maintenance preformed there.

The excavators also recovered an abundance of chipped
flint tools interpreted as scrapers and apparently used in pre-
paring animal hides for tanning. Several flake knives were
also recovered. The arrow heads, scrapers and knives, to-
gether with the mammal bones, comprise a hunting-butch-
ering assemblage indicating that the killing and processing
of large mammals (particularly deer) was a major activity
carried out at the site.

Seed-grinding tools, such as manos and metates, were
absent at Horton. The combined evidence suggests that
this site functioned differently from Anker and other Upper
Mississippian sites in the area. Seed grinding and agricul-
tural tools, along with charred corn remains, are often found
in abundance in these other sites.

Also lacking in the Horton Site artifact assemblage are
"tools to make other tools," such as hammerstones, bone
awls, flint working tools, etc. Therefore, tool manufactur-
ing was not a major activity at the site. This indicates that
all the recovered artifacts were carried to the site in their
finished state. Nor was Horton an agricultural settlement
since farming tools and evidence of corn was not recovered.
Instead, the Horton community focused its attention on the
exploitation and processing of wild food. The hunting of
large mammals was most important, and the collecting of
fish, mussels and birds provided additional food.

The 1966 and 1967 excavations recovered quantities of
hearth stone, attesting to the importance of cooking and
perhaps household heating to the settlement. Some of the
pit features contained quantities of this stone and appear to
be undisturbed hearths. Unfortunately many other hearths,
and other constructions at or just below the ground surface,
have been destroyed by plowing. Their presence is reflected
only by the cooking stones and charcoal dispersed through
the plowed soil of the site. Analysis of this charcoal will tell
the archaeologist what woods were being selected for fuel.
This same charcoal will also allow us to accurately date the
site by the radiocarbon method.

Bone artifacts are notably rare at Horton. In the other
Upper Mississippian sites in the Chicago area many bone
tools were recovered. Since the majority of bone artifacts
serve manufacturing purposes, their presence in some sites
and absence at Horton points up an interesting contrast in
the activities performed in different Upper Mississippian
settlements in one region.

No beads or other ornaments were recovered by the
Horton Site excavators, although a fragment of a tobacco
pipe with a design reminiscent of a stylized bird was exca-
vated by one of the students.

A particularly interesting contrast between Horton and
other Upper Mississippian sites in the area is the lack of
burial mounds or cemeteries associated with the living area.

Page 12 MARCH

Three fragments of human bone were screened from the dis-
turbed upper level which suggests that at least one burial
took place there, but the important difference between the
sites is the degree to which human remains are lacking at
the Horton Site.

Debbie Loeff and Marlene Dubas remove the plow zone down to undisturbed
occupation level, while Terry Patten sifts out the mixed cultural content.

A total of 23 10-foot squares was excavated by the stu-
dents during the two seasons of excavation. Besides the
several thousand pot sherds and hundreds of stone artifacts,
fragments of animal bone, and flint chips, 53 post impres-
sions and 13 pit features were recorded. Most pits appeared
to be filled with water-laid silt, suggesting that the pits were
refilled by the natural process of erosion. Two large pits,
both located within the walls of the house, contained many
large pieces of pottery and animal bone and appear to have
been filled in rapidly with this refuse material. These pits
undoubtedly were used as storage containers in the floor of
the house, probably for food and tools. Most of the other
pits were shallow basins and appeared to be roasting ovens
or disturbed hearths rather than storage containers.

Thirty-one of the recorded post molds form part of an
oval-shaped house. The larger posts, which form the out-
side perimeter of the structure, are 8-12 inches in diameter,
while the internal supporting posts are only 4-5 inches in
diameter. This framework of wooden poles was then cov-
ered over, probably with thatching or animal skins. Similar
oval houses have been found at other Upper Mississippian
sites in the area. The post size of the Horton house indicates
that it was a fairly substantial structure, approximately 30
feet wide. Post molds recorded in other squares suggest that
additional houses existed on the site, but these areas were
not sufficiently exposed during our excavations to determine
their size and shape.

On the basis of all the evidence at hand we suggest that
the Horton Site was a hunting settiement occupied by a
small group of people during the fall and winter months.
At this time of year deer hunting is most successful in the

sheltered secondary valleys like the Butterfield Creek area.
In the spring and summer these people might join with
others to form a larger agricultural villages during the corn-
growing season. The Anker Site has been interpreted as
such a summer agricultural settlement. At sites of this type
the inhabitants would manufacture tools and grow corn
which would then be stored there for consumption the fol-
lowing spring. Part of the corn crop might also have been
taken to winter himting camps, like Horton.

The fact that the recorded house appears to have been
of substantial construction, when combined with the abun-
dant evidence for deer hunting and the lack of agricultural
tools, argues for a repeated winter occupation of the Horton
Site for several years during the Upper Mississippian Period.

Diminishing Archaeological Resources

Numerous prehistoric sites, like Horton, have been and
are being destroyed as a by-product of the residential and
industrial expansion of Chicago. These sites, and others like
them throughout North Ainerica, are the only "books" that
record the history of man's occupation of this continent be-
fore the time of Columbus. Once destroyed, these sites can
never be replaced and the historical information contained
in them is lost forever. This makes the science of archaeol-
ogy truly a race against time. Today, Chicago and other
cities are expanding rapidly over the areas formerly occu-
pied by prehistoric peoples. In most cases the historical
record is destroyed without being investigated.

Lunch

The opportunity to carry out the urgently needed exca-
vations at the Horton Site was fortunately provided by the
Field Museum's Summer Anthropology Program. This pro-
gram begins — earlier than is customary — the process of in-
troducing students to archaeology as the scientific study of
man's past. From their experience at the Horton Site, Field
Museum's students all learned the critical reason for exca-
vating sites in urban areas. Only by carrying out excava-
tion programs now can archaeologists hope to reconstruct
the prehistory of these metropolitan areas.

MARCH Page 13

A boulder hill on Umm Shilman plain

(continued from page 6)

With the feelings of men who have
looked upon isolated oases in the Sa-
hara, we gazed at the grandeur of Wadi
Nagib. Scattered along the few miles of
this winding, clifT-bordered valley were
luxuriant shrub acacias, salam {Acacia
ehrenbergiana) and huge spreading trees,
sayaal {A. raddiana). The fresh foliage and
yellow blossoms of the salam were bril-
liant in the morning sun. Scattered
clumps of araa (Aerva persica) stood out
snow white against the sand and the
glandular leaves of the cushiony mashta
(Cleome droserifolia) glistened as though
covered with dew. Sinuous drifts of
golden sand swept down from the lees
of the eastern promontories.

White streaks from hyrax urine on the
broken western cliffs indicated several
active colonies. Fresh tracks followed the
cliff bases and trails out to the trees. We
shot a young hyrax that was watching
us from a crevice, then waited, as usual
but no more appeared.

We went to the base camp for sup-
plies and returned the following morn-
ing to Wadi Nagib. There were no
signs of hyrax activity from the night be-
fore. For two days we waited patiently
for them to appear. Late the second
evening, nine were seen bounding over
the rocks far out of range of our guns.
Though we had placed traps in every
trail, we caught only one other young
one. We had been outwitted and out-
waited and had not the time to remain
longer. However, the specimens we had
were valuable since the nearest localities
of previous collections were Gebel Elba
in southeastern Egypt and in Sudan.

Next morning farewells were expressed
over many glasses of tea at Gar el Nabi's
camp. We made him a casual gift of

Page 14 MARCH

several kilos of sugar, a tin of tea, and
a bag of rice; knowing he would refuse
and quite possibly be insulted if we of-
fered him money for his help.

Two days later we had established a
new base camp on the shore of the grad-
ually rising water of the Nile, now known
as Lsike Nasser. There we enjoyed a
cooler campsite and a bathing beach on
a bay that extended into what was for-
merly the mouth of Wadi AUaqi. We
were in the land called Nubia, a name
that usually brings to mind narrow strips
of green along the Nile, waving palms,
and gaily-decorated mud houses. All
these were gone; inundated. Of Allaqi
village, all that remained above water
was the minaret of the town mosque.
The palm logs that once supported
thatch roofs were scattered along the
shore. The gay and colorful Nubians
had been relocated to Egyptian designed
compounds near Kom Ombo. Between
the water and the desert there was noth-
ing now except a thin contour of pioneer
vegetation (mostly Hyoscyamus muticus and
Pulicaria crispa) that marked the high
water level, about five feet above the

present. In the future, Lake Nasser will
creep gradually eastward nearly 50 miles
into Wadi .Mlaqi and up to our old
campsite at Umm Qareiyat.

The first night on the Nile a hyena
passed within 25 yards of camp while
we slept. Next day we found the tracks
of hyenas and jackals {Canis aureus) which
crossed the plains at night to drink from
the Nile and to eat dead fish thrown out
by fishermen. We spent several days
following hyena trails into the sandstone
mountains but never found an occupied
den. At night we hunted back and forth
over the plains, eventually shooting two
jackals and four more hyenas. One hy-
ena was killed as it carried the body of
another which we had left on the plain.
I regret to say that in spite of our close
contact with hyenas, we never heard
them. Our traps on the barren sands
and sterile rocks took a small catch of
gerbils and spiny mice.

The last day in Wadi Allaqi, under
a scorching afternoon sun, we followed
the tracks of two gazelles until we cor-
nered the beautiful creatures in a canyon.
Thus, two more valuable specimens were
added to the collection. That night the
carcasses were turned slowly over a deep
bed of coals and as the meat sputtered
and roasted we feasted.

Having eaten and stirred up the fire,
the sounds of our own tea drinking and
the bubbling of a water-pipe lulled ev-
eryone into meditation. I guessed the
thoughts of all were the same — we were
reliving those exciting nights of the chase,
and we were all wondering if we should
believe our own observations of the shy
and retiring hyenas or the intriguing
tales of the Bisharin.

From Research Project NR005.09-0013, Bureau oj Medicme and Surgery, Navy Department, Washing-
ton, D. C. The work was supported in part by Office of Naval Research Contract Nam 4414 (00)
NR 107-806 with Field Museum oJ Natural History, Chicago, Illinois. The opinions and assertions
contained herein are the private ones oj the author and are not to be construed as official or rejecting the
views oj the Navy Department or the naval service at large.

The camp at Lake Nasser

PLAN GEOLOGY TRIP TO OZARKS

Field Museum, in cooperation with the University of Chicago, will sponsor
a Geology Trip to the Ozarks, April 21-27. The Ozark region is a diversified
geological area that consists of igneous and sedimentary rocks. The oldest
igneous rocks and granites were once molten, and are at least one billion years
old. The area was many times under the sea, and into it sediments — domi-
nantly limey — were deposited. These later became sedimentary rocks. Other
geologic processes produced deposits of minable ores, particularly lead and iron.
A wide variety of geological phenomena will be studied in the field and will be
supplemented with the evening lectures. Fossils and minerals will be collected
in the mines and quarries.

The group will depart by train to St. Louis on Sunday, April 21. From
St. Louis the group will continue travel on a chartered bus. The return to
Chicago is scheduled for Saturday evening, April 27.

Tuition including all transportation and hotel accommodations is $85. For

those wishing private facilities an ex-
tra fee will be assessed. The trip will
include four long hikes, for which
hiking clothes are strongly recom-
mended .

Matthew H. Nitecki, Assistant
Curator of Fossil Invertebrates will
conduct the tour. For further infor-
mation and application forms, please
phone Miss Barbara O'Connor, at
the University Downtown Center,
Photo by S. Silverstein FI 6 - 8300.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March Hours: Open from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. daily.

March 1—31 Chicago Shell Club's Annual Shell Fair. Displays of hun-
dreds of shells reveal the fantasy of form and color in the shell world. Ex-
hibits are arranged to show the development of shells and their geographical
distribution.

March 2 Film-Lecture Series: Laos by Kenneth Armstrong, 2:30 p.m. in
James Simpson Theatre.

March 9 Film-Lecture Series: Outdoor Yearbook by Karl Maslowski,
2 :30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 16 Film-Lecture Series: Alaska — America's Frontier State by
Harry R. Reed, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 23 Film-Lecture Series: The Two Worlds of Polynesia by Stanton
Waterman, 2:30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

March 26 Indiana University's Chicago Showcase of Music : Baroque Cham-
ber Players, one of the nation's outstanding groups, presents the final con-
cert in this series. Free tickets are available upon request. 8:15 p.m. in
James Simpson Theatre.

March 30 Film-Lecture Series: The Congo by Lewis Cotlow, 2:30 p.m. in
James Simpson Theatre.

March 31 Audubon Wildlife Film: Galapagos — Wild Eden by Roger Tory
Peterson. This is a rare field trip to equatorial volcanic islands inhabited
by some of the strangest creatures in the world — giant tortoises, sea-going
lizards, penguins. Waved Albatrosses and the beautiful Fork-tailed Gull.
2 :30 p.m. in James Simpson Theatre.

Through May Spring Journey: Plants that the American Indians Used
Chicago Mountaineering Club, March 14, 8 p.m.
Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter March 19, 7:30 p.m.

MEETINGS:

METEORITE

TALKS SET

.\ course consisting of three informal
talks on meteorites is offered for the first
three Saturdays in April (Apr. 6th, 1 3th,
20th). The talks will be given by Ed-
ward Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy and
will cover all aspects of meteorites, mete-
orite work, and theories about them.
First hand examination of specimens will
be included. Each session will be ap-
proximately two hours long, starting at
10:00 a.m. The course is limited to 25
adult Members of the Museum. Reser-
vations must be made by mail on a first-
come-first-serve basis. Write: Dr. Ed-
ward Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy,
Field Museum of Natural History, Chi-
cago, Illinois 60605.

FINAL BRIEFINGS

Members of Field Museum's Mexican
Tour will view a unique motion picture
on Mexican archaeology and on the de-
velopment of pre-Hispanic civilizations
on March 29. "The Ancient New
World" illustrates its commentary with
museum artifacts which are given a life
of their own.

Speaker of the evening will be Dr.
Donald Collier, Chief Curator of An-
thropology, who will discuss the peoples
who created the great cities of Indian
Mexico. Other programs for the Tour
include: March 15 — Erwin Bach, Cam-
era Editor of the Chicago Tribune;
March 18 — George
Schneider of the Art
Institute of Chicago,
and March 22 —
Phil Clark of the
Museum staff.

George Schneider

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 6060! A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

MARCH Page 15

^^-^'^f^-rvjs..

Volume 39, Number 4, April 7968

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Members' Night, May 3

A preview of the special exhibit, "Masada —
King Herod's Fortress," and a program of music, dance,
motion pictures and a slide lecture related to the
exhibit, will highlight the Museum's 1968 Members'
Night on May 3. The music and dance events,
including songs by the Amranim Brothers, Shalom and
Barak, third generation Israelis of Yemenite descent,
and performances by the Habonin Israeli Folk Dance
Troupe will be in Stanley Field Hall.

The Masada Exhibit is of deep significance to archa-
eologists. Middle Eastern historians and scholars of the
Old and New Testaments. Some of the scrolls found at
Masada have added important information to what is
known about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the life of Jesus.

These finds, plus large scale photo murals, coins,
weapons and a diorama in miniature of Roman
legions laying siege to Masada, make up the
display. The Exhibit opened in London and has
been complimented in the continental and national
press for its graphic design as well as its archaeological
impact. Organized by the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America and the Israel Exploration
Society, the Exhibit enjoyed a successful United States
premiere at the Jewish Museum in New York.

Built in 36 B.C. by King Herod the Great, Masada
was a luxurious retreat and strong fortress against a
feared attack from the armies of Cleopatra of Egypt.
It was in this rock fortress in 73 A.D. that 960
Jewish men, women and children gave up their lives
rather than go into slavery, when 7 years of revolt
against the Romans ended in defeat.

A slide lecture, "Masada, A State of Mind," will be
given by Marc Michaelson, former Travel Editor
of Chicago's American and Director of Publicity for
the Tourism Council of Greater Chicago. Michaelson,
who visited Masada last year, will speak at 7^30.
and 8:30 p.m. A film on the Masada excavations
by the British Broadcasting Company and a motion
picture on the Bar-Kokhba Caves, where the Jewish
resistance contined after the fall of Masada, will be
shown continuously from 7 to 10 p.m. Two half-hour
music and dance programs will be given at 7 and 9 p.m.

Research and exhibit preparation areas of the
Museum, including some special exhibits related to
Field Museum research, explorations and acquisitions,
will be open on the third and fourth floors from 7 to
10 p.m. "Tibet — Highland of Monk and Nomad,"
the Museum's new permanent exhibit on the second
floor, will be illuminated and open for the evening.

The special Members' preview of "Masada" will
continue from. 3 to 10 p.m. Refreshments will be
served from 7 to 10 p.m., and the cafeteria will be open
from 6 to 8 p.m.

Masada

Photo by Yigael Yadin.

The nearly sheer walls of Masada rise 1,300 ft. above the
western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel.

Volunteers came from as fai
as the U. S. and Australia tc
work on the Masada exca-
vation.

Photo by The Jewish Museum,

Photo by The Jewish Museum

Chartered buses will leave at frequent intervals
throughout the evening from State and Jackson Streets,
and return trips from the Museum's south entrance
will continue until 10 p.m.

Page 2 APRIL

"\im\^i^^^'\s^

by Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

U^»

k% JAMES HOOKS, who delivers the mail at Field Museum,
has delivered many thousands of interesting, curious — even
bizarre — letters and packages over the years. Field Mu-
seum scientists are called to give advice in many fields, some
of them quite unexpected. Hymen Marx, Associate Curator
of Reptiles and Amphibians, for instance, recently gave some
advice to a young lady employed as a "Go-go" dancer in
Texas. The lady used a Boa Constrictor in her act. She
wanted to know how to tame it and keep it from biting.
Mr. Marx was able to recommend a popular book on snakes
by a former staff member, Clifford Pope, and also suggested
that a reticulated python, which "will reach coverage size,
and has a much milder and gentler disposition," would be a
better candidate for work in the performing arts.

Articles in the Bulletin often prompt letters of great in-
terest, and few have provoked more comment than a story
by Eugene Richardson, Curator of Fossil Invertebrates,
called "The Tully Monster" (Bulletin, July, 1966). Rich-
ardson told of a worm-like fossil of uncertain relationships
which had been found in the Pennsylvanian (280 million
years old) deposits of Mazon Creek, Illinois. He had previ-
ously described it scientifically in the weekly journal Science.
with an official name, TuUimonstrum gregarium, named for
Francis Tally, Lockport, Illinois, who had brought in the
first specimen. It was such a strange animal that the
author was unable to assign it to a phylum, which disturbed
his sense of order — it would upset any systematic biologist.

The aniinal ranged in size from 2J^ to 14 inches, "at
one end of the dirigible-like body was a spade-shaped tail;

from the other extended a long, thin proboscis with a gap-
ing claw; across the body near the base of the proboscis was
a transverse bar with a little round swelling at each end,
outside the body."

The response to this little animal, which may have eaten
fossils so indistinct that Richardson could not even assign
them to a kingdom and simply termed them "Blobs," was
immediate and extensive. Many of Gene Richardson's
friends took the time to write with helpful comment. One
doctor noted the Tully Monster's "impish benevolent, al-
inost Schmoo-like, expression on its cuddly frame." An-
other correspondent insisted that Gene had the animal
backwards, and that what appeared to be fins on the tail
were in actual fact ears on the head. "This view is rein-
forced by the obvious resemblance of TuUimonstrum to a
certain black dog I know who has ears like that." A Nor-
wegian woman pointed out that the whole thing sounds
funny to Norwegians because "tull" means "nonsense" in
that language.

One of the most interesting exchanges was with Mr.
F. VV. Holiday, of Pembrokeshire, Great Britain. Mr. Holi-
day has been a student of the Loch Ness Monster for more
than thirty years. He has watched the Loch Ness Monster
become, from what appeared at first to be myth, the object
of serious scientific research. Mr. Holiday wrote, "I think
I was the first to suggest {Field magazine, 1st. Nov., 1962)
that the Loch Ness Monster was probably an invertebrate.
Last year I narrowed the gap still further by stating my
belief that the LNM was a worm — a view which I still hold."

APRIL Page 3

Holiday enthusiastically suggested a close relationship
between Loch Ness Monster and Tullimonstriim. Richardson
replied that a time lag of 280 million years and a difference
in size of one foot (TM) versus 40 feet (LNM) made such
a relationship unlikely.

The correspondence provided Gene Richardson with a
close view of the present state of the Loch Ness Monster.
Holiday clearly thinks it a worm. Professor Mackal of the
University of Chicago is inclined to the idea of a very large
. mollusc. There is still support for the sea snake, and other
vertebrate, explanations. The Adventurers' Club of Chi-
cago has provided support for some of the research on the
monster. Holiday himself says he has seen the thing four
times in a span of sixteen weeks at the Loch. He also men-
tions some strange creatures living in the Loughs of western
Ireland, being investigated by Captain Lionel Leslie, a
cousin of Sir W^inston Churchill. Holiday remains con-
vinced of a relationship between TM and LNM.

In early September of 1 966, Mr. James Hooks delivered
the first of a series of letters which were to launch Gene
Richardson on the Quest for the Dancing Worm. It was
an airlettcr, postmarked Nairobi, Kenya, and it read:

Dear Dr. Richards:

1/9/66

O. Box 30009

Nairobi

A recent issue of the East African Standard con-
tains an illustrated article describing a curious
prehistoric creature you discovered. This jogged
my memory, carrying me back some forty years,
of a tale I once heard that may be of some interest.

In 1926 having been seconded to the Kings
(now Kenya) African Rifles from the Indian
Army, I was in northwestern Kenya dealing with
some border incidents. Passing through the
administrative centre of Lodwar on my return
journey, I took the opportunity of calling upon
Mr. A. M. Champion, then D. C. Turkana Dis-
trict. In addition to being a keen shikar. Champ-
ion was a naturalist of the first rank, and during
the two evenings I passed in his company he
regaled me with many a fascinating yarn about
the fauna of the area. Among these was one
about a remarkable worm reputed to live in the
swamp country to the southeast. The local tribes-
men told fantastic stories about its dancing and
and giving milk, if I remember correctly. Such
nonsense aside. Champion did give me a descrip-
tion of the creature which he had obtained from
various natives (he never succeeded in getting a
specimen) and this curiously enough has remained
in my memory when much else has been forgotten.
His account agreed remarkably well with the
illustration of your "Tully Monster," even to the
"paddles" and the long snout. Your mention of
sharp teeth, incidentally, does agree with a

Turkana tale that the creature bites. On this
account they are deathly afraid of it, believing that
it is poisonous. But then nearly all natives believe
everything of the creeping or crawling kind to
be venomous.

I hardly dare to suggest that a relation of your
extinct "Monster" still survives in one of the re-
motest parts of East Africa, but it might just be
worthwhile to pursue the matter.

Yours faithfully

R. G. L. Cloudesley

(Lt.-Colonel, ret.)

Artist's impression of Tullimonstrum in its natural habitat. (Draw-
ing was used as cover of the July, 1966, BI'LLETin.

Richardson's original BuliIetin article had already been
picked up by a Boston newspaper for its Sunday Supple-
ment; now, it appeared, the story had also been used in the
East Africati Standard, perhaps the best known newspaper in
the countries of former British East Africa. We began to
hope it would make the Straits Times in Singapore, as well.
What world coverage ! As happens in many newspapers on
rare occasions, the facts were a little bit garbled, and the
author's name appeared as Dr. Richards, of Field's Mu-
seum. A forgivable mistake.

Intrigued and flattered by the attention, Richardson
was penning a reply to Colonel Cloudesley (ret.) when a
second airletter arrived, postmarked Nakuru, Kenya. Na-
kuru is a town about a hundred miles northwest of Nairobi
on the Uganda Railway. Turkana District, Gene learned
from the Times Atlas, is more than 400 air miles north-
northwest of Nairobi on the Kenya-Sudan border. The
letter was written in an even, graceful hand suggestive of
the mysterious East. It read:

P. O. Box 568

Nakuru

Honoured Sir: 13 September 1966

I have now seen in an old copy of the Standard

Page 4 APRIL

the account of a wonderful monster you have
found in your country. Sir, I behcve that it also
lives here in Kenya ! My cousins Aowind and
Manu have often told me of the dancing worm of
Turkana, and what they say is very like your
article. What triumph it would be to catch one.

Turkana is far from here and full of naked men
with spears, but my uncle Motibhai has a duka
business there, and his sons, my cousins, adventure
with lorries into that savage land. With their
help I, even I, might catch one for you. The
price would be very cheap. But, Honoured Sir,
tell me how I catch it as it lives in a great swamp.
This is a new thing for me. Do I keep it, do
I kill it. I await eagerly your orders and
instructions.

Believe me, honoured Sir,

Your hopeful servant

Purshottam S. Patel

Richardson's interest grew. Was there something in all
this? He began to consult some expert opinion. Alan So-
lem. Curator of Lower Invertebrates (living) knew of no
such animal in the area, but it certainly wasn't impossible.
The area has been little studied. And imknown species of
animals continually turn up all over the world. Certainly
size was no problem. There is a leech in southeast Asia
which grows to a foot and in northern Queensland, Austra-
lia, there is a worm which varies in length from eight to
twelve feet, as it contracts and expands.

Replies went oflfto Cloudesley and Patel. A few discreet
inquiries were made to friends and associates who might
have some knowledge of the area. It was clear that Mr.
Patel had dollar signs in his eyes and was looking out for
Number One. The Indian small businessmen of East Africa
tend to be fairly hard-headed, however, so Patel might be
on to something. Weeks went by with no news. Finally, a
letter arrived. It had been posted September 13, but had
traveled by siuface mail.

Lokori
P. O. Kampi ya Moto
via Nakuru
Dear Sir: 9 September 1966

I must ask your pardon for writing to you, a stranger,
which happens in this way. I am temporary
teacher at the intermediate school here where I
teach elementary English among other things.
Whenever I can I show the pupils newspapers
which is not often as this is a far away spot.
The other day I was lucky to get a Sunday
Standard which is bigger and often has repeats
from English and American papers. The class was
soon in a buzz and I heard repeated a Turkana
word which means dancing worm roughly.
On looking I see an article and drawing about an
animal found by you and the children say they

hear of it from their fathers. One pupil Akai, a
bright boy, was so moved that he later brought
me a letter for sending to you. He was so
proud I had not heart to refuse and so enclose.

As regards the subject of the letter, I can say
nothing. Most Turkana are very primitive people
and have many talcs in which sometimes is a grain
of truth.

Yoiu- faithfully,
Joseph N. Ngomo

Attached to the letter was a penciled note, in the painful
crabbed style of a small boy, showing the same careful
attention to spelling that all Ixjys have :

Today techer show us paper and ther is anmal
my pepels knows i not know name tuly moster
but call ekurul loedonkakini it live ayangyangi in
rains at moon fill all dance wave hands give
milk ekurut leodonkakini very dangery anmal
bite man die

akai s/o [son of] ckechalon

As the testimonial evidence accumulated. Gene, and a
number of others, myself included, became increasingly ex-
cited about the Dancing Worm of Turkana. More inqui-
ries went out. A note was inserted in the Newsletter of the
East Africa Natural History Society, asking local naturalists
for information about the worm. No one, apparently, had
ever heard of the legend except Richardson's foin- corre-
spondents.

Touched by young Akai's note. Gene replied to both
Ngomo and the little boy, and waited for an answer to his
previous letters to Cloudesley and Patel. And as he waited,
belief and hope grappled with reason and training. Was
there a worm in the swamps of Turkana? The evidence
was slim indeed : the word of four people of whom he knew
nothing, and two were themselves dubious. On the other
hand, the writers were from quite different walks of life, and
were separated by many miles. Surely, what appeared to
be a widespread folk tale might have some basis in fact.

The possibility of an expedition to search for the worm
began to insinuate itself in conversations among staff mem-
bers. The evidence was still far too tenuous to justify a
field trip, but if more turned up, serious consideration would
have to be given to the idea. The general feeling was one
of cautious optimism.

That optimism received a blow when the letters to
Cloudesley and Patel were both returned, stamped "Ad-
dressee itnknown." But a second letter from Patel, indicat-
ing that he had moved and was still eager to be of service
cleared up part of the mystery.

Box 600.S
Rongai
2 August 1967
Honoured Sir,

I have been hoping so much to hear from you
in answer to my letter but only silence has

APRIL Page 5

come. But I venture to write again. One, be-
cause the post here has become very slack. Only
last month iny cousin Motilal nine years senior
in Posts and Telegraph got the sudden sack
and was substituted by an inexperienced person.
Oh, Sir, these days are hard for us. Your
eagerly expected letter may have come and got
lost. I have now you see moved.

Two, because I hear that in a little paper a
man Solem asks news of the worm. Sir, there is
now a rival and you should beat him. I am
always you know ready to help. I think the time
is good for the worm. There is much rain
and the great swamp is full. With your instruc-
tions we might get one.

Believe me honoured Sir,
Your hopeful servant,
Purshottam S. Patel

Next a letter came from Joseph Ngomo, who could no
longer help, but whose evident dedication to his students
should be a fine example of the new spirit of Africa.

Dear Sir,

P. O. Box 1432

Gilgil, Kenya

23 February 1967

I thank you for your kind letter of 18 November
which has taken so long time to catch me up.
I can no longer be of help for you with the danc-
ing worm as I am transferred from Lokori and
will I hear soon be transferred also from here.
As a senior teacher I am moved about where
needed and moved on again when things

Th(x«li dimisaiirs aiul Dinothcres
May long ago ha\« disappeared.
Despite tix'\oiunies rK>v\- innrint
Sonx" cn-atiires just d»>n't take thi' hint.
Tbtixtse who sav it cannot be
Tlx" DaiK iiicWtirni savsconieand see,
While in its nonx' with 'dance and pomp
h rules the vast Ayangyangi Swamp.

m aioor iw am

kSCh u.1. oi

Above, "Christmas Greetings."

This month's Cover shows old Kenya hand Bryan Patterson and
prey. He apparently bagged the little fellow tvith the shotgun in his
right hand. Hunter Patterson brought down several Field Mtiseum
staff members with the same shot. The Editor of the Bulletin feels
the Cover is appropriate for an issue published in April.

are going well.

Before I left Lokori Akai had gone as far as
was possible for him in the school. His family
has no money for further education and he is
with his father's goats again. This is sad
for a teacher but Akai knows more than his
father and his son will know more again and so
we build. Harambee!

I am sorry your name was wrong in my letter
but so it was in the paper. This time you see
I use air letter.

Yours faithfully,
Joseph N. Ngomo

A most welcome visitor to Field Museum was able to
add a tiny bit of corroboration. Bryan Patterson, formerly
Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Field Museum, and
now Agassiz Professor of the same at Harvard University,
stopped to see his former associates early last year. Patter-
son, who had been in Kenya recently on field work, which
resulted, incidentally, in some remarkable discoveries about
hominid evolution, knew of Patel's uncle, whom he consid-
ered something of a rascal. A witty and charming man, he
read the letters with delighted interest but he had never
heard of the Dancing Worm of Turkana.

Professor Patterson had every reason to be delighted with
the letters, for they represented a job well done. There were
perhaps ten people in the Paleontology lab as he read the
letters, but only one man knew that the letters had sprung
from the same hand, their writers from a single brain, and
that the Worm inhabited not the Ayangyangi Swamp but a
similar habitat, the mind of Professor Bryan Patterson.

The collective leg of Field Museum had been thoroughly
pulled. The hoax, admitted finally by a geologist in Pat-
terson's confidence, although not yet by the author himself,
was elaborate, satisfying and structurally magnificent. The
delicate weave of hint and doubt, of fact and myth, of virtue
and vice in the correspondents is convincing, but, in the
final analysis, Patterson's greatest ally was the human will
to believe. All of us wanted a Dancing Worm. We will
miss it.

In fact, we will miss all of them — Colonel Cloudesley,
in the sunset of a distinguished military career; the acquisi-
tive Indian merchant, Mr. Patel; the devoted school teacher,
Joseph Ngomo, and bright little Akai, back with his father's
goats. But most of all, the Worm, who danced with waving
arms by moonlight in the depths of the swamp, who gave
milk, whose bite killed men. We mourn its passing.

One final message closes out the file: A card came to
Gene Richardson last Christmas. On the cover was a photo
of a well-known Agassiz Professor of Paleontology looking
with obvious distaste at a Dancing Worm, which he has
clearly just bagged with the shotgun in his hand. Inside
the card, a short verse and a page headed "The End of The
Hunt" and signed by our old friends.

The end of the hunt, yes. But not the end of the season.
It is now open season on Mr. Bryan Patterson.

Page 6 APRIL

About forty years ago the postmaster of Spargo, Colo-
rado, Mr. Courtney Dow, wrote that he would Hke to show
me a large and unique ruin, perched on the rim of Cow
Canyon in southwestern Colorado.

I visited the site in the company of Mr. Dow and found
that it was large, interesting and untouched. I also noted
that it included a Great Kiva — which made it unique for
this area for, at that time. Great Kivas were known mostly
from an area called Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. And here
was one some 200 miles away from the homeland of such
great ceremonial structures!

That fact aroused my curiosity about this site. Many
questions came to mind, the most obvious one being "was
there a relationship between the Great Kiva at Lowry
Pueblo and those to the south and east?"'

Left, Lowry Pueblo as it appeared forty years ago, when

the author began to dig. Below, restored Lowry Pueblo,

a National Historical Landmark. The two photographs

were taken from nearly the same spot.

We spent four seasons at Lowry Pueblo, 1930-34, and
excavated 37 dwelling rooms, eight kivas and the Great
Kiva, or about 95 percent of the site. We were shot at by
a homesteader who thought we were stealing his gold treas-
ure (sic) ! We endured snows, rains, floods, and droughts;
we operated on a budget that was modest indeed (one
year it was $1,000); we weathered a depression; and yet
we got a lot done. During our last season, we received
heaven-sent help in the form of labor from the County
Emergency Relief Administration (later W.P.A.).

What are some of the results of those four years of
digging and research:

The site on which the pueblo was built is a knoll over-
looking a small canyon at the bottom of which was formerly
a small, permanent stream fed by springs. On clear days,
to the southwest one can see the odd formations of sand-
stone that give their name to Monument Valley.

Sometime about A. D. 500-700, a group of farmer In-
dians settled on this knoll and dug their abodes, called pit
houses, in the virgin clay. Several such subterranean struc-
tures were encountered beneath the walls and floors of the
later town and below the floors of kivas, which are them-
selves also subterranean. Pottery and tools of stone and
bone were found still present on these most ancient and
earliest floors.

It seems likely that these first comers remained at the
site, for it had many advantages to an incipient farmer folk
and would not lightly be relinquished.

Lowry Pueblo

Then and Now

by Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator Emeritus, Anthropology

APRIL Page 7

About the year a.d. 900, the pit house inhabitants
embarked on a program that was eventually to alter radi-
cally their way of life. They built a cluster of four rooms
or so with contiguous walls of stone masonry on top of the
ground. Thus came into being a "pueblo," which means
"village" and implies the so-called honeycomb structure of
adjoining rooms, with stone-masonry partitions that served
as a common wall for two rooms. This arrangement is
a great economy in efTort. The old-time subterranean
abodes were retained as places of worship and rituals and
still are today, called "ki-va" — or, literally, "house-old" —
a most appropriate appellation.

Canyon, New Mexico, about 100 miles southeast of Lowry.

Eventually, the pueblo encompassed 50 rooms, and was
two stories high. If all the rooms were simultaneously
occupied, Lowry may have housed a population of about
60 to 100.

About A.D. 1200, the town was abruptly abandoned.
Personal and family items were left behind when the people
moved out.

Why was this pueblo abandoned? Why were hundreds
of other towns also forsaken- mostly in the 13th century?
Many explanations have been suggested, although none
of them has been set up as a hypothesis to be tested. I

These two photos show the Great Kiva as it was when first found and as it looks today.

Nearly 50 feet in diameter, the Great Kiva was the religious center of the Pueblo, and may

have served the same function for nearby satellite communities.

I am unable to give the explanation for this great change,
but I am fairly sure it was brought about by a modification
in some aspect of their culture, svich as a shift in the econ-
omy, in the sociology, in the religion, or in all three. It
was certainly an adaptation to a changing environment.

As the families extended through marriage, more rooms
were added. When a daughter married, she brought her
husband (from a nearby village) to live with her and
her family, and more rooms were added to make space
for the additional people. Family "suites" can be clearly
observed by noting architectural featiwes, connecting doors,
and similiarities in masonry styles.

Staple foods were beans, corn, and squash, phis meats
obtained by hunting deer, antelope, mountain sheep, elk,
and smaller mammals.

As the town grew in size, it became gradually more
important. A Great Kiva some 47 feet in diameter was
built, which is twice or three times as big as the smaller
kivas. It is possible that this feature, the only one in the
immediate area, also served nearby satellite communities.

The Great Kiva and much of the pottery are stylis-
tically similar to great kivas and the pottery found in Chaco

think we can definitely rule out epidemics, invasions, or
meteoritic showers.

Two possibilities remain: a change in the pattern of
rainfall so that moisture came at the wrong time of year to
make possible the successful raising of crops. If farmers
cannot grow crops, they cannot eat — and one solution is
to move on. Where they moved is not known.

The second possible explanation is that the people had
progressed as far as they could. Without a new technology
for growing crops or new source of energy, they were
doomed.

After we finished ovir work, Lowry Pueblo was again
abandoned — the first time, about a.d. 1200, and the second
time, in 1934. .'Knd there this ancient village stood, un-
tended, unwanted, unnecessary.

It remained in obscurity until just three years ago. In
1965, Dr. Robert Lister, Professor of Anthropology, Uni-
versity of Colorado, Boulder, in cooperation with the United
States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Manage-
ment, recommended that Lowry Pueblo be set aside as a
"National Historic Landmark."

I am indebted to the Colorado State Director of the

Pnse S .APRIL

Bureau of Land Management, Mr. E. I. Rowland, who
informs me that "... the Historic Landmark program is
handled by the Park Service. Designation of a site is made
by the Secretary of the Interior. The Historic Sites Act
of 1935 directs the Secretary of the Interior to make a
nation-wide survey for the purpose of determining those
of exceptional value. The survey is conducted by National
Park Service historians and archaeologists. Their recom-
mendations are screened by a Consulting Committee and
by the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historical Sites,
Buildings and Monuments. The Board then submits its
recommendations to the Secretary who has final rcsponsi-

In two seasons' time (1966-1967) and with the help of
excavators, masons, and bulldozers, Mr. Lancaster finished
the imposing job.

On Octoger 17, 1967, Lowry Pueblo was dedicated by
the members and more than 300 guests of the Colorado
office of the Bureau of Land Management. After an invo-
cation given in Navajo by a Navajo Indian, some Hopi
children from a nearby school (Fort Lewis) put on a brief
sacred dance, perhaps reminiscent of ancient ceremonial
dances. A few remarks by guests, and a dedication an-
nouncement and the brief ceremony ended with Lowry
Pueblo now a Xationol IImIoik Landmark.

Left, Paul Martin's party excavating the small kiva at Lowry, in 1931. At right, Paul Martin atop a
1926 Pierce-Arrow touring car. Martin filmed the area and the site from this vantage point.

bility for declaring sites eligible for the Registry of National
Historic Landmarks."

Mr. Rowland also advised me of some of the criteria
used in selecting Landmarks. The site must have excep-
tional value in American history and must have produced
information of major scientific importance by revealing new
cultures or shedding light upon periods of occupation over
large areas of the United States.

Lowry Pueblo passed all requirements. All that re-
mained was to implement the decision of the Secretary by
reopening and repairing the site. A team was organized
to draw up plans for the re-excavation and stabilization
of the pueblo, kivas and Great Kiva. This group consisted
of Lister and experts from the Bureau of Land Management,
William E. Claycomb, R. F. Noble, James H. O'Connor,
E. I. Rowland, VV. Reynolds, and A. VV. Zimmerman.

Mr. Allan Lancaster, famous in the National Park Ser-
vice for his excavations and restorations at Mesa Verde
National Park, was placed in charge of the work. By a
happy coincidence, Mr. Lancaster was my chief assistant
at Lowry ruin and others from 1928-1932. No person
more eminently fitted for the job of rehabilitating Lowry
Pueblo could have been found.

I was invited to be present at the ceremony, which
was simple and moving. It seemed strange to be sitting
on a platform with Al Lancaster and other notables and
to realize that some 30 years earlier, I had partially earned
my spurs by excavating this site.

Today, Lowry Pueblo is reached by good roads in less
than an hour from Cortez, Colorado. All the wind-blown
dirt that had accumulated against the outer walls of the
building during 10 centuries has been removed. I saw walls
and other features that I had never before seen, since wc
could not afford to move such masses of dirt (thousands of
tons). The Great Kiva has been completely restored except
for the roof. The rooms are easily viewed from many key
spots and at these spots the Bureau of Land Management
has erected informative, easily-read signs that give the tour-
ist a clear idea of what he is looking at. A bronze plaque
denoting national ownership and other addenda greet the
visitor as he walks toward this great and ancient town.

Today, Lowry Pueblo is an impressive and noble sight.
I was awed, because I realized that here Man had lived,
worshipped, adapted to an arid ecological environment and
had at last been forced to relinquish his heritage — because
corn no longer would grow?

APRIL Page 9

A Tropical Spring

by William C. Burger,

Assistant Curator, Vascular Plants

The skies have been clear for almost five months, with only
an occasional cloud formation and a rare shower or two.
The earth is parched; almost all the plants are leafless.
The wind, dry and dust-laden, has blown steadily from
the north and east. But now there is a change : the winds
are shifting, and soon they will sweep in from the south.
Fluffy clouds begin to form and then develop into thunder-
heads. The air is becoming sweet with moisture. The
monsoon has begun, and with the advent of this rainy
season there comes a tropical spring.

Many people think of the tropics as a steaming jungle
where luxuriant vegetation prospers throughout the year;
however, these areas are in the minority. Most tropical
regions experience a dry season for at least part of the year.
The duration of the dry period determines whether an
area has a tall evergreen forest, a deciduous forest, or a
sub-desert thorn-scrub. The area in eastern Ethiopia that
I am familiar with has a dry period of nearly six months,
and here the rains support a vegetation of deciduous trees.
These are trees like our own that lose their leaves at the end
of the growing season.

In a way, the monsoon, seasonally wet and dry or
tropical climate, is similar to our own in the temperate zone.
The dry season is comparable to our winter, and our sum-
mer is similar to the growing or wet period of the seasonally
dry tropics. In these areas even the size of trees and density
of vegetation may look similar to ours. For plants, winter
and the dry season are very much alike : periods when physi-
ological processes stop or are severely limited . Cold weather
prevents the plant from moving water rapidly through its
tissues, producing a physiological drought not unlike a cli-
matic drought. For animals, too, winter and the dry season
are the times of food scarcity.

The end of the dry period and the coming of the rains
usher in a new cycle of growth and activity, it is a tropical
springtime. Like our spring it heralds the blooming of
flowers and leafing of trees, the nesting of birds and the
emergence of insects. The comparison of temperate and
tropical "spring" is not an unreasonable consideration.
Plants and animals have adjusted in much the same fashion
to the exigencies of winter and of drought. When the cold
period or the dry period ends, the responses of living things
are also similar. For plants, as for animals, survival through
a long cold or dry period requires the storage of food.
Whether in seeds, underground bulbs or roots, the plant
must have food to carry it through the dry period and per-
mit the resumption of active growth in springtime. Perhaps
the most spectacular plants of springtime are those that ex-
hibit this point best: plants such as the tulip, hyacinth and
iris. These have an abundant undergroimd store of food
which permits them to produce a large and brilliant floral

Page 10 APRIL

Crinum in flower. Photos taken in eastern Ethiopia
by the author.

display at the beginning of the growing season. Energy is re-
quired to produce a large cluster of flowers, and this energy
comes from the food produced during the previous growing
season and stored over the winter. Similarly, some of the
most spectacular flowers of the seasonally dry African trop-
ics are those related to tulips and irises. These, too, have
underground storage organs, and they also have the ability
to produce an extraordinary floral display in a short period
of time. In only two weeks Haemanthus, Crinum, and many
lily-like plants can produce a cluster of flowers remarkable
in size and number. Likewise, many trees of the tropics will
come into flower at the beginning of the rains, not unlike
our redbuds, dogwoods, and fruit trees. These, too, have
food stored in their roots from the previous growing season.

Haemanthus multiflorus, a blood lily, in full flower while
ntker plants around it have only begun to sprout.

Pancratium, a spider lily, has cracked the bare earth in
sending up its flower stalk.

A problem that these plants encounter, both in the tem-
f)erate and seasonally-dry tropic zones, is timing. A warm
period in midwinter does not cause apple trees to blossom,
nor does Haemanthus burst into flower after an unusually
heavy rain in the middle of the dry season. Obviously,
these plants have internal mechanisms that usually prevent
premature flowering. These internal mechanisms, called
dormancy requirements, have been extensively stvidied for
temperate plants such as the tulip, but they have scarcely
been investigated in tropical plants that pass through a long,
dry season. I collected a terrestrial orchid in an acacia
thorn-scrub vegetation that was flowering in April at the
beginning of the rains. This is a very dry habitat for or-
chids, and only one orchid species is known from this par-
ticular area. This plant was taken to a greenhouse at much
higher elevation where the temperatures were cooler and
quite consistent throughout the year. It was watered regu-
larly, and in the two following years produced inflorescences

The Crinum plant. Only the leaves and flower
stalks are seen above ground. The large bulb stores
jood underground during the long dry season.

only in .April-May. The only reasonable explanation for
this precise flowering behaviour is to assume that the plant
was sensitive to changes in day length: that the lengthening
days of April triggered flower production. But since this
plant was living about ten degrees north of the equator it
had to respond to a change in day-length of less than 40
minutes. In this region the longest and shortest days differ
by only that amount. There are probably many other
ways in which plants of seasonally-dry areas are stimulated
to resume growth at the proper time.

While the trees and flowering herbs in the seasonally dry
tropics give the advent of the rainy season a spring-like
aspect, animals also behave as if it was spring. Many birds
court and begin to nest at this time. Reptiles that have
withdrawn into deep crevices for a period of inactivity
during the dry season begin to move about again. This
is the time of year when the roadways take their great-
est toll, when snakes rarely encoimtered in the bush are
found the victims of a passing car. Frogs and even fish
that have survived under a hardened roof of mud becoine
active once more as ponds refill and rivers start to run. In-
sects hatch from eggs or chrysalids, and a new cycle of activ-
ity begins. Where only the dry wind could be heard before,
there is now a cacophony of sounds; singing birds, buzzing
insects and at night the frogs and toads join in.

For men too, the beginning of the monsoon is a spring-
time. In areas with sufficient rainfall the farmer tills and
plants his fields. In more arid areas the pastoralist, after
many lean months, finds abundant food for his livestock;
this is the time for calving and milk is in abundance. For
many people the dry period is a time of hardship, for others
simply uncomfortable with its dust and desiccating air. In
these periods of long drought the skin becomes parched, lips
chap; the discomfort sets nerves on edge and teinpers flare.
There is no water for washing, it is too precious. In some
areas there may not be enough to drink. Arguments for
water rights are serious, sometimes fatal, and the nomads
with their livestock wander in constant search. But with the
coming of the rains, with water, browse and food again
available, people change. They relax their wanderings,
and it is easier for all to get along. For the nomadic herds-
men living in areas too dry to plant a crop, springtime is a
time for marriages, feasts, and settling debts. For these
people it is a short spring, a rainy period that ends soon and
then the wandering search for water and browse again be-
comes a serious task.

With the continuance of rain and growth, spring passes
into summer. The rainy period with its cloudy weather and
cooler temperature is often called winter by English-speak-
ing people in the tropics, even though it is the growing sea-
son. In areas with a long and consistent wet period many
plants will flower at the end of the rains and into the short,
dry season. These areas do not exhibit the burst of flower-
ing foimd in regions with a short and less reliable wet season.
This sudden renaissance of growth that takes place in as
little as two weeks is characteristic of the drier tropics. It is
what I have called a tropical spring.

APRIL Page II

WEEKEND FIELD TRIPS SET

Three weekend trips are planned to explore the botany and geology in and
around Galena. May 18-19, (with a mine visit), Starved Rock State Park,
May 25-26, and Devils Lake State Park, \Visconsin, on June 8-9. These
overnight trips are conducted by Botanist Gabriel Edwin and Geologist Mat-
thew Nitecki, Curators at the Museum. The objective of these field trips is
the investigation of the correlations between the rocks and spring flowers,
especially the effects of the geologic history on flowering plants. The field
studies will be supplemented by evening discussions and demonstrations on
plants and rocks collected during the day. The cost for three trips is estimated
at S50.00; or S20.00 for individual weekends. The preliminary lecture for
all three trips will be held on Saturday, May 4th at 10 :00 a.m. at the University
of Chicago, Downtown Center, 65 E. South W'ater Street. For further infor-
mation phone Barbara O'Connor, Financial 6-8300.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Aprilhours:0penfrom9a.m.to5p.m.

April 6 Spring Series of Saturday Morni.ng Programs for Children be-
gins with Museum Traveler Day and presentation of awards to children who
have successfully participated in the Museum's Journey Program conducted
by the Raymond Foundation. A color film, "The Journals of Lewis and
Clark," depicting the historical trek across the Northwestern United States
from 1803 to 1809, will be shown. 10:30 a.m., James Simpson Theatre.

April 6 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy,
lecturer. 10 a.m. First of three lectures, second floor meeting room.

April 6 Film-Lecture Series: Mexico by Gene Wiancko, 2:30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre

April 13 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy,
lecturer. 10 a.m. Second of three lectures, second floor meeting room.

April 13 Film-Lecture Series: The Holy La.nds by Richard Linde, 2:30 p.m.
in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 20 Spring Series of S.'^turd.w Mor.ning Progra.ms for Children
Camp Fire Girl Day program will feature early history of the State of Illi-
nois, with emphasis on the Indians of the area and plants and animals they
used. 10:30 a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 20 Meteorite Course Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy
lecturer. 10 a.m. Final lecture of series, second floor meeting room.

April 20 Film-Lecture Series: India by Fran William Hall, 2:30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre.

April 21 - 27 Geology Ozarks Trip Field Museum, in cooperation with

the University of Chicago, will sponsor the trip which will include a study

• of geological phenomena in the field, collection of minerals and fossils, and

evening lectures. Matthew H. Xitecki will conduct the tour. Tuition is

S85. To apply call Miss O'Connor, FI 6 - 8300.

April 27 Spring Series of Saturd.ay Morning Programs for Children
Cub Scout Day will center its theme around life forms found in the sea.
10:30 a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 27 Film-Lecture Series: The B.\ham.as — From Top to Bottom by Harry
Pederson, 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Through May: Spring Journey: Plants that the .\meric.vn Indi.\ns Used.

Illinois Audubon Society, .April 3, 7:30 p.m.

Chicago Shell Club, April 7, 2 p.m.

..r-r-r-.i.^^ N.^TURE Camera Club OF Chic.\go, April 9. 7 :45 p.m.

MEETINGS: „ ., „ * -7 n o

Chicago Mount.\ineering Club, -April 11, 8 p.m.

j Sierra Club, Gre.\t Lakes Chapter, April 16, 7:30 p.m.

I Illinois Orchid Society, .\pril 21, 2 p.m.

GEOLOGY FILMS
MADE FOR TV

Two new educational television pro-
grams, "Down to Earth" and "From
Fish to Mammal," written by Ernest
Roscoe, Raymond Foundation Lecturer
in Geology, are now available for use by
teachers and schools served by the New
Trier Township Instructional Television
system.

Robert Pirsein, NTT-IT\' Coordi-
nator, and the Raymond Foundation of
Field Museum have coojjerated in the
production of the programs, which in-
volved many hours of preparation and
filming, some done in the Museum.

Emphasizing that these programs give
students only a small sampling of the
material available at Field Museum,
Roscoe said, "It is hoped that the student
will visit the Museum many times in the
future to augment classroominstruction.
The fjotentialities of reaching large num-
bers of students and teachers through
this medium, of carrying the Museum's
educational efforts far beyond its walls,
is one of the most exciting challenges we
have faced."

Roscoe wasjoined on the programs by
Mrs. Penny Knepper, a sixth grade
teacher at Logan School in Wilmette.
NTT-ITV reaches more than 17,000
students and 1,000 teachers in 25 par-
ticipating schools in the New Trier High
School district and .Avoca, Glencoe, Ken-
ilworth, Sunset Ridge, ^Vilmette and
VVinnetka school districts from the trans-
mission site at New Trier High School
East in \Vinnetka.

Programs are developed and produced
by cooperative efforts of curriculum ex-
perts, school administrators, teachers,
T\^ specialists and subject-matter ex-
perts, said Pirsein.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVE1.T ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS tOMS A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSH ALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Page 12 APRIL

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

LLETIN FIELD MUSfE^M OF NAtCdMVI^^HI^TOR

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THIS MONTH'S COVER

2 May, 73 A.D.

The Tenth Legion, Flavius Silva commanding,

advances on Masada, in the last engagement of

the Jewish War. Josephus, a Jewish commander

who earlier in the war went over to Rome,

wrote the history of the desperate rebellion of

the Jews against Imperial Rome.

In the last book of his History, he describes the

morning of 2 May

The Romans, still expecting opposition, were in

arms at daybreak. Having planked bridges

from the mounds to the fortress, they advanced

to the assault. When they saw no enemy

but only fearful solitude on every side, flames

within, and silence, they were at a loss

to conjecture what had happened. ... In an

attempt to quench the flames, they

quickly opened a passage through them and

reached the palace. Here they encountered the

mounds of the slain. Instead of rejoicing

at the death of their foes, they admired

the courage of their resolve and the intrepid

contempt of death so many had shown by such

a deed as this.

The diorama on the cover, which in its entirety
shows over five thousand military miniatures
of Roman legionaries, is part of a major
Special Exhibit, opening at Field Museum on
5 May.

Masada, King Herod's Fortress, shown with great
acclaim in London and New York, will be at
Field Museum through 15 August. The exhibit
was organized by the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America and the Israel
Exploration Society.

In connection with the exhibit. Field Museum
is sponsoring a lecture series on the significance
of Masada. Four evening lectures will be
held on consecutive Tuesdays in May and
June. Details on the series and the
distinguished speakers are on page 7.
The Exhibit tells the story not only of the heroic
struggle and brave end of the zealot
stronghold, but also the arduous and pains-
taking work of Archaeologist Yigael Yadin
and more than 5000 volunteers from
28 countries who dug the site in 1963-65.
Mr. Yadin tells the story in the following
pages.

Page 2 MAT

by

YIGAEL YADIN

Professor of Archaeology,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

MASADA

The rock of masada, at the eastern edge of the wilderness
of Jiidea, with a sheer drop of more than 1,300 feet to the
western shore of the Dead Sea, is a site of gaunt and majestic
beauty. It is also the location of one of the most dramatic
episodes in Jewish history.

In the first century c.E. (Common Era — .'V.d.), Palestine
was under the occupation of the Romans, who had over-
thrown the Jewish Kingdom in the middle of the previous
century. Periodic rebellions by the inhabitants, who sought
to regain their freedom and sovereignty, were quickly
crushed. But in the year 66 c.E., the Jewish rebellion flared
into a full-scale country-wide war which raged with fierce
bitterness for four years, with the Romans having to bring
in legion after legion of reinforcements. In 70 c.E., Titus
conquered Jerusalem, sacked the city, destroyed the Temple
and expelled many of the Jewish survivors from the country.

One outpost alone held out, Masada. At the beginning
of the rebellion, a group of Jewish zealots had destroyed the
Roman garrison of Masada and held it throughout the war.
They were soon joined by a few surviving patriots from
Jerusalem who had evaded capture and expulsion and made
the long, arduous trek across the Judean wilderness, deter-
mined to continue their battle for freedom. With the fortress
of Masada as their base for raiding operations, they harried
the Romans for two years. In 72 c.E., Flavius Silva, the
commander of the Tenth Roman Legion, resolved to crush
this outpost of resistance. He marched on Masada with a
legion and auxiliary troops, with thousands of prisoners of
war carrying water, timber and provisions across the lengthy
stretch of barren plateau. The Jews at the top of the rock,
commanded by Eleazar ben Yair, prepared to defend them-
selves, making use of the natural and man-made fortifica-
tions, and rationing the supplies in their storehouses and
cisterns.

Silva's men tried to storm the fortress. They were beaten
back. Denied swift victory, they prepared for a lengthy
siege. They established camps around the base of the rock;
the remains of eight are visible to this day. They built a
circumvallation around the fortress. And, on a rocky site
near the western approach to Masada, they constructed a
ramp of beaten earth and large stones. On this they threw

up a siege tower and, imder covering fire from its top, they
moved a battering-ram up the ramp and directed it against
the fortress wall. They finally succeeded in effecting a
breach. The defenders countered by rapidly building an
inner wall consisting of a double stockade of wood filled
with earth. Silva's reply was to set this ablaze with fire-
brands. This was the beginning of the end. What hap-
pened next we know from the writings of the contemporary
historian, Josephus Flavius. When "the whole of the wall"
was in flames, "the Romans . . . returned to their camp full
of spirits, and with a fixed determination to attack the enemy
at the break of day. . . ."

That night, at the top of Masada, the Jewish leader,
Eleazar ben Yair, reviewed the hopeless position. The de-
fensive wall was now consumed. The Romans would over-
run them on the following day. There was no hope of relief
and none of escape. Two alternatives remained: surrender
or death. He resolved "that a death of glory was preferable
to a life of infamy, and that the most magnanimous resolu-
tion would be to disdain the idea of surviving the loss of their
liberty." Rather than become slaves to their conquerers,
the defenders — 960 men, women and children — thereupon
ended their lives at their own hands. When the Romans
reached the height next morning, they were met with silence.
Then two women emerged, the only two who had not gone
through with Eleazar's plan and had hidden themselves.
It is their story that Josephus recoimts.

The top of Masada, scene of this drama, is shaped like a
boat, measuring some 1,900 feet from its northern to its
southern points and 650 feet from east to west.

It was Herod the Great, King from 37 b.c.e. to 4 b.c.e.,
who turned Masada into a formidable fort in the early years
of his reign, creating a citadel of potential refuge from the
threat of Cleopatra of Egypt. He built a casemate wall
around the top, defense towers, storehouses, barracks, ar-
senals, palaces and also a magnificent palace-villa, built on
three terraces of the cliffside just beneath the northern edge
of the summit. He also dug large cisterns linked ingenu-
ously to dry riverbeds which occasionally filled with rain
water. It was these fortifications and buildings that served
the last band of Jewish fighters in their struggle against the

MAY Page 3

Romans some 75 years after Herod's death.

All this was known, from Josephiis' minute descriptions,
to travellers, explorers and archaeologists who were drawn
to the site since its rediscovery by the American, Edward
Robinson (father of biblical geography), more than 130
years ago. Those interested in Roman siege-craft could
study the easily accessible and uniquely preserved remains
of Roman circumvallation, assault rampart and camps at
the foot of Masada. But classical archaeologists, interested
in these Herodian structures, could do little more than look
at the surface remains. After a strenuous climb to the top
of the "snake path" on the eastern face, they could experi-
ence a sense of achievement simply at having viewed the site,
while all thought of excavations was piu out of their minds.

Rectangular Roman camps are still visible after nearly
2000 years.

The Englishman, Captain Condor, in 1867, describing his
ascent by the dangerous path with delight wrote, "A false
step here would have been destruction : we arrived at the top
at 5:20 p.m. and gave three cheers, re-echoed from below."
But it was only after the establishment of the State of
Israel that more became known of Masada through ama-
teur research by the youth of the country. This led in 1955
and 1956, to soundings on the top of the rock by an Israeli
archaeological expedition. These showed that Masada could
be excavated only by a large-scale expedition camping on
the site for a protracted period. It fell to me to direct this
archaeological exploration. We imdertook two campaigns :
seven months in 1963-4 and five months in 1964-5, and by
May 1, 1966, we had excavated 96 per cent of the built-up
area of Masada. The remaining three per cent was left
unexcavated intentionally so that future visitors could get
a before and after picture.

We faced enormous administrative and logistic problems.
The Israel army bulldozed a 15-mile track over the Judean
wilderness so that we could reach Masada by the easier,
western approach, leaving us only a gentle 10-minute climb
to the top. The Israel water authority laid a pipeline. We
pitched 40 tents for the expedition close to Silva's camp;
we had to select an inferior site since Silva had made the
strategic choice. From there we built cable-ferries to lift

Volunteers from many countries joined in the excavations

the equipment to the summit. To these difficult conditions
were added uncommonly hard winters, with heavy rains
and storms.

In addition to teams of professional archaeologists, we
had the usual avalanche of applications from Israeli volun-
teers whom we took for two-week periods. We then decided
on an unusual step and opened our lists to volunteers from
overseas. The response was extraordinary. Throughout the
two seasons of digging, we were joined by thousands of
volunteers from 28 covmtries, who came at their own
expense and put in an exciting two-week stint, often
extended to many months. If we managed to achieve all
we did in 12 months of excavation it is due only to the en-
thusiasm of these volunteers from home and abroad, the
Israeli youth movements and the Israel ariny.

Our finds are of immense importance to archaeologists,
historians, numismatists, Scroll researchers, Talmudic schol-
ars and students of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. We were
able to clarify the nature of the architecture, art and stra-
tigraphy of all Masada's buildings, from Herod's time up to
the Byzantine period. We uncovered magnificent first cen-
tury iTiosaics, the earliest ever found in Israel. We unearthed
the buildings of the Zealots — and gruesome evidence of their
last stand. Rare coins were found of the period of the Jew-
ish revolt — from 66 to 70 c.E. We discovered extremely

Paged MAT

precious documents, including biblical scrolls, and scrolls
of the Dead Sea Sect, which can be absolutely dated from
before 73 c.e., the first time that ancient scrolls can be spe-
cifically and absolutely dated. And we have been able to
recreate the patterns of life on the top of this rock during its
various periods of occupation.

The most spectacular building on Masada was Herod's
three-tiered palace-villa (hitherto inaccessible except by the
use of stakes and rope ladders, but now served by permanent

King Herod's three-tiered palace.

staircases installed for us by the army). On the upper ter-
race are remains of a rectangular building used as living
quarters, with a magnificent semicircular porch bounded
by the cliff. The rooms were adorned with frescoes and
simple black and white mosaic floors. The middle terrace,
60 feet below, boasted a circular pavilion and colonnade.
The bottom terrace, 40 feet lower, was the outstanding area
of the villa, and the best preserved. It contained a double
colonnade surrounding a large patio, with wall paintings of
colored panels. Though some of these paintings show a
naive attempt to imitate marble and precious stones, they
are well executed, in the style popular during that period
throughout the Roman Empire. This villa is the only spot
on Masada which enjoys constant shelter from the searing
desert winds. This, in fact, was the structure described by
Josephus as Herod's palace. This description, until re-
cently, was erroneously taken to refer to the large build-
ing in the middle of the western part of the plateau. That,
we discovered, was indeed the official palace, but the north-
ern terraced structure was Herod's private retreat.

When we excavated Herod's palace, we foimd it com-
pletely covered with a thick layer of ashes, and it was in the
ashes of the lower terrace that we came across gruesome
evidence of the fate of the Jewish defenders. Lying among

coins of the Jewish revolt, a letter in Aramaic, a mantle,
arrows and hundreds of silver-plated scales of armor, were
the remains of skeletons of a man, a woman and a youth.
Dark brown braids were still attached to the scalp of the
woman and nearby were her leather sandals. Josephus had
written, ". . . and the one man left till last, first surveyed
the serried ranks of the dead, in case amidst all the slaughter
someone was still left in need of his hand; then, finding that
all had been dispatched, set the palace blazing fiercely, and
summoning all his strength drove his .sword right through
his body and fell dead by the side of his family."

South of the hanging palace were the ruins of a large
complex of buildings consisting of long, narrow halls. These

Shaft of light pierces a giant cistern at Masada.

were the famous storerooms built by Herod. We found the
floors littered with huge piles of debris, mostly of stone, be-
longing to the walls and roofs which had collapsed when the
Zealots burned their stores before their suicide. We discov-
ered hundreds of jars containing remnants of food, each food
item kept in a separate room. Some of the jars had been
made in Herod's time, but they were also used by the Jewish
defenders, who replenished them, and wrote labels describ-
ing their contents in Aramaic and Hebrew. These short
inscriptions were of great importance for the history of
Hebrew script, since they are unquestionably dated 66-
73 C.E. They also told us much of the way of life of the
defenders, for many of these inscriptions indicate that the
contents of certain jars were tithes set aside for the Levites
and Priests, and show how scrupulously they followed the
laws of Moses, even under the harsh conditions of belea-
guered Masada.

MAr Pages

Floor of the Roman bath's "hot room " once rested on
these squat pillars.

A great surprise awaited us when we started digging near
the storerooms. As we went deeper, we came across a classic
Roman-style public bath, which turned out to be the largest
of its kind ever found in this part of the world, and definitely
the best preserved, with all its installations and lavish adorn-
ments. The walls of the hot, tepid and cold rooms were
covered with frescoes, and their floors beautifully tiled. Also
well preserved were the clay pipes for the circulation of hot
air, and the numerous squat pillars on which the floor of the
hot room rest.

The western palace, the main palace of Herod, was the
largest structure on the rock. It was a royal residence com-
plete with throne room, reception room, service quarters,
and workshops, all very well laid out. Two large, multi-
colored mosaics were uncovered here. They are exquisitely
executed, and perhaps the finest ever found in Israel. Cer-
tainly, they are the most ancient. This palace, too, was
covered by a thick layer of ashes in which were found many
coins of the revolt bearing the inscription, For the freedom of
^ion. Several small palaces were found near the main pal-
ace, obviously built for Herod's family.

Northeast of this palace are the ruins of a small Christian
chapel erected by a group of monks in the fifth centurx'.
(They also built small cells in various places on Masada.)
The structure consists of a rectangular hall oriented toward
the east, with an inner apse. It had once been decorated
with handsome mosaic paving, most of it long since re-
moved. But we were lucky to find a beautiful mosaic still
intact in the adjoining room, the vestry.

Our greatest and most important finds were in the cham-
bers of the fortress casemate wall which encircles the top of
Masada. The Zealots had used these chambers as living
quarters, and here we found large quantities of domestic
utensils, as well as items made of perishable materials such

as mats, shoes, clothing. In some of the rooms we found a
small heap of embers in the corner, with remains of sandals,
clothing, mirrors; mute witness for the Josephus record;
"They quickly made one heap of all they possessed and set
it on fire." Several rooms contained collections of stone
balls which had been fired by the Roman catapults. These
chambers also yielded numerous bronze and silver coins,
including rare silver shekels of the revolt, some inscribed
Jerusalem the Holy — Shekel of Israel, and others inscribed Tear
Five, the last to be struck before the fall of the Temple. The
total number of coins found during the excavation is 4,000.
Among them are the equally rare silver half-shekels. This
constitutes the biggest corpus of Jewish and Roman coins of
the first half of the first century c.e. ever found in excavations.
From the Jewish point of view, the four most important
buildings we uncovered were a synagogue, two ritual baths
{mikveh) and a religious schoolroom, all added by the Zealots
to the Herodian buildings. They confirm that the Zeal-
ots were strict observers of the Jewish Law; for these three
institutions are the most important for a religious commu-
nity. The synagogue, abutting the northwestern wall, is a
rectangular hall with two rows of columns and mud benches
all around. It is oriented toward Jerusalem. This is not
only the earliest synagogue known, but the only one to sur-
vive from the time of the Second Temple. (The original
Herodian structure on this site was probably also a syna-
gogue.) Of the ritual baths, the first was found in a case-
made chamber in the southeastern section of the wall, and
the second in the courtyard of a large administrative build-
ing we uncovered just west of the storeroom complex. Both
are identical in plan and construction, each having three
basins or baths, one of which is supplied by rainwater as
required by religious law. These, too, are the only surviving
mikvehs from the period of the Second Temple. The school-
room {beth midrash) was one of the first important finds of
the excavation. It was located south of the western palace,
and consists of a long hall, with benches on three sides and
one in the center.

Fragment of ancient T' ,V****"

document was one ^ '•'C^
of the most impor- "- --^?^-
tant finds.

Page 6 MAT

Our greatest prize was, of course, the collection of parch-
ment scrolls that we unearthed, biblical and others. This
was the first time such scrolls have been discovered outside
caves and in proper stratigraphic contexts, which permits
dating them to before the destruction of the Temple in
70 c.E. They include chapters from Genesis, Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, Pslams and Ezekial, and are identical in text,
spelling and chapter division with the traditional Hebrew
Bible. We also found a scroll fragment of the long lost orig-
inal Hebrew manuscript of the Book of Jubilees, one of the
most important apocryphal works, which is reserved only
in Ethiopic, Greek and Latin manuscripts, but which was
suspected to have been originally written in Hebrew. It
was very popular with the Dead Sea Scroll Sect. Another
important find, also in the Apocrypha, was a first century
B.c.E. copy of the lost 200 b.c.e. Hebrew original of Eccle-
siasticus, also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Most
astonishing perhaps of our finds was a portion of a scroll,
identical with one of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments discov-
ered in Qumran Cave IV, consisting of liturgies associated
with the Heavenly Sabbath sacrifices. Since the Masada
Dead Sea Scroll portion can be clearly and definitely dated
for the first time as not later than the first half of the first
century c.e., it conclusively disproves the views of a very

small minority of scholars who hold that the Dead Sea
Scrolls are either not genuine or date only from medieval
times.

I should add that in addition to scrolls, we also found
no less than 700 ostraca (fragments of pottery bearing in-
scriptions) which will be the object of fruitful future study.
Among these the most important group, and certainly the
most intriguing, consists of eleven small potsherds, each with
a different name or nickname, and all written by the same
hand. The most startling is the sherd bearing the name of
Ben Yair, who may well be the very Zealot commander
mentioned by Josephus. Could this group of ostraca refer
to the ten or so last surviving men who drew lots among
themselves to determine who would remain to kill the others?
This is a tempting interpretation.

Our excavations are over. We archaeologists now face
the less romantic and more arduous scientific task of exam-
ining, studying, and assessing the tensof thousands of sherds,
deciphering the inscriptions, elucidating the scrolls, com-
pleting our stratigraphic plans, and evaluating all our data
both from the archaeological and historical viewpoints.
When this material is classified and published, it will, I hope,
help to present the scientific and spiritual reconstruction of
the Masada that was.

MASADA LECTURE SERIES

"The Historical Context of Masada," by Prof. William F.
Albright, W. W. Spence Professor Emeritus of Semitic Lan-
guages at Johns Hopkins University, will open a series of
four lectures related to the special exhibition on May 14.

Other lectures in the series will include "The Dead Sea
Scrolls and Early Sectarianism," by Prof. Norman Golb,
University of Chicago, May 28; "Josephus and Masada,"
by Prof. Morton Smith, Columbia University, June 4; and
"Israel, Crossroads of Empires and Civilizations: Archaeo-
logical Evidence," by Prof. Helene Kantor, University of
Chicago, June 11.

Prof. Albright, the first
lecturer, is an outstand-
ing authority on the ar-
chaeology of the Near East
and is a past president of
the International Associ-
ation of Old Testament
Scholars.

He earned his doctor-
ate in Semitic languages
from Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity in 1916 and from
1919 to 1936 was on the
staff of the American School
of Oriental Research in

Professor Albright

Jerusalem, twice serving as its director.

Prof. Albright holds 27 honorary doctorates from insti-
tutions in sev'cral countries and is a fellow or honorary mem-
ber of many learned societies.

.'\mong his many books arc several of general interest,
including From the Stone Age to Christianity, Archaeology and
the Religion oj Israel, The Archaeology oj Palestine, History, Ar-
chaeology and Christian Humanism, and Tahweh and the Gods oj
Canaan. With David Noel Freedman, he edits the Double-
day Anchor Bible.

Prof. Morton Smith, Professor of Ancient History at Co-
lumbia University, earned his doctorate in theology at the
Harvard Divinity School. His thesis, "Judaism in Pales-
tine I, to the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes," was recast
as a series of lectures on the History of Religions of the
American Council of Learned Societies. He is co-author
of The Ancient Greeks and Heroes and Gods (with Moses Hadas) .

Prof. Norman Golb and Prof. Helene Kantor are both
on the faculty of the Oriental Institute and the Department
of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Uni-
versity of Chicago.

Prof. Golb, Associate Professor of Medieval Jewish Stud-
ies, made several discoveries and identifications of Jewish
documents while secretary of the Institute of Jewish Studies
of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Prof. Kantor, Professor of Archaeology, is a specialist in
comparative archaeology and art of the ancient Near East
and formative stages of its civilizations. With P. P. De-
lougaz, she directed excavations at the large prehistoric
settlements and protohistoric urban centers of Beth Yerah
(Sea of Galilee) and Chogha Mish (Khuzestan, Iran).

The lecture series tickets are S5.00 for Museum Mem-
bers and $7.50 for non-members. Lectures will be held on
consecutive Tuesdays at 8:15 p.m. in the James Simpson
Theatre. The "Masada" exhibit will be open on the eve-
nings when lectures are held.

MAT Page 7

a Chicago original

The Burnham Plan

and Field Museum

by Patricia M. Williams, Field Museum Press

Right, The piers which support Field Museum, surrounded by fill.
The piers, in turn, are built on piles, some of which go down nearly a
hundred feet below lake level. Photo was taken looking northwest.
It is interesting that the Michigan Avenue sky-
line, after half a century, still has most of the
buildings shown here, although many additions
have been made. These were the great land-
marks of the Chicago School of architectiire,
buildings by Adler, Sullivan, Daniel Burnham.

The arches oj ,;.« -t.t.iid floor gallery. I'u tin Ufl, between the
arches, one now looks down into Stanley Field Hall. The area
shown houses a remarkable collection of Chinese pottery and
metal work. Photo was taken in January, 1919.

Today downtown Chicago is in the midst of an enormous
construction boom, and controversy rages over almost every
building that goes up. The traditionalists call the new
buildings glass boxes, the futurists decry the lack of archi-
tectural imagination, and the average pedestrian complains
about the mud all over the sidewalks surrounding construc-
tion sites.

The Columbian Exposition of 1893 created a lakefront
building boom too, that was the subject of great dissension.
At that time Chicago was an important force in modern
architecture, and designers and writers maligned the neo-
classical "White City" that was the fair. Not only did the
Fair slow down the modern movements in architecture, they
accused, but it "strangled the bustling Chicago style" as well.

"But even that much-maligned World's Columbian Ex-
position of 1893 was full of technological marvels; however
fake the exhibition buildings looked on the outside, the great
steel vaults of the Manufacturers Building were anything
but fake. And the fantastic Ferris wheel in the amusement

Pages MAY

:i^ ^_ l2-

rr- T> 'imirif '^^THfl PT • ff^-" tr* f ■ i V

area, and such giant machinery as the huge Bethlehem
steam hammer (the largest then extant) — all these were
evidence of a continuing love affair between Chicago and
technology in all its aspects."'

The Field Museum was one of the marvels of this con-
troversial fair. But when the Exposition was over and the
fanfare died away, the Museum lived on to become a dig-
nified and permanent resident of the lakefront. It did not,
however, live on in the same building. The original build-
ing in Jackson Park was constructed only for a summer's use
and by 1897 was rapidly deteriorating. The roof leaked con-
stantly, and the exhibits inside were exposed to damage.
The steady disintegration and fall of the substance covering
the outside walls made the building look a shambles. By
1900 the Museum's Director stated that it had been neces-
sary to reconstruct the roof almost completely, and in 1902
he reported that the whole building had reached the limits
of repair.

' Architectural Forum, May, 1962, p. 125.

In 1905 plans for a new building were considered, but
before these plans were completed the Jackson Park build-
ing suffered further collapse, and fences were erected to
protect the public from falling mortar. Inside, the collec-
tions were growing as the building died. In 1913 Director
Skiff wrote, "If the pressure for space continues, as it seems
likely it will do, some portions of the Museum must be closed
off as an improvised warehouse where cases can be stored.
... In some of the coiu-ts and halls the circulation provisions
have been reduced to two-feet passageways which really
almost prohibits an inspection of the cases." ■

Before Marshall Field died in 1906, he worked closely
with Daniel Burnham, the renowned designer and planner,
on the plans for the new Museum building. Despite the
critics. Field liked the design of the Jackson Park building
and of the Exposition in general and wanted the new build-
ing to follow this same tradition.

The Exposition had been planned and built under Burn-
ham's management, and it was this Fair that sparked his

MAT Page 9

interest in city planning and great civic enterprise. Burn-
ham, who coined the slogan so dear to every city planner's
heart — "Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir
man's blood," rightly believed that Chicago would never
again have the opportunity to devise a grand plan for the
city, so he set about to devise such a plan.

According to Architectural Foriim,^ "The 1909 Burnham
Plan for Chicago'' is the classic American master plan. It
was not the first of its kind. But in its time it was the most

structure in the world has ever had a nobler setting than
this would be."

Burnham's plan placed the Museum at Congress Street,
directly behind what is now Buckingham Fountain. The
Museum's east steps were to lead right to the water's edge
where Burnham envisioned a brilliantly-lighted yacht basin,
surrounded by floating islands reachable only by boat. On
the west, the Museum was to face the fountain and beyond
that the Confjress Street axis reaching west to Civic Centre

Corner slone ceremony, September 28,
1911. The Staff of Field Museum of
Natural History.

thorough appraisal of a city ever made, and its proposals
envisioned the most complete redevelopment of a city till
then attempted. And looking at the Burnham Plan today,
it is astounding that so much of it was realized.

"Indeed, most of the major features of today's Chicago
are products of the plan : the grand boulevard development
of Michigan Avenue, the elegant foundations and the ter-
races of Grant Park, the double-decked Wacker Drive and
bridges across the Chicago River, the axial cut of the Con-
gress Street Expressway, and the long string of lagooned
parks to the north and south along the lake. Even the 90-
degree turns on the Outer Drive at the crossing of the Chi-
cago River mark an incomplete stage of the plan, which was
faithfully followed up through World War II."

However, as was to be expected, much of Burnham's
plan was not realized. In a speech introducing his plan to
the noted Merchants Club, Biu-nham said, "The principal
feature of the Grant Park should be the Field Columbian
Museum, which should lie in the center of it, leaving a
parade ground on the north and a playground on the south
of it."

He went on, "Pictine to yourselves a stately white mu-
seum, resting on the Grand Terrace called the Lake Front,
and dominating all the elements of it; the lawns, the foun-
tains, the monuments, all of which should be placed so as
to have some reference to that particular building. No

' .irchitfclural Forum, May, 1962, p. 108.

Square at Halsted Street.

Obviously, the location of the Field Museum was a facet
of Burnham's plan that went awry. A provision in Marshall
Field's will gave the Museum $4,000,000 "for a building to
be erected upon a site to be furnished for that purpose, pro-
vided a suitable one is procured within six years from the
date of Mr. Field's death." The Board of Trustees, led by
Stanley Field, who was the driving force behind the con-
struction of the building, immediately began negotiations
for the desired Grant Park site. However, opposition to
placing any building in the park developed, and following
extended legal negotiations, the central Grant Park site was
abandoned.

In 1911, after considering several proposed sites in vari-
ous parts of Chicago, the Board accepted a site in Jackson
Park immediately north of the old building for construction
of the new building. A contract was entered into and prep-
arations begun for construction. Steel was at the site, the
marble was being quarried and collections of the Depart-
ment of Geology were moved from the west annex, where
they had been housed, to the central part of the building
when, in 1914, the South Park Commissioners offered a site
in the reclaimed area just south of Grant Park.

The offer was accepted, the steel and marble transferred,
and on July 26, 1915 construction work began. Rather than
breaking ground, Thompson-Starrett, the builders, had to
begin by filling ground. The natural elevation of the site

Page 10 M.AY

was some 30 feet below the floor of the projected Miiseimi
basement, and it took over a year to accompUsh the filling.

Although the technique used was not uncommon, the
laying of the foundation was a lengthy part of the construc-
tion job. The foundation consistsof clusters of wood pilings
which start below the lake level and extend another 65-95
feet down. Some of these pilings go to rock, others encoun-
tered a hard substance before the rock level.

These piles support 30 feet tall concrete piers which
reach up to the groimd floor. The number of piles in a
cluster is not uniform, but varies with the location of the
cluster. For examply, there are 22 piles in the cluster that
support the piers between the windows in the exterior walls,
while the piers supporting the walls adjacent to Stanley
Field Hall are atop 12-pile clusters.'

The next step, the setting of the outside marble, began
in May, 1917. The exterior walls are 21 inches thick and
the outer six inches of that are white marble, making the
marble a structural element as well as a beautiful facing.
(This is in marked contrast to the current trend of using a
curtain or veneer of marble solely as a decorative element
with no structural function.)

By the end of 1917, the east and west wings of the build-
ing were practically complete, as was the basement work
of the north and south entrances. Brick and steel work,
plumbing, steam fitting, tile and glass work, and roofing all
moved according to plan. Levels were taken constantly for
any sign of settlement or movement.

In 1918 the Museum was imsettled by an element that
no level could predict. World War I was going badly,
American casualties were heavy, and the national govern-
ment found itself short of hospitals needed in the event of a
protracted war. Therefore, the government contracted to
use the new Museum building "for three years as a Govern-
ment hospital." This change in plans speeded up construc-
tion— until the Armistice was signed. With the war over,
the government had no further interest in the Museum
building and cancelled the contract. As Director SkiflT so
nicely phrased it, all of this had a "confusing and disturbing
effect upon the affairs of the Museum."

Following lengthy negotiations, but "no serious dispute,"
the Museum accepted an allowance from the government
"as full satisfaction of expenses incurred and additional cost
imposed during the time the Government controlled build-
ing operations."

All the major contracts were closed and, except for the
terrace, the building was complete on or about June 1, 1920,
approximately five years from the date when construction
began.

' The data regarding the foundation and the thickness of the
walls was provided by Harry M. Weese & Associates, Architects.

Progress. Top, October 15, 1915: while pile drivers sink the pilings
which support the building, fill is brought to the site on special railway
spurs. Center, July 6, 1915: mortar men and brick layers working
on the ground floor level. The open area now houses the Division of
Reptiles and Amphibians and the Division of Fishes. Bottom,
August 2!f, 1919: work has progressed to the second floor, and struc-
tural steel roofing for the internal bay areas has been put in place.
View is toward the Southeast.

Ii sat alone in the midst of a sea of iniid. Tliere were
no sidewalks or streets leading to it, only a few crude roads
and footpaths crossing the newly-made land. A reporter
for the Architectural Record poetically wrote that the Museum
was "isolated on a dirt flat, from which its Georgian marble
mass gleams like a white growth in black loam."

This ''Georgian marble mass" was closely patterned on
the Erechtheiiim, one of the temples of the Acropolis in
Athens which are generally recognized as the finest ex-
amples of the Ionic order. Contrary to the old temple
form, however, the great area and especially the long ridge
and attic lines tend to create an almost squat appearance.

credit to a stevedore. Yet, in spite of this — or perhaps be-
cause of it — they bear an unquestionable dignity.

Above each caryatid porch there is a horizontal relief
panel which represents one of the four divisions of the Mu-
seum— Anthropology, Botany, Geology and Zoology. These
panels are quite decorative, displaying an abundance of
floating ribbon, flowing draperies and feathery wings.

The four figures flanking the arches of Stanley Field Hall
complete Hering's work. These figures are intended to be
symbolic of the use and inspiration of the Museum : Science,
Dissemination of Knowledge, Research and Record.

Hering designed eight more figures — Fire, Earth, Air

The most famous view of Field Museum
is looking south from Lake Shore Drive
at the North Door. Here is the North
Door under construction, May, 1918.
The supports under the columns give
an idea of how deep the fill is around
the Museum. Today, visitors climb 38
steps to reach the columns and the North
Entrance.

Height restrictions laid down for structures in the lakefront
area account in great measure for the architect's faihne to
adhere to the Ionic form throughout.

In addition to his passion for Greek and Roman archi-
tecture, Daniel Burnham had a passion for cleanliness. His
biographer, Charles Moore, relates, "To Mr. Burnham
cleanliness seemed not next to godliness, but on a par with
it. Hence his use of white marble and glass in corridors.
He planned so that every spot should show, and hence the
building must be kept clean." The Museum's maintenance
staflfcan testify to the great eff"ectiveness of Burnham's plan-
ning in this area.

Henry Hering created the sculpture that embellishes the
Museum inside and out. There are eight caryatids on the
exterior of the building and, while at first glance they may
seem to be identical, there are actually two types. These
types are very similar in mass and movement, but vary in
such details as hairstyle, neckline and drapery folds. The
caryatids are ail alike, however, in that their feet are huge,
their hips more than generous and their shoulders would do

and Water; North, South, East and West — to be set across
the attic (the area immediately above the columned doors),
but these figures were never executed in marble and the
attic remains devoid of statuary.

All in all, the Museum building took over five years and
more than $7,000,000 to build. A representative of Thonip-
son-Starrett, the construction engineers that built it, esti-
mates that to duplicate this building today would take at
least three years and $24,000,000, assuming all equipment
and material was readily available. However, as Mr. Wil-
liam Dring of Harry M. Weese and Associates pointed out,
it is inconceivable that anyone would contemplate erecting
an identical building today. One could be built which to
outward appearances would look much the same, but struc-
turally it would be very different from the Museum building.

Resting comfortably on its 30 feet of fill, the Museum
building is a reminder, then, of the rising cost of living and
Chicago real estate values, changing technology, a fantastic
lakefront fair and an architect's dream, as well as a mag-
nificent Chicago landmark.

Page 12 .MAT

Destination:

Preparations are in the final stages for the third nianmial
survey expedition to be led by Mr. and Mrs. William S.
Street in cooperation with Field Museum. The expedition
will do field research in Tiukey beginning in June.

Against the background of the usual scientific work in
the Division of Mammals, two yoimg mammalogists who
will be members of the expedition have been involved for
several weeks in the many details of obtaining and packing
the necessary equipment and in the intense study required
before the survey begins.

The expedition leaders, William S. and Janice K. Street,
formerly of Chicago and now of Seattle, Wash., have previ-
ously made mammal surveys of Iran in 1962 and Afghani-
stan in 1965.

The mammalogists of the present expedition are Daniel
R. Womochel, a graduate student from Texas Technologi-
cal College, and Anthony F. DeBlase, a graduate student
from Oklahoma State University.

Womochel has had two separate field work experiences
in the past year, one involving summer field work on lem-
mings in Alaska in 1967 and the other in collecting ecto-
parasites from southern hemisphere seals and birds in Ant-
arctica in the winter of 1967-68. He also participated in
two summer expeditions to Mexico from Michigan State
University in 1962 and 1963 and earned his master's degree
from Texas Tech with a thesis on a field study of eight native
species of Texas rodents.

Anthony DeBlase, a graduate of Earlham College in
Richmond, Ind., has collected and banded bats in Indiana,
Oklahoma and Texas and will use this experience to investi-
gate the cave bats of Turkey.

On the Turkish mammal survey, DeBlase will specialize
in study of the native predator species, including small
shrews, moles and hedgehogs, which prey upon insects, and

William S. and Janice K. Street,
leaders of the mammal survey of
Turkey, have directed two previous expeditions. These photos were
taken during their 7962 expedition to Iran, the most extensive mam-
mal survey ever made in that country.

medium-sized foxes, jackals, wildcasts and lynxes, which
feed upon rodents, hares and birds.

Womochel will concentrate on the prey species of Turk-
ish mammals. Among the rodent species he expects to
study in the field and collect for further study in Chicago
are hamsters and gerbils. He also hopes to make observa-
tions in Turkey on two hoofed species which also occur in
Europe, the chamois and the wild sheep of the Mediter-
ranean Islands, Corsica and Sardinia.

Both young scientists plan to work for doctorate degrees,
with dissertations on the scientific results of the expedition.

Departure date for the expedition's mammalogists de-
pends upon when the S. S. Neptune, the first ship from Chi-
cago, reaches the eastern Mediterranean. Already aboard
the Neptune are the Field Museum's two specially-outfitted
International Harvester Travelalls. Forty wooden boxes
full of camping gear and the scientific equipment for collec-
tion of mammal specimens and for recording data in the
field are also on that ship.

MAT Page 13

On the Mitseum's top floor, expedition mammalogists Daniel Womo-
chel (left) and Anthony DeBlase itemize and pack some of the hun-
dreds of items included in the equipment for the Street mammal
survey of Turkey. The equipment filled more than 40 wooden crates.

Mr. and Mrs. Street will be setting up expedition head-
quarters in Ankara the second week in May and will cable
for their young scientists to emplane when the Neptune
reaches port in Istanbul.

Lists of the expedition needs run into hundreds of items
and a sampling of these gives an indication of the complex-
ities involved in planning the survey. The items include
two triple-beam balance scales, three animal predator calls,
two camouflage nets, two alarm clocks, one collapsed cook-
ing stove, one potato peeler, eight salad forks, two snake bite
kits, three inflatable splints for legs, four cans of Ojf insect
repellent, two cans of Raid, one 6 by 8-inch camp mirror,
24 harmonicas and 1,000 balloons. The last two groups of
items are destined for youngsters living in the villages near
which the expedition will camp.

The scientists who accompanied the Streets on the two
previous mammal surveys to southwestern Asia have both
contributed manuscripts now being published by the Field
Museum Press.

"A Study of the Mammals of Iran, Resulting from the
Street Expedition of 1962-63," by Douglas M. Lay, was
published in October, 1967, as part of the scientific series,
Fieldiana: ^oologji. Lay and Mr. and Mrs. Street collected
1,728 specimens of mammals from all parts of Iran and pro-
vided the most comprehensive scientific study ever published
on the mammals of Iran. Lay is now completing his doc-
torate research which grew out of discoveries he made dur-
ing the investigation of Iranian mammals.

Jerry Hassinger left graduate studies at the University
of California to accompany the Streets on their 1965 mam-
mal survey in Afghanistan and his first 100-page work is
scheduled for publication in Fieldiana: ^oology this year. He
is currently completing another manuscript on the terrestrial
mammals of Afghanistan.

Page 14 MAY

recent acquisitions — anthropology

MRS. A.W.F. FULLER GIVES
CARVED LUBA BOWSTAND

A SCULPTURED bowstand from the Luba people of the Kin-
shasa Congo Republic is among miscellaneous objects from
the collection of the late Captain A. W. F. Fuller recently
acquired by Field Museum as a gift from Mrs. Fuller.

The bowstand, of carved wood except for a chisel-shaped
ferrule at its base, has three prongs radiating from the han-
dle. The figure of a woman, decorated with a pattern of
body scars characteristic of the Luba, forms the body of the
bowstand.

Among this people of the Upper Lualaba River, sculp-
tured items, such as the bowstand, play more than a utili-
tarian role. Sculpture incorporating the human figure is
believed to be associated with the Luba nobility.

Some objects closely as-
sociated with the Luba chiefs
are regarded by the people
as having supernatural qual-
ities and are handed down as
heirlooms to chiefs that fol-
low. W. F. P. Burton, a
missionary who spent 34
years among the Luba, com-
mented that "Every chief-
tainship has certain objects
of veneration, which may be
considered as the expression
of the very entity of the com-
munity." He said that these
objects were beyond price
and, in addition, any Luba
would rather risk his life than
let an heirloom fall into the
hands of an enemy.
Limited information available on the use and social sig-
nificance of the bowstand indicates it is set in the grovmd
or wall near the bed, where bows, arrows and spears are
held by resting them in between the prongs. Responsibility
for the weapons and bowstand was given to one of the chiefs
first wives, who may also have carried his weapons when
he went to war. Among peoples descended from the Luba,
bowstands are also kept and transmitted as heirlooms of de-
ceased chiefs.

The bow is the traditional Luba weapon for hunting and
war and figures prominently in enthronement rituals. To
receive one of the highly prized heirlooms is indicative of
the highest esteem of the Luba nobility. Young men wish-
ing to have a noble as a patron would present that person
with an arrow.

NEW CURATOR JOINS
ANTHROPOLOGY STAFF

Dr. stephan gasser, 29, a native of Basel, Switzer-
land, was recently appointed Assistant Curator of
Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology in the Field
Museum Department of Anthropology.

He studied under Professor Alfred Buehler at
the University of Basel and specialized in the eth-
nology of Indonesia, a tradition at the university
since the 19th century. Dr. Gasser received his
doctorate in 1967, after completing his thesis,
"Pottery Craft in Indonesia," which required re-
search at museums in both Switzerland and the
Netherlands.

At Field Museum, Dr. Gasser will conduct research with the Museum's large
Indonesian collections and he is also considering the possibility of investigating
historical relations between Oceania and Middle and South America.

Prior to joining the Museum stafT, he spent two months studying Mexican
archaeological sites with several Mexican anthropologists.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

May hours: May 1-4, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 5-September 2, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m..
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 9 a.m.
to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
and Sunday.

May 3 Member's Night Special preview of temporary exhibit, "Masada, King
Herod's Fortress," from 3 to 10 p.m. Two half-hour music and dance pro-
grams, featuring the Amranian Brothers, Israeli Folk singers, and the Habonian
Israeli Folk Dance Troupe from Chicago, will be held at 7 and 9 p.m. Lecture,
"Masada, A State of Mind," by Marc Michaelson, Director of Publicity for
the Tourism Council of Greater Chicago, at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.

May 4 Latin Day in Illinois Sponsored by the Illinois Classical Conference,
state high school Latin students will attend illustrated lectures in James
Simpson Theatre and tour exhibit areas in the day-long program.

May 5 "Masada" Exhibit opens to the public, through August 15.

May 14 Tuesday Evening Lecture Series First of four lectures in conjunction
with "Masada" Exhibit. Prof. William Albright, Johns Hopkins University,
will speak on "The Historical Context of Masada." Subscription series also
includes programs on May 28, June 4 and June 11, 8:15 p.m., James Simpson
Theatre. See page 7 for details.

May 1 8-1 9 Weekend Botany and Geology Field Trip to Galena, conducted
by Botanist Gabriel Edwin and Geologist Matthew Nitecki, Museum Curators.
The Curators will conduct two other field trips, to Starved Rock State Park,
May 25-26, and to Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin, June 8-9. Cost
is estimated at $20.00 for each trip or $50.00 for all three. Preliminary lecture
for all three field trips will be held at 10 a.m. on May 4 at the University of
Chicago Downtown Center, 65 E. South Water Street. Details are available
from Barbara O'Connor, FI 6-8300.

Through May: Spring Journey: Plants That The American Indians Used.

MEETINGS:

Chicago Shell Club, May 5, 2 p.m.

Nature Camera Club of Chicago, May 14, 7:45 p.m.

Illinois Orchid Society. May 19, 2 p.m.

Great Lakes Chapter of Sierra Club, May 21 , 7 :30 p.m.

OFFER SUMMER
GEOLOGY COURSES

Two non-credit courses in geology for
elementary teachers and supervisors will
be offered this summer by the Raymond
Foimdation of Field Museum.

"Fossils and the Geology of the Chi-
cago Area," 8 sessions, will be offered
from Jime 24 through July 3. Registra-
tion fees: Non-members, $15.00; Mem-
bers, $12.50.

"An Introduction to Rocks and Min-
erals," 10 sessions, will be offered from
July 15 through July 26. Registration
fee: Non-members, $20.00; Members,
$17.50.

Registration fees for both courses are
$30.00 for non-members and $25.00 for
members.

Ernest Roscoe talks with teachers during a previous
summer session in Geology

Each class will begin at 10 a.m. and
last about four hours on weekdays. A
lecture-demonstration and laboratory
periods for individual study will be in-
cluded. Instructor for both courses will
be Ernest J. Roscoe, Lecturer in Geol-
ogy, Raymond Foundation.

Registration is limited, and interested
teachers are asked to write Raymond
Foundation, Field Museum of Natural
History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore
Dr., Chicago, 111. 60605, for applica-
tions and further information. Regis-
tration will close June 3.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAOO. ILLINOIS tOSOS A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

MAT Page 15

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTOR

Volume 39, Number 6 June 1968

Two-thirds of the students who have worked with Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator Emeritus of Anthropology, over the last
several decades, have gone on to gain doctorates. In the last two years, Martin's work with students has been aided by
grants from the Undergraduate Research Participation Program of National Science Foundation. These grants have
enabled Martin to expand and formalize his Summer School of Archaeology at Field Museum's field station in Vernon,
Arizona. At Vernon, each student works on a private research project, as well as on the general archaeological work.
The Bulletin here presents one such report on a small structure found during a survey of Hay Hollow, Arizona. The author,
Christopher Vi/hite, has worked with Martin for several years, and will, next year, go into graduate work in Anthropology.

SUMMER REPORT

by Christopher A. White

Research Assistant, Anthropology

A portion of Hay

Hollow prior to the

start of excavations. Hay

Hollow Valley, in East

Central Arizona,

has proved to be the site of

a prehistoric agricultural

community.

Since the beginning of the Hay Hollow Valley Project six
years ago, we have been attempting to define and explain
the total range of behavior of prehistoric man in this eastern
Arizona valley. By viewing all patterns of behavior and
changes in these patterns we will try to isolate meaningful
regularities and factors of causality.

An important aspect of the overall study deals with the
investigation of the relationships existing between man and
his total environment. This interest led us, last summer, to
initiate an intensive archaeological survey of a little-studied
region forming the eastern periphery of the valley. The
area was a large and rugged ancient lava flow- that rises
500 to 600 feet above the valley floor. W'e wanted to know
what kinds of cultural activities were taking place in the
area, where they were taking place, u/ien they were taking
place, and hopefully, wh^ they were taking place.

In the course of the survey we discovered a site located
on the edge of a sandy terrace approximately 500 feet up
the side of the moimtain. It appeared to reflect a specialized
activity previously unknown to us in the valley. After de-
veloping several working hypotheses on the possible func-
tion of this site, we proceeded to excavate it. The primary
feature consisted of a semicircular windbreak constructed of
basalt boulders, each of the two segments being approxi-
mately 5 feet long. At the time of occupation the structure
may have been about 4 feet high. Inside the windbreak
there was a single firepit w^hich contained large pieces of
charcoal. The structure faces southwest, the direction of
the prevailing, often stormy, winds. Without some protec-
tion, maintaining a fire for warmth or cooking would be
extremely difficult. In and around the structure we found
small quantities of stone tools and a number of brown cor-

Page2 JUNE

rugated potsherds which appear to be from a single jar.
The pottery would date the site at around a.b. 1000. The
relative scarcity of artifacts is a significant factor in inferring
the type of activity that may have been performed there.
From other archaeological sources and from analogy
with present-day Pueblo Indian agricultural practices, we
have hypothesized that the site represents a temporary agri-
cultural field camp used by people who maintained perma-
nent residence at one of the pueblo villages in the valley
bottom. During the short growing season the Hopi Indians

appears that the Indians began to abandon their numerous
small pueblos, coming to live together in larger and fewer
villages. It has been suggested that this aggregation may
have served to insure greater economic cooperation during
the time of hardship.

We hypothesize that it was during this time of significant
changes in the habitat and social organization that the In-
dians began farming the terrace adjacent to the site we exca-
vated in addition to similar terraces on the mountain side.
What we may be seeing is an agricultural pattern similar to

Excavated basalt structure at Hay Hollow included sherd cluster (upper center of photo)
and firepil and possible cobble ring (left of intersecting lines in right of photo.)

often build small temporary shelters near their fields because
the fields are not uncommonly located far from their homes.
It is frequently necessary for the Indians to stay close to the
field to keep away birds and other animals that might de-
stroy the crop. Another feature related to the site and
deserving comment was a number of small boulders in a
pile near the edge of the terrace. The Indians may ha\e
made this pile in the process of removing these stones from
the terrace in order to make it more suitable for growing
their corn.

We have strong evidence to suggest that sometime about
A.D. 1000 there was an apparently significant meteorological
change in the area. There was a shift from a more or less
even yearly distribution of rainfall to a pattern of summer
maximum precipitation as is typical in the Southwest today.
It is believed that this change made maize farming in the
valley precarious. Simultaneous with change in habitat it

that of the contemporary Pueblo Indians. To prevent wide-
spread starvation, they plant their corn on a number of
different types of land with varying slopes, and soils, so that
if the summer thundershowers destroy the crop on one type
of landform, the entire crop will not be lost. We suggest
that a "cover-all-bets" agricultural practice similar to this
may have been emerging in the Hay Hollow Valley at this
time. There are additional data which tend to support
this hypothesis. It appears, however, that this innovation
in agricultural practices was not enough to sustain the pop-
ulation. The valley was abandoned around a.d. 1300 and
the Indians moved to areas with permanent streams.

The small site that we excavated is in itself insignificant,
but it provides us with additional information concerning
modifications of subsistence patterns concomitant with
with changes in the habitat and social organization in Hay
Hollow Valley at approximately a.d. 1000.

JUAE Page 3

MEMORANDUM FROM THE DESK OF
E. LELAKD WEBBER, DIRECTOR

Field Museum's Natural History Tours are based, like the Museum
itself, on the belief that, in this era of crowded concrete and steel
cities, a balanced view of the world and its problems today requires
keeping in contact with the basic realities of nature.

For this reason, our program of natural history tours.

The Brazil Tour, February lU-March 11, \i±ll emphasize the
botany, geology, zoology and ethnology of that vast nation, so rich
in natural history. The group, limited to 35 tourists, mil be led
by Phil Clark, the Musexm's public relations counsel and an expert on
plants and gardening. Field Musevun's Chief Ciirator of Zoology, Dr.
Austin Rand, will accompany the tour as a specialist in fauna,
particiilarly the birds. At various stops, the group -ivill spend time
with such outstanding Brazilians as the naturalist Augusto Ruschi, the
landscape designer and botanist Roberto Burle Marx and the geologist
Francisco Mueller Basto.

We have sought in the Tour's careful advance planning, not
Just a superficial "tourist's eye" view, but to show Brazil in its
many-dimensioned reality: the people and the history in their natural
setting of plants and animals, mountains, plains and seas.

This is Field Museum's third tour. The others, also led and
planned by Phil Clark, were to Guatemala and Mexico.

Page 4 JUNE

The Many- Faceted Jewel:

B

R

A

z
I

L

Rio's great bay, lined with beaches of dazzling white sand, and guarded by its
incredible green, gently sloping mountains.

V

Above: Brazil's celebrated naturalist, Dr. Augusta Ruschi, watches
a tuxedo hummingbird feed on sugar water. Thousands of them
come daily to the Ruschi veranda. Below: Tiny egg of a Vene-
zuelan hummingbird lies in a nest built in a small Bromelia spe-
cies, Neoregelia punctatissima, which grow in a hanging linked
series.

Story and photos by Phil Clark

Brazil, South American giant among nations, is a land
of jewels of earth and air and water. Its brilliant diamonds
and deep green tourmalines, its magnificent wildlife —
gem-colored hummingbirds, iridescent macaws, jet-striped
angelfish and pearl-toned piranhas — only begin to reflect
the color and variety to be found in this country.

Home of boundless varieties of plants and flowering
trees, the face of Brazil ranges from cosmopolitan cities to
jungle villages, from shimmering white beaches flanked
by sugarloaf mountains to immense and mysterious rain-
forests and rivers that flow thousands of miles, in places
tumbling over waterfalls that dwarf Niagara.

The people of Brazil are like their many-faceted coun-
try. They encompass many of the world's races, mingling
yet retaining diversity, vibrant and creative, yet gentle and
easy-going, capable of both sustained artistic originality
and the spontaneous joy of Carnival.

Here is natural history in all its vitality and variety.
This is Brazil, big, exciting, a nation of color and motion —
the ideal site for a Field Museum Natural History Tour.

Bahia

Your first stop on the 26-day tour, is in Bahia. The
trip begins on Friday, February 14, from O'Hare Field to
New York where you board a Varig jet, arriving in Brazil
early the next morning.

In Bahia, in the white and pastel-painted colonial town
of Salvador, where on Todos os Santos Bay Portuguese
discoverers of Brazil first landed, your arrival coincides

JUNE Paged

with the climax of the Carnival season, the weekend before
Ash Wednesday (see Cover). The Bahian Carnival over-
flows with joyous, uninhibited dance, exciting music, fan-
tastic costumes and open-handed friendliness. The un-
sophisticated mood and the lack of out-of-town visitors
contrasts with Rio's crowded Carnival.

Besides exciting hours mingling with Carnival crowds,
you enjoy sunny afternoons on the two principal beaches.
You also explore the baroque splendor of some of the his-
toric churches, taking particular pleasure in the 16th cen-
tury art in Sao Francisco and Carmo. In this, the royal
capital of Brazil for 214 years, you stay at the elegantly
modern Hotel da Bahia.

Espirito Santo

Brazil's greatest naturalist. Dr. Augusto Ruschi, is
famous for his discoveries about hummingbirds. You fly
from Bahia south to Espirito Santo State to visit this scien-
tist at his estate — Brazil's largest living museum. Your
plane arrives in the state capital, Vitoria, on the Atlantic
coast, and you are driven inland through palm-dominated
jungles and rivers, up rugged mountains and past water-
falls where velvet-purple Cleistes orchids, tree ferns and
huge, brown-veined white Dutchmen's pipe flowers grow
in profusion. During roadside stops, your tour botanist,
Phil Clark, and tour zoologist. Dr. Austin Rand, Field Mu-
seum Chief Curator of Zoology, point out interesting plants
and birds and answer your questions.

You arrive in time for dinner at the Espirito Santo Agri-
cultural College where you spend the next two nights,
February 18 and 19. On the first evening. Dr. Ruschi
shows you slides and discusses his work with humming-
birds. You visit him at his estate at Santa Teresa the fol-
lowing day, seeing thousands of hummingbirds of 28 spe-
cies flying freely in colorful gardens and woodlands near
his house and museum buildings. In addition to the native
species, dozens of others from places throughout the hemi-
sphere are kept in large, enclosed garden areas.

Dr. Ruschi's museum stresses the natural history of
Espirito Santo. The state has an impressive botanical-
zoological representation, including 14 species of mon-
keys, 35 hummingbirds, 45 bats (of which Dr. Ruschi has
discovered five), and 22,000 species of plants, including
400 orchids and about the same number of bromeliads,
families in which Ruschi has also done important work.

Rio de Janeiro

Rio, considered by many to be the world's most beau-
tiful city, has its own special magic. Its natural setting is
stunning: the great azure bay with its crescent of white
sand and leaning palms and green, gently sloping Sugar-
loaf and Corcovado mountains looming alongside it. The
magic of Rio's landscape is matched by its human magic,
warm, easy-going people who bring spirited friendliness
to the mosaiced promenades, the broad city streets and
Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

You spend three days here, beginning February 20,
with half the time spent in sight-seeing, the remainder free
for shopping or relaxing. You view the bay from the
forested summits of Tijuca and Corcovado, where the
famous statue of Christ the Redeemer stands, and visit the
botanic garden and zoo, and the Raymundo Castro Maya
Foundation, where a splendid colonial house, containing
a rare collection of early engravings and elegant furnish-
ings of the period, is set in a close-clipped formal garden
overlooking the bay. Your hotel, the glass and concrete
Excelsior, faces Copacabana.

Paged JUNE

Brazilian stops are numbered in the order they mill be visited.

Above: Iguacu Falls, 20 times
Niagara, spreads in two giant
horseshoes in tropical forests;
Ouro Preto, the source of tons of
gold once shipped from Colonial
Brazil to Portugal. Contains ex-
cellent colonial architectural and
art treasures. Left: The Monkey
Puzzle Tree, Araucaris angusti-
folia, typically Brazilian, still
grows in forests near Vila Velha;
Vila Velha, near Curitiba, pre-
sents a strange landscape of red
ajid yellow sandstone eroded in
shapes resembling everything from
cathedrals to eggcups.

Petropolis

You are driven from Rio this morning, February 23,
through heavy forests, alight with flowering yellow Cassia
and pink and blue Tibouchina trees, to the cool highland
town of summer estates, Petropolis, where you stay at the
Quitandinha Hotel. During the afternoon you tour Em-
peror dom Pedro 11 's summer home and examine its rich
furnishings and imperial crown jewels.

But Brazil is also a land of exciting modern movements
in the arts, and it is here that the first truly new ideas any-
where in recent centuries of landscape design evolved.
The guiding genius of this fresh originality is Roberto Burle
Marx, who paints living landscapes with the swirling lines
and vibrant colors of abstract art — creations completely
appropriate set among the brilliance of tropical flowers
and the unusual sugarloaf horizon. During a full day's
tour of Petropolis gardens, you are shown through some
of his most effective creations by the designer himself,
dom Roberto, and are welcomed by the garden owners,
some of Brazil's leading families. These include the Leite
Garcias at Fazenda Samambaia, Senhora Odete Monteiro
(whose fantastic garden was described by House and Gar-
den magazine garden editor, Ralph Bailey, as "one of the
most beautiful private gardens in the world"), the Carlos
Somlos at Retire Panonia and Alberto Kronforth at Rancho
Pedra Azul.

You return to Rio and the following morning drive to
dom Roberto's own home, south of the city, for a day in
the country with this artist-botanist. His home is on a hill
overlooking a vast beach area where weird plants have
adapted to the dry sands.

Sao Paulo - Curitiba

You leave this morning, February 27, for Sao Paulo,
where during a four-hour stopover between planes, you
visit the Butantan Snake Farm, world famous for its col-
lections of snakes and its scientific work with venoms in
producing anti-venoms. Sao Paulo, you find, is a Portu-
guese-speaking Chicago with palms, for its skyscraper-
crowded skyline spreads for miles.

By midafternoon, your continuing flight has reached
Curitiba, deep in southeastern Brazil. After seeing the
large collections of Brazilian animals in Curitiba 's zoo, you
visit some of the strikingly original small private homes in
this capital city of Parana State. You dine at your hotel,
the Moderno.

An all-day excursion on February 28 takes you from
Curitiba to bizarre Vila Velha, where red-streaked yellow
formations of eroded sandstone resemble a ruined city of
cathedrals and skyscrapers. Plants of the area are as odd
as the strange stone spires and include some which parallel
African species and others belonging to the trumpet flower
family with four-foot spikes of lavender-blue blossoms.
There are forests of Brazil's strange monkey-puzzle tree,
Araucaria angustifolia. Hot springs complete the eerie
picture and a warm-water lake is so crowded with tetra
fishes as to appear mottled with moving silver clouds.
Your dinner is at Curitiba 's attractive Swiss restaurant, the
Matterhorn.

Iguacu Falls

An astonished Eleanor Roosevelt murmured, "poor
Niagara," on seeing Iguacu. In volume twenty times Ni-
agara, Iguacu has 21 cataracts and the average fall is 210
feet, though some are higher than 250 feet. The beauty
of the massive falls is only partly in its tremendous flow
and height and spread. Equally impressive is its tropical
setting, where flocks of green and gold parrots bathe in its
spray and colorful orchids, bromeliads, begonias and pas-

JUXE Page 7

dian on small stream of the Amazon system shoots fish with a bow and arrow,
dians of the area use spears for catching larger fishes. Piranha and other
nazon fishes are often very colorful.

sionflowers grow in the tangled philodendrons, palms and
flowering trees.

You stay at the Casino Acaray, a new hotel on the
Paraguayan side of the river, giving you a look at Para-
guay. You cross to the Brazilian side for boating and
hiking along the falls on March 2 and 3 and fly to Rio for
an overnight stay on March 4, with an early morning de-
parture the following day for Belo Horizonte, to Rio s
northwest.

Be/o Horizonte - Ouro Preto

The Belo Horizonte area has great appeal for those in-
terested in natural history. It is a rock hunters' paradise,
surrounded by mountains of jagged, mineral-rich stone
outcroppings, and a place where handsomely cut gems
can be bought at bargain prices. The rugged countryside
contains strange and varied flora and has extensive bird
life. Belo Horizonte itself, the capital of Minas Gerais
State, is a famous example of city planning and boasts an
outstanding (Niemeyer-designed) church with tile murals
by artist Candido Portinari. Sixty miles to the southeast
is the picturebook town of Ouro Preto, with its baroque
churches and their sculptures by the renowned Aleijadinho.

You arrive in Belo Horizonte in the morning and after
lunch at your skyscraper hotel, the del Rey, you tour the
city and spend an exciting hour in the gem houses. Local
gems on sale include diamonds, topazes, amethysts, aqua-
marines, tourmalines, beryls, agates, kunzites, garnets,
citrines, hiddenites and euclauses. You meet some of the
city's leading gem cutters and the local geologist, Fran-
cisco Mueller Basto at dinner.

In Ouro Preto the next day you find the enchanting
Portuguese colonial town of white-painted buildings and
churches nestled in a green valley. Its narrow, cobbled
streets and great architecture and works of art have made
it a national monument and geology buffs find its Mu-
seum of Mineralogy exceptional. The trip by car features
many botanical thrills, including plants adapted to the
singular environment of rocky mountains.

Brasilia

Brasilia is the city of the future come alive. It achieves
this distinction both for its careful planning (Planner Lucio
Costa even arranged that no streets intersect) and for the
clean-lined modern buildings, most designed by Brazilian
architect, Oscar Niemeyer. On the Brazilian plateau, 3,000

feet above sea level, it has an ideal climate, and located
500 miles inland from Brazil's coastally-oriented culture,
it points the way to an expanding society. Its largeness
of concept and daring architecture make it a capital ap-
propriate for a nation with such vast potential.

After an early morning hop northwest from Belo Hori-
zonte, you arrive March 7 in Brasilia for a day of sight-
seeing. Particularly striking is the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs with its surrounding water gardens, and the still
incomplete crown-like cathedral and the saucer-form con-
gress buildings with twin shafts containing the executive
offices with the supreme court at their base. The zoo is
remarkable for its collection of regional birds. Dinner is
at your hotel, the elegant Hotel Nacional. Before the
flight to Manaus the following morning, you take either
a bird-watching walk by a small lake or a botanical stroll
in an unspoiled woodland.

IVIanaus and the Amazon

You spend the afternoon of March 8 seeing Manaus
itself — the opera house built in opulent Victorian exuber-
ance during the boom period of the rubber industry, an
agricultural experiment station with rare tropical fruits, the
local Brazilnut "factory" and a small zoo. You spend
the next two days on the great Rio Negro, a major river
of the Amazon system, in the tour yacht, Selvatur, and
explore smaller tributary streams in small boats. You find
Indians catching fish with arrows and spears, piranhas
with flashing silver and ruby-hued bodies and sinister
rows of razor-sharp teeth, numerous waterfowl, the giant
Victoria regia waterlilies with pale pink blooms and spined,
enormous leaves sturdy enough to support the weight of
a child, and a wide variety of flowering trees and vines.
You return each evening to your hotel, the Amazonas, but
you eat your lunches on the yacht. You fly on Varig, via
Miami, on March 11, arriving in Chicago in the evening.

A grand concept underlies Brasilia, the national
capital. Below, water gardens surrounding the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pages JIWE

Left: Smirling lines in brilliant colors distinguishes this garden landscape of famed designer-botanist-artist Roberto Burle Marx. Dom Roberto
mil personally guide tour members through five of the gardens he has designed, including this one at Alberto Kronsforth's Rancho Pedra Azul in
Petropolis. Center: Giant spiny pads o/ Victoria regia, strong enough to support the weight of a child, float on a stream which enters the Amazon
system. Right: Tour yacht, Selvatur, will make tour members on two days of sightseeing on the Rio Negro in the Amazon River system. Short
trips up tributary streams will be made in small boats.

Field Museum's Brazil Tour, with all costs — hotels, meals, gratuities, taxes and fees and including a tax-deductible
donation to Field Museum of $500 — is only $2050. The 26-day tour features visits to private homes and gardens, special
advance planning for a natural history emphasis, meetings with Brazilian natural history experts, a view of colonial and
modern art and architecture, expert leadership in areas of plants, animals and birds and a wide-ranging survey of the
nation and people as a whole, beginning with the Carnival in Bahia. It takes place during Brazil s late summer, Febru-
ary 14 - March 11.

CUP AND MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY

I would like reservations for your Brazil Tour and I enclose my check for

(HOW MANY)

a $500 deposit for each reservation

A giant quartz crystal in
the Ouro Preto Museum of
Mineralogy.

Name

Address

City State Zip . . .

□ Please check if single rooms are desired, at extra charge of $95.00.

Please send information about this tour to my friends listed below:
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Address
City

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Zip

Name . .
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JUJVE Page 9

Summer Journey

The FISHES

Coko Salmon

of LAKE MICHIGAN

"The Fishes of Lake Michigan" is the Museum's Sum-
mer Journey for children during June, July and August. On
a self-guided tour, youngsters will be introduced to some
of the different fishes foimd in the lake, with an emphasis
on the changes in the abundance and species composition
of the fish populations.

There have been many changes in the fish life of Lake
Michigan in the last century. The Lake Sturgeon (Aci-
penser fulvescens), once abundant in the lake, is now rare,
while other fishes have been introduced into Lake Michigan,
either by accident or deliberately.

about 1921 . Gradually moving into the other Great Lakes,
it appeared for the first time in Lake Michigan in 1936.
Since that time it has practically wiped out the Lake Trout
{Salvelinus namaycush), once the foundation of the lake's
commercial fishing industry.

About this time, when the Lake Trout and other fishes
were decreasing in number, the Alewife {Alosa pseudoha-
rengus) moved into the lake. This fish is also found along
the Atlantic Coast and since 1873 has been in Lake Ontario,
where it was probably stocked by accident. Using the
Welland Canal route, it moved into Lake Erie about 1931

Carp (Oyrpinus carpio) were introduced into the lake
before the turn of the century, flourished, and have provided
commercial fisherman with catches as high as 7,000,000
poimds in one year. Goldfish {Carassius auratus) first es-
caped into the lake from lagoons where they were stocked
for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. They were introduced
many times later by fishermen and by people who simply
released their pet fish in the lake.

American Smelt (Osmerus mordax) eggs were planted in
Crystal Lake, Michigan, in 1912. These hatched and the
fish lived and spawned in that lake, escaping through an
outlet into Lake Michigan about 1923.

Rainbow Trout {Salmo gardneri) were stocked in the
lake and streams of northern Wisconsin and Michigan that
empty into the lake. This fish is also called the Steelhead.
Other fishes extended their ranges and invaded Lake Mich-
igan from the lower Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.
In the past, Niagara Falls was a natural barrier between
Lakes Ontario and Erie. Construction of the Welland Canal,
completed in 1829 and enlarged about 80-90 years later,
allowed ships from Lake Ontario to pass into Lake Erie.
Fishes also used this canal for passage between the lakes.

The Sea Lamprey {Petromyzon marmus) lived along the
Atlantic Coast and was also found in Lake Ontario. It
moved through the Welland Canal and into Lake Erie

and was first found in Lake Michigan in 1949. With few
fishes to eat it or compete with it. the Alewife thrived and
became abundant.

A control program has lowered the munber of lampreys
in the lake and with the lampreys under control, popula-
tions of other predator fish could make a comeback. To
aid in building the populations of game fish in Lake Michi-
gan Lake Trout and Rainbow Trout have been stocked
in large numbers.

In 1966, the State of Michigan released Coho Salmon
{Oncorhynchus kisutch) in streams that empty into the lake.
This native of the Pacific Coast will not only help in im-
proving sport fishing in the lake, but will also aid in Ale-
wife control. The trout and salmon stocking may also
help to restore the lake's commercial fishing industry.

The future for the fishes in Lake Michigan is difficult
to predict. Lamprey populations will probably remain
under control. Alewives will probably still be abimdant,
but with a restoration of predators and the establishment
of a commercial fishery for them, their numbers should
decrease.

Journey sheets and information on this program are
available at either the North or South Doors and at the
Information Desk. This is Journey No. 54 in the Raymond
Foundation's Journey Program for Children.

Page 10 JIWE

Members' Night visitors watch a performance
by the Habonim Israeli Folk Dance Troupe.

MEMBERS' NIGHT

ATTENDANCE SETS

A NEW RECORD

More than 4,500 Museum Members,
their families and guests attended the
1 968 Members' Night on May 3, a three-
hour open house centering around the
special exhibit, "Masada, King Herod's
Fortress." The Captain of the Museum
Guard estimated that at least half those
attending visited the Masada exhibit,
which was crowded throughout the
evening.

Two short motion pictures and a slide
lecture supplemented the exhibit and
visitors responded enthusiastically to a
program of Middle Eastern folk singing
and dancing in Stanley Field Hall.

The Masada exhibit, which opened

June hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday,

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Tuesday and Thursday; 9 a.m. to 8p.m.,

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

June 11 M.^SAD.A Lecture Series "Israel, Crossroads of Empires and Civiliza-
tions: .Archaeological Evidence," by Professor Helene Kantor, University of
Chicago. Final lecture of series, 8:15 p.m., James Simpson Theatre.

June 1 5 Egypt Through a Biologist's Eye. Photographic exhibit by Dale J.
Osborn, Field Associate in Zoology. Emphasis on rarely seen aspects of life
in the desert. Hall 9 Gallery.

June 24 Non-Credit Geology Course "Fossils and the Geology of the Chicago
,'\rea," will begin for elementary teachers and supervisors under sponsorship
of Raymond Foundation. Eight-session course will end July 3. Registration
fee: Members, $12.50; Non-members, $15.00.

June 24 Summer Progr.am l\ Anthropology Six-week training program for
high-ability high school students begins. Program will include lectures, semi-
nars, workshops, study of Museum collections, individual projects and field
studies. It is sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant.

Through August 15: "M.\s.'>iD.'k, King Herod's Fortress" Archaeological finds
from the Israeli stronghold where in 73 a.d., 960 Jewish Zealots took their
own lives rather than surrender to the Roman conquerors. Museum Members
and their families will be admitted free of charge. Admission fee for non-
members is 75 cents for adults and 35 cents for children.

Through August: Summer Journey The Fishes of Lake Michigan. Among the
fish to be featured are the lake trout, yellow perch, sea lamprey, coho salmon
and alewife. The Journey takes youngsters on a do-it-yourself tour of the
Hall of Fishes (Ground Floor, Hall O). Any child able to read and write
may participate in the free Journey Program conducted by the Raymond
Foundation. Journey records sheets are available at the Museum's North Door.

Illinois Audubon Society, June 5, 7 p.m.
Chicago Shell Club, June 9, 2 p.m.
Nature Camera Club of Chicago, June 11, 7:45 p.m.
Chicago Mountaineering Club, June 13, 8 p.m.

MEETINGS:

to the public on May 5, was featured
recently in several Chicago newspaper
articles and received critical acclaim in
its previous showings in New York and
London.

Archaeological treasures from Masa-
da and historical data about the site and
its excavation are included in the spe-
cial exhibit. This clifftop stronghold,
on the western shore of the Dead Sea in
Israel, was built as a defensive retreat
by King Herod in the first century B.C.
It was chosen by the Jewish Zealots for
their final stand against the Roman Le-
gions from 70 to 72 a.d. Finally over-
whelmed by the forces of Flavins Silva,
the Zealots elected death at their own
hands rather than surrender. The site
was also occupied briefly in the fifth
century by Christian Monks.

Masada was excavated in two sea-
sons, 1962-63, under the direction of
Yigael Yadin, Professor of Archaeology
at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thousands of volunteers from all over
the world joined in the large scale ex-
cavations.

Members' Night also included the
traditional tours of the Museum's scien-
tific departments, which included many
special displays depicting work being
done in the various divisions. Hundreds
of visitors took advantage of the oppor-
tunity to meet Curators and other mem-
bers of the scientific staff.

E. Leland Webber, Museum Direc-
tor, described Members' Night as a
"thorough success, whether measured
by attendance or by the enthusiasm of
our guests."

Attendance at the 1968 Members'
Night exceeded last year's record by
more than 600. Museum membership
itself has grown from 12,279 in 1967 to
more than 14,000 during the first part
of 1968.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAOO. ILLINOIS (MOS A.C. 312. 922-9410

FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

PRINTED BY FIELD .MUSEUM PRESS

JUNE Page n

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The young man on this month's
cover, Johnny Kolias, U, of El-
wood, Indiana, is obviously im-
pressed by Field Museum's skele-
ton of a Pleistocene mammoth,
Mammuthus primigenius. The
mammath occurred over much of
North America and as late as
ten thousand years ago, could still
be found in the Great Lakes Area.
Both mammoths and mastodons,
a related elephant-like species, are
featured in Field Museum's Ses-
quicentennial Tour of Illinois nat-
ural history.

The corn snake (Elaphe guttata)
at right is common near farms
throughout Illinois. It is a harm-
less, useful snake, feeding on mice.
The corn snake, which has a dis-
tinctive pale red-orange body with
deep red markings, is one of near-
ly fifly snake species in Illinois.

Sesquicentennial Special

HALF A BILLION YEARS
OF ILLINOIS HISTORY

Despite remarkable advances and changes in the life
patterns of Illinoisans in the past 150 years, the history
of our statehood is as brief as the flick of an eyelash in the
hundreds of millions of years of Illinois' natural history.
In observance of this Sesquicentennial year, Field Museum
has arranged a special self-conducted tour to acquaint res-
idents and visitors with the state's varied and complex past.

Areas of geology, zoology, botany and anthropology are
deeply interrelated in the history of Illinois, of course, but
its story begins with the forces which shaped the earth.
The area which would become Illinois was subjected to a
variety of geologic and climatic changes but its position
during two particular geological periods were of great im-
portance in giving the state its significant agricultural and
economic value in modern times.

The bedrock of the Chicago area and the extreme north
central part of the state is largely of the Silurian Period
(about 420 million years ago) but almost the entire re-
maining land area in Illinois dates to the Pennsylvanian
Period (about 250 million years ago), the one geological
period during which climate and plant life in combination
permitted the formation of coal beds.

Illinois was part of the continent that was partially

covered by vast inland seas which retreated and advanced
over several geologic periods. The most recent period on
record of an inland sea in Illinois is in the Cretaceous
Time (about 100 million years ago), although it is possible
that parts of Illinois may have been undersea even later.
A legacy of marine fossils testifies to the aquatic nature
of life forms in Paleozoic Illinois.

Between the advance and retreat of the Pennsylvanian
sea, the Illinois landscape was frequently swampland, in-
cluding extensive forests which died, decayed and were
buried under the sediments. Millions of years later these
dead forests became the rich coal deposits that were of
such economic importance in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The life in those ancient giant fern-tree forests included
unusual and now extinct fishes, insects and invertebrates
as well as many archaic plants. Amphibians were already
diverse and the reptiles, later to dominate the animal world
because of their great size and variety, were beginning
their evolutionary ascent. Illinois has one of the world's
three most significant fossil records of life in its Mazon
Creek formation. Because soft parts of fossil animals and
plants are preserved in concretions, scientists are able to
do detailed studies of aspects of ancient life usually un-

Pnge2 JULY

available. Field Museum has become the major center
of research on the fossils of the Mazon Creek area.

A second important geologic period in Illinois was the
Pleistocene, the Ice Age of the last million years. The
advance and retreat of the great glaciers churned up and
deposited a variety of rocks and minerals in most of the
state. This glacial action also produced the rich farmland
coveted later by homesteaders.

Illinois has hosted a diversity of mammal residents but
fossil records of mammals are scarce in the state, largely
because rock of the periods which would bear these fossils
has been eroded away. With the numerous glacial ad-
vances and retreats and the resulting rapid climatic fluctu-
ations, many forms of life that had become established in
the area died out or migrated elsewhere. Among the ani-
mals that did range here were the giant beaver, which
measured about eight feet in length, and the mastodon.
It was the presence of this ancient elephant-like creature
that probably brought the earliest human residents to Il-
linois.

There is evidence in the form of stone spear-points that
Paleo-Indians reached the Upper Great Lakes region in
pursuit of the mastodon about 10,000 years ago. They
were nomadic hunters and even as recently as 100 B.C.
there were apparently Indians in the area whose cultures
were based exclusively on hunting.

Most of the later Indian residents of Illinois, however,
combined agricultural and hunting activities. Indians of
northern Illinois adopted the use of canoes, sleds, snow-
shoes, made some pottery and built simple dwellings, but
they never attained the high cultural level of those peoples
living in the southern part of the state between about
100 B.C. and 1600 a.d. Perhaps partly because of the
more benign climate, the Indians of southern Illinois es-
tablished stable agricultural communities and developed
along nuich more complex cultural lines.

The Hopewellian culture was predominant in Illinois
from about 500 B.C. to about 700 .\.u. and may have origi-
nated here. These Indians buried their dead in mounds
and probably had a strong political or religious base to
their mode of living. They evidently indulged in vigorous
trade and developed their artistry in ceramics, sculpture
and metalwork to the highest level attained by any abo-
riginal residents of the state.

That culture was gradually supplanted by the Missis-
sippian, which was dominant in southern Illinois from about
500 to 1600 .'^.D. Traces of this culture were reported by
French explorers as late as 1700.

Beginning in Louisiana and moving north, the Missis-
sippian culture may have been influenced by the highly
developed Mexican Indian civilizations, since the Missis-
sippian peoples built terraces and flat-topped pyrainids
and temples. The largest of these is the Monk"s Mound of
the Cahokia Mound group in Illinois. It measures more
than 1.000 by 700 feet and is 100 feet high. The clusters
of temple sites indicate a far more elaborate civilization
than the Hopewellian. Anthropologists generally believe

this culture supported large comnuinities and had a very
complex political and religious structure. Like the Hope-
wellian culture, the Mississippian also developed a high
degree of artistic achievement, particularly in ceramics.

This advanced Indian culture gradually faded and when
the first European explorers reached Illinois the predomi-
nant Indians in the area were Miami, Sauk, Fox and Il-
linois, who followed variations of the simpler Woodland
cultures of earlier Indians. They combined agricultural
activities and the seasonal pursuit of game, remaining in
villages only temporarily. The Indians of Illinois were
forced to abandon their traditional way of living in the
wake of rapid westward expansion by settlers in the 1800s.

The homesteaders who came here foimd good farmland,
coal deposits, plentiful fish and game and good transpor-
tation provided by numerous waterways and relatively flat
prairie. It probably never occurred to them that this
bountiful land was a gift of millions of years of evolutionary
changes, sometimes violent, sometimes subtle, but ultimate-
ly resulting in an adaptability to the needs of man that has
seldom been equaled.

The Sesquicentennial Tour takes a leisurely two hours
and has been designed so that visitors can see the exhibit
areas with a minimum of walking and stair-climbing. Spe-
cial brochures for the tour, including specific exhibits stops
and information, are available free of charge in Stanley
Field Hall. — Story and cover photo by Elizabeth A'. Alanne,

Field Museum Press

Hopewell Man {Hall i) is an enlargement of a small Hopewell
Indian figurine found in West Central Illinois. The male figure
holds a digging stick used in planting corn and displays two dis-
tinctive features of Hopewell adornment, large spools in the ears
and the hair pulled back in a knot. Art forms of the Hopewellian
culture were highly advanced.

jULT Pages

The Vanishing Tropical Forests

By Louis 0. Williams
Chief Curator, Botany

■4^

Twenty years ago, when this photo was taken at Hoya Grande in Honduras, the forest on the mountaintops in the background was untouched and
the pine forest (foreground) relatively unspoiled. Today, with the population in Central American countries increased by more than 50 per cent
since then and growing by three per cent each year, much of the forest cover has been removed to open the land for agriculture and grazing, as
in the center of the photo. Lack of conservation practices is leading to rapid destruction of the forests and ultimate damage to the soil through

erosion, overgrazing, primitive agricultural practices, and neglect.

The tropical world holds a fascination for most people,
though there are perhaps more popular misconceptions
about the tropics than any other region. Strictly speaking,
the tropics is that part of the world extending 23 3^ degrees
north of the equator to the Tropic of Cancer and an equal
distance south of the equator to the Tropic of Capricorn.
A quick look at a map or atlas will show that there are
some tropical lands on all continents except Antarctica
and that two of the continents. Soiuh .America and Africa,
have more than one-half of their land area located within
the tropics.

The largest tropical rain forest area, and perhaps the
least disturbed one in the world, occurs in the Amazon
basin. This region extends from Belem do Para on the
mouth of the Amazon River west and southwest across
the continent to the foothills of the Andes, northwest to
the table moimtains of the "Lost World," and south to
southern Peru. (An Amazonian estuary is shown in a
diorama in Hall 26).

The great continent of Africa is largely within the trop-
ics. The rain forests of the Congo basin are enormous
in extent but not nearly so impressive as are those of the
Amazon basin. Within the African tropics are great areas
of desert; the Sahara at the north and the Kalahari toward

the south. The Namib desert along the coast of South
West Africa, due to the cold Bengala Current offshore,
is one of the least "tropical" places within the tropics.
In this desert grow some of the most curious plants to be
found anywhere. IVelwitschia is one of those, shown in a
diorama in the Museiun's Hall 26.

The Eurasian continent has a relatively small portion
of its area in the tropics, including parts of Saudi Arabia,
India and southeast .Asia. The tropical forests of south-
east Asia were, and perhaps still are, some of the richest
in the world. However, the terrific population pressure
in that region seems to indicate that most forests will be
gone there within the century. Europe, if considered a
continent separate from Asia, is wholly oiuside the tropics.

Australia is seldom thought of as tropical even though
nearly half of that great island falls within the tropics. On
the other hand, Oceania, no continent but a name applied
to that great mass of islands in the Pacific, is in man>'
people's thinking a tropical paradise.

To those of us who live in the Midwest the easily acces-
sible regions of the tropics are those almost straight soiuh
of us in Mexico and Central .America. The exuberance
of the vegetation in these tropics attracts and often over-
whelms the visitor or even the botanist whose experience

Page 4 JULY

has been with regions in the so-called temperate climates.
We lived in a small valley in Honduras for a number of
years, a valley perhaps six or seven miles wide and about
15 miles long. There are more kinds of native flowering
plants in that small valley than in the eastern U.S. of
Gray's Manual of Botany. There are possibly more kinds
of native trees on don Leo Salazar's Santa Marfa de Ostuma
farm in the Cordillera Central de Nicaragua than there
are in all the New England states. There is another great
difference, too. A hillside in the Berkshires of New England
may have relatively great numbers of individuals of two or
three or [jerhaps a half dozen species of trees. A hillside
covered with cloud forest on the Cordillera Central de Nic-
aragua, or in the Cordillera de Talamanca in Costa Rica
may have an almost bewildering aggregation of species of
trees, but rdatively few individuals of any one species.

It is a common experience in the tropics to find a tree
and to never see another individual of it. Tropical climates
have been and are more amenable to the development of
numerous kinds of plants, than are the more severe tem-
perate climates. The competition for space among suc-
cessful kinds of trees in the tropics is very great. There
are relatively few kinds of trees in temperate climates that
have become really successful, covering large areas geo-
graphically and abundant in appropriate habits. However,
of the trees of temperate climates that may be said to be
successful, some are outstandingly so. One of the con-
tributing reasons for this may be that there may be fewer
kinds of successful trees and consequently the competition
for space is less among the kinds of trees.

The old saw that "it is difficult to see the forest because
of the trees" might be reversed in the tropics. The late
Paul Allen, then associated with the United Fruit Company,
collected specimens from a very large tree in the rain forest
down in the southwestern corner of Costa Rica.* The
late Paul Standley and I studied the specimens and, after
showing them to many other botanists familiar with trop-
ical floras, described a new genus and species based on
them. A tree a hundred feet or more tall and 30 inches
in diameter must be a rather conspicuous plant yet it was
not discovered imtil 1951. How long it will be until another
collector finds it and collects it I have no way of knowing,
yet Allen said that it was a very conspicuous tree when in
flower.

The Museum has had a continuing interest in the flora
of Central .America for more than 75 years. The knowledge
so gained is useful and often essential in understanding
any other branch of science. In particular, study of the
flora and what is happening to it help us to understand the
relation of man to his environment in Latin America, and
what man is doing to his environment.

What effect does vegetation have on the production of

food and on agriculture and on the regional rainfall so

essential to both plantation and subsistence agriculture?

* Pentaplaris dorotcae. A design made Jrom the technical illustration
of this plant ivas used as a cover design on ^^ Homage to Standley^^ a small
book published by the Museum to honor a sta£ member who was one of America's
best known botanists.

What effect does a forest cover have on the climate, and
what may be expected to happen if we remove that cover?
.Are tropical forests as luxuriant as they appear? If the
soil can produce such magnificent forests, why does it not
produce an abundance of food? Why are there not paper
mills where plant growth is so lush? What effect do tropi-
cal diseases have on man in the tropics? Why do most
people live in the highlands and shim the lowlands? \Vhy
must 80 per cent of Central Americans depend on agri-
culture? What about the utilization of water for agricul-
ture? Is farm labor cheap or expensive at a dollar a day?
Why not increase cattle raising and export meat? These
and other questions deal with basic concepts of conservatinn
oj natural areas; land tenure practices and the vegetation, and of
agrarian laivs and the forests.

There has been much written in recent years afjoui the
population explosion. The rapid increase in the human
population of Central .America during this century, and
more especially in recent years is bound to have, and docs
have, a very profound effect on the vegetation of Central
.America and on all the kinds of living things that depend
on the natural vegetation.

It is my feeling, based on field experience in Central
.America and Mexico extending through 30 years, that the
natural forests of Central .America will all fje gone before
the end of this century except in spots too rugged to have
any value in agriculture or too difficult to get the trees out.

The demand for land upon which to grow, or to try
to grow, food crops increases in proportion to man's in-
crease. The natural forests are being cut at an alarming
rate to make way for siibsistance or for plantation crops
to satisfy man's immediate need for food.

Ancient volcanic soils on this mountainside in the Comayagua Valley
in Hondtiras erode quickly when the protective forest cover is removed.
Agricidtural yield of this type of soil is not high, does not warrant
destruction of trees to permit cultivation.

JULY Pages

This area, near Lake Yojoa in central Honduras, shows the effects of
primitive "milpa agriculture" practices on the forests.

Lake Yojoa in central Honduras is a gem in the midst
of a lush tropical setting. The broad-leaf forests are as
beautiful as any on the continent. If one wishes to culti-
vate this area lack of moisture is no problem for the rainy
season is about eleven months long and during the short
"dry" season rains may be frequent. The lands adjacent
to the lake are relatively level and I suspect that perhaps
a millenium ago the Maya cleared and planted here. Their
descendants practice agriculture there today perhaps much
as it was done then.

A kind of agriculture described as "milpa agriculture"
is traditional. To be successful it requires vast amoimts of
land in comparison to the population living from that land.
A bit of forest is cleared by fire, and the ax is also used now
(that tool was unknown until after the Spanish conquest).
The crop is planted among stumps and logs by making a
hole in the fire-softened soil with a sharpened planting
stick and dropping in a few seeds. The stumps and logs
may be a nuisance but relative to the labor of removing
them they are not. Harvest is done by hand and machinery
was and still is mostly unknown or not used.

-\ field, like that at Lake Yojoa shown in the photo-
graph may be planted with three or four crops during a
year, one after another. The cleared and unfertilized land
under this regime is depleted rapidly and in the course of
perhaps three years the crops become so poor that the land
is abandoned and a new clearing is made, the process
started over again. The old piece of land is let go back to
forest for a varying number of years. The resting period
always becomes shorter as population pressures increase
and demand for food increases. Consequently the lands
with shortened rest periods are able to produce less on each
new clearing or rotation.

The drier highlands and often the Pacific lowlands of
Mexico and Central America, where the rainy season may
be less, often much less, than six months long and alternating
with a relatively harsh dry season the situation is very
different and subsistence agriculture, also of the "milpa"
type, along with grazing by excessive numbers of animals

Page 6 JULY

has degraded much of these highlands for generations to
come. The pressure to produce foods is so great that culti-
vation is carried out even when it is doubtful if the results
warrant the time and labor involved.

The highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and
a part of Nicaragua are covered with what would seem to
be endless forests of "Honduras pine," Pinus oocarpa. It
is an excellent timber tree and a rapidly growing one. It
grows on lands mostly unsuited to subsistence agriculture
but on lands where cattle grazing can be practiced. Never-
theless, in times past and even now great areas of the pine
is cut or burned to clear the land. Perhaps even today more
is burned to clear land than is made into lumber. This
pine is a renewable natural resource par excellence, and cer-
tainly rational use of Honduras pine would provide lumber
to Central America and perhaps to much of the Caribbean
region in perpetuity.

The photograph shows a new stand of "Honduran Pine"
only six years after clear cutting of the pine forest. The
"park-like" aspect of the forest indicates relatively heavy
grazing. The control of grasses and herbs by grazing re-
duces the fire hazard to the young pines. Mature trees
will come from this forest in 30-40 years.

At the invitation of the Mexican government about
25 years ago, the Rockefeller Foundation began an ex-
tensive research project into the potential of increasing the
production of food plants used in the underdeveloped re-
gions of the tropics. The plants involved were maize and
wheat. The project, now sponsored by both the Rocke-
feller and the Ford Foundations, has been extended to
other food crops important in the tropics and enlarged to
cover other underdeveloped regions of the world.

While the increase in food production is only one of the
problems of the underdeveloped regions of our continent —
population control is perhaps the second in importance —
I suspect that the "revolution" in tropical agriculture ini-
tiated by Rockefeller Foundation will prove to be the most
important development in food production since the devel-
opment of maize culture in America and that of rice and
wheat in the Old World.

Valuable "Honduran Pine" forest areas are suitable for grazing but
generally poor for crops, though many are destroyed for crops.

NEW EXHIBIT CHIEF
OUTLINES GOALS

Better communication through imaginative museum exhib-
its is the goal of Lothar P. VVitteborg, new Chief of Exhibition
for Field Museum.

In the past 20 years, Witteborg has travelled to nearly
every part of the world as a museum exhibition consultant,
and has often been disturbed by what he regards as static
and unimaginative use of display areas in many museums.

Although he originally
graduated from college
with a degree in civil en-
gineering, the field did not
hold his interest and he
returned to school where
he earned a' degree in art
history and minored in
anthropology. Interest in
the latter field led to grad-
uate study in anthropol-
ogy, to which he added
courses in drawing, paint-
ing, sculpture and design.

As an undergraduate, VVitteborg worked at the Detroit
Children's Miiseiuii and the Museum of Anthropology at
the University of Michigan, but he became permanently
intrigued with the challenges presented by the problems of
visual communication when he became curator of the Uni-
versity Museum at Florida State University.

He later served as an exhibition consultant for the Newark
Museum and as assistant chief of art and exhibition and then
department chief at the American Museum of Natural His-
tory in New York City. While at the American Museum,
VVitteborg was often "on loan" as a consultant to other in-
stitutions which included the British Museum in London,
the Department of Antiquities in Turkey, and the School of
Classical Studies in Athens. He helped in the development
of the new National Museum in India.

Witteborg later joined the Museums and Monuments
Division of UNESCO and helped set up the National Mu-
seum of Malaysia and acted as consultant for other institu-
tions in Southeast Asia.

In 1960, he opened a private design firm, Witteborg and
Williams, Inc., with L. A. Williams, who had been chief of
exhibition at the American Museum after Witteborg. The
firm's clients included museums in the continental United
States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada.

Throughout his involvement in museum exhibition work,
he has stressed his belief that "an exhibition is more than
just a collection of interesting objects and things. It is a
way of organizing material to convey information, and of
organizing traffic flow to achieve optimum comnmnication.

He has expressed these views in several articles, includ-
ing a paper, "Museum Design, A Logical Approach," which
he read at the annual meeting of the American Association

of Museiuns in 1964, later published in the .*\.\M journal.
Museum J^'ews.

In that article, VVitteborg said, "Besides its role as a re-
search and social center, the main function of a museum
should be education through the interpretation of its col-
lections. Interpretation, the most important aspect of any
museum, is achieved through scholarly monographs, popu-
lar publications, guided tours, adult education programs,
and all-day programs; but, primarily it is achieved through
exhibits, because it is through them that the largest number
of people is affected.

"What to do with objects in a museiun sounds like an
easy problem. You either hang them from the wall, set
them on the floor, or build a case aroimd them. Actually,
it may be simple if the designer is simply asked to create a
context for objects taken out of their natural environment.
It is unfortimate, but this has been the case rather than the
exception. Most museums are dull, static, dead, three-
dimensional text books. But what about the explanatory
exhibit, the exhibit of ideas rather than of things? This
type of exhibit is becoming more popular as a few museums
discover that teaching involves more than arranging objects
in a glass case. Within the explanatory exhibit the design
possibilities are endless. Soimd, animation, models, charts,
and supplementary graphic materials, or any method the
designer may use, will aid in putting across ideas or con-
cepts in the exhibit.

"The designer has many useful tools, for example : in the
combination of simple use of structure with well-thought-out
use of color, the designer has at his disposal one of the strong-
est of response-producing techniques. Above all, it should
be the duty of the designer to free us from the fixations of
tradition and symbolism usually associated with color and
form by emphasizing the direct sensuous perceptual impact
of color and form as well as motion upon the spectator. The
exhibition visitor should be made to feel that his trip to the
museum was a spatial and visual experience in which the
process of learning came through an unconscious eflfort on
his part. The careful use of color, motion, sound, and light-
ing can be used to lead the exhibition visitor along a pre-
determined path. Another consideration, usually forgotten,
is that empty space can be lUilized to afford the visitor a
visual and physical rest, a point that is extremely important
in our larger museums. In exhibition design, where the
transmission of a story, a concept, or facts is the immediate
and explicit pmpose, ideas can be communicated by visual
symbols: color, form, lighting, and motion, which act as
subsitutes for words, thereby increasing their effectiveness as
meaning-carriers. It is, therefore, important in conceptual
planning that structure, space (both negative and positive),
form, color, motion, and light be dealt with together, not as
unrelated elements."

As chief of exhibition for Field Museum, he is interested
in the challenge offered in the muse\im's potential for devel-
opment of increasingly effective displays. VVitteborg re-
gards the Field Museum building, with its classic lines and
spacious galleries, as one of the finest in the world.

JULT Page 7

Field Museum's Brazil Tour mill
reach into private homes and gar-
dens, including those of four prom-
inent Brazilians in the Petrop-
olis area. The group irill tour
these gardens with Roberto Burle
Marx, landscape architect, bot-
anist and abstract painter, whose
work has created a new school of
landscape design. At left, the
residence of Senhora Odele Mon-
teiro, described by House and Gar-
den editor Ralph Bailey as hav-
ing "one of the most beautiful
private gardens in the world."
The tour, February H-March 11,
will cost $2050, including all ex-
penses and a $500 donation to
Field Museum. It is limited to
35 people. For details, write:
Brazil Tour, Field Museum of
Natural History, Roosevelt Road
at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago,
Illinois, 60605.

July hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday,
CALENDAR OF EVENTS Tuesday and Thursday; 9 a.m. to 8p.m..

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

July 1 through August 31 Field Museum General Highlights Tour Free pub-
lic tour of the Museum, conducted by the Raymond Foundation. Tour is fol-
lowed by a film, "Through These Doors." Tour begins at 2 p.m., Monday
through Friday; filiu at 3 p.m.. Lecture Hall.

July 1 1 Thursday Film Series for Children Part of the Museum's free sum-
mer activities for Chicagoland youngsters. A different film will be shown
twice on each of four consecutive Thursdays. Adults may attend when accom-
panying a child. First film of the series is "Nature's Engineer," a documentary
about beavers. 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., James Simpson Theatre.

July 18 Thursday Film Series for Children "Elsa, the Lioness," actual films
of the heroine of the book Born Free. 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., James Simpson
Theatre.

July 25 Thursday Film Series for Children Third in a series of four films will
be "Alaska." The final film, "Life .-Ml .Around Us," will be on August 1.
Both will be shown at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., James Simpson Theatre.

Through July 28 Egypt Through A Biologist's Eye A photographic exhibit
by Dale J. Osborn, Field Associate in Zoology. An artistic approach to scenes
in the Egyptian deserts rarely seen by tourists in that country. Osborn spent
three and one-half years exploring the Egyptian deserts for the Naval Medical
Research Unit Number Three. Hall 9 Gallery. Ti

Through August 15 M.\sada, King Herod's Fortress .k special exhibit of his-
torical data and archaeological treasures from the 1963^65 excavations at
the Zealot stronghold in Israel. Exhibit includes scrolls found in the caves
of Bar-Kokhbar on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Museum Members
and their families will be admitted free. Admission for non-members is
75 cents for adults and 35 cents for children. A free film on Masada is shown
daily at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

Through August Summer Journey: The Fishes of Lake Michigan With the
aid of Journey sheets provided by the Raymond Foundation, boys and girls
can learn about some of the fishes which live in Lake Michigan. Journey
sheets are available free at the North and South Doors of the Museum.

Half A Billion Years of Illinois History Museum do-it-yourself tour in

observance of the State's Sesquicentennial celebration takes visitors on a capsule

journey through the worlds of anthropology, botany, geology and zoology. A

free brochure provides a guide to pertinent exhibits.

SHINNER PROGRAM
IN THIRD YEAR

Eight college undergraduate and two
graduate students have begun partici-
pation in the summer scholarship-work
program set up by the Ernest G. Shinner
Foundation of Chicago and Field Mu-
seum of Natural History.

The ten Shinner Scholars were se-
lected by Field Museum from 62 appli-
cants studying at 39 different univer-
sities and colleges. Under the guidance
of Museum scientists in the fields of an-
thropology, botany, geology, paleontol-
ogy and zoology, Shinner Scholars ap-
ply laboratory and classroom techniques
to practical problems related to their
areas of concentration in college. The
program provides science students with
summer employment necessary for con-
tinuation of their studies.

Shinner scholars for 1968 are: Miss
Patricia Y. Fujimoto of the University
of Illinois-LIrbana from Chicago, Illin-
ois; Charles Gourd of Northeastern State
College from Tahiequah, Oklahoma;
Miss Mary C.James of Grinnell College
from Washington, D.C.; David P. Janos
of Carleton College from Chicago, Il-
linois; Jeff E. Klahn of the University of
Chicago from Forks, Washington; Miss
Susan F. Mandiberg of Oberlin College
from Highland Park, Illinois: Miss Mari-
lyn D. Miller of Mount Holyoke College
from Queens, New York; William L.
Overal of Northwestern University from
Chicago Heights, Illinois; Robert H.
Wilcox of the University of Chicago
from Wilmette, Illinois, and Steven J.
Zehren of the University of Wisconsin
from Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

The Shinner Foundation was estab-
lished by Chicagoan Ernest G. Shinner
to aid deserving young students.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60605 A.C. 312. 922-9410
FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Pages JULY

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 39, Number 8 August 1968

special Events Mark

Field Museum's

Diamond Anniversary Year

This month's cover is a preliminary sketch of the new
Stanley Field Hall, drawn by Harry Weese and Associates,
Architects. Any Anniversary celebrates both past and
future, and, in the months to come. Field Museum will
consider its aims and hopes as well as its achievements.

Dramatic changes in the appearance of exhibits in Stan-
ley Field Hall and an active calendar of spmcial events are
planned as Field Museum begins the celebration of its
Diamond Anniversary this fall.

An American Indian Festival will be the of)ening event
of the 75th Anniversary Year. Opening ceremonies on
September 23 will launch three weeks of live demonstra-
tions of Indian arts and crafts, Indian dancing, sf>ecial
films and illustrated lectures. A pow-wow, arranged by
the Indians, will close the Festival on October 13. A
special Member's Night on September 27 will enable Mem-
bers to get an unhurried close-up of the activities connected
with the Festival. Sf)ecial exhibits will focus on "New Di-
rections in Indian Art," "Contemporary Traditional Amer-
ican Indian Art," and "Indians of Chicago, 1968."

The re -designing of Stanley Field is already underway.
"Stanley Field Hall is the structural heart of Field Mu-
seum," said E. Leland Webber, Museum Director. "Stan-
ley Field was the real heart of the Museum for more than
50 years. It seemed appropriate, therefore, that this major
reinstallation during our 75th year be done in his memory
in the hall that bears his name."

When completed, the hall will feature fountains, fXMjls,
live trees and plants and a rearrangement of the tradi-
tional exhibits, the African elephants and the dinosaurs.

The firm of Harry Weese and Associates, Architects,
joined Lothar Witteborg, Field Museum's Chief of Ex-
hibition, in working out the design for the hall's new look.

Among the problems facing the Museum's exhibition
and engineering staffs were the repositioning of the .\frican
elephants and the rampant dinosaur. Assistance in the
former case came from Leon L. Pray, a retired Museum
preparator, who had worked with Carl Akeley in preparing
the elephants for display nearly 60 years ago. No one on
the present staff knew how the elephants were affixed to
their base or what steps might be involved in attempting
to move them. Mr. Pray was contacted and his answer
not only allowed the Museum staff to breathe a sigh of
relief but offered a tribute to the foresight of Carl Akeley.

"Answering your letter, re: Akeley's African elephants
in Stanley Field Hall: They are on separate frame bases, with
casters, ready to move. Simply tear off the plaster and
fiber surface of the overall ground-cover and there you
are! Mr. Akeley figured that someone would want to
shift them some day and that is the way he made them,"
Mr. Pray wrote. The elephants will be slighdy north and
east of their present location in the hall and will stand on a
new, higher platform.

The other large display, featuring two dinosaurs, pre-
sents a more difficult problem. The standing sf)ecimen will
have to be partially disarticulated and reassembled at its
new frosition, slighdy north and west of where it presently
stands. It, too, will have a new base.

The 20-foot New Guinea ceremonial masks, brought
from the South Pacific by the Joseph N. Field Expedition
of 1910, will be removed from the present glass cases and

Page 2 AUGUST

will stand freely in a more prominent position near the
south end ef the hall. Two massive totem poles from the
Canadian Pacific Coast will be added to the hall arrange-
ment, near the dinosaurs.

Two pools, one at each end of Stanley Field Hall, will
be underlighted, have bubblers and central fountain jets
sending water 20 feet in the air. Seating areas for visitors
will border the pools, which will be 24 feet in diameter and
about 15 inches deep. New benches will also be placed at
the sides of the hall, offering the public an abundance of
places to relax and rest during visits to the Museum.

The impression of bringing the "outdoors" indoors will
be enhanced by the addition of live fig trees and other
plants at various points on the main floor of Stanley Field
Hall. Hanging vines will also be used on the second floor
balconies overlooking the main floor.

New second floor public lounges at the north and south
ends of Stanlev Field Hall will add to the "new look."

lecture topics, "Hunting Monkeys in Thailand," "Search-
ing for Economic Plants in Africa," and "Primitive Art
in Melanesia." This series will end April 13 with a sum-
mary tour of the Museum's scientific departments of An-
thropology, Botany, Geology and Zoology.

Several sp>ecial exhibits are being planned for the 75th
Anniversary Year and will be announced in the Bulletin.

Observance of the Diamond Anniversary will close with
the Museum as host to the North American Palcontological
Convention in September, 1969.

The months of the 75th Anniversary Year coincide
closely with those of the founding year during which the
Museum gradually took shape. Incorporated on Septem-
ber 16, 1893, Field Museum opened its doors to the public
the following June 1 . During the same month the first
exp>edition went into the field, beginning the worldwide
explorations that have brought world renowned exhibits
and research collections to Chicago in the ensuing 75 years.

Ill 19M, the. recently completed Stanley Field Hall was empty.

Now partially completed, these lounges should be ready by
mid-September, in time for the American Indian Festival.
The Service Club of Chicago made a major contribution
toward their construction.

Small exhibit cases are b)eing removed from Stanley
Field Hall and no temporary exhibits will be placed there
after the renovation. Witteborg explains the changes as
creating an "elegant promenade," an area which serves as
a focal point for visits to other Museum areas.

Research by Museum Curators will be the basis for a
three part Fall, Winter, and Spring Lecture Series, which
will begin November 3 with "Introduction — Museum Sci-
ence and Expeditions," a talk by Robert F. Inger, Curator,
Amphibians and Reptiles. Subject matter will range from
"Meteorites — A Poor Man's Space Probe" to "Land Life
of Fishes" to "Strange Fossils of the Illinois Strip Mines."
The broad reach of Museum research is shown in other

In the I'JlfOx, crowded with c.rhilnts.

A social highlight of the Museum's 75th year will
be the 75th Anniversary Ball to be sponsored on Octo-
ber 25 by the Women's Board of Field Museum. In
Stanley Field Hall, guests will enjoy dinner and danc-
ing to the music of Frankie Masters and his 1 5-piece
orchestras. Three strolling violinists will play during
intermissions.

Committee members for the SlOO-a-couple event
include Mrs. C. Daggett Harvey, chairman, Mrs. A.
Watson Armour, Mrs. Philip D. Block, Jr., Mrs. Wes-
ley M. Dixon, Mrs. Wesley M. Dixon, Jr., Mrs. G.
Corson Ellis, Mrs. R. Winfield Ellis, Mrs. Harold F.
Grumhaus, Mrs. Wallace D. Mackenzie, Mrs. Henry
W. Meers, Mrs. John T. Moss, Mrs. James L. Palmer,
Mrs. John G. Searle, Mrs. Gardner H. Stern and
Mrs. Thomas S. Tyler.

AUGUST Pages

Original Tour Booked Solid

NEW GROUP SCHEDULED
FOR BRAZIL TOUR

Above: Fishes and birds of Brazil
often have varied and brilliant color-
ing. This piranha appears in bright
tones of pearl and ruby. Left: With
20 times the water flow of Niagara,
Iguacu Falls forms two giant horse-
shoes in a tropical setting. Falls
divarf boat at beach below. (Photos
by Phil Clark)

A second Field Museum Brazil Tour is being organized,
with departure January 22, if a minimum of 15 persons
subscribe.

So great is the interest among Field Museum Members
in this specialized natural history approach to Brazil that
all 35 places on the February 14-March 11 Tour have
been taken. In response to continuing requests for places,
the new Tour was announced by Phil Clark, Field Mu-
seum Public Relations Counsel and plant specialist, who
will lead both tours.

"The January 22 Tour is a mirror image of the Feb-
ruary 14th," Mr. Clark said. "All the same places will
be visited, but in opposite order. The January 22 people
will tour Manaus and the Amazon first, the other group
will end its trip there. Both groups will participate in
the Carnival at Bahia, but this will be the end of the Tour
for the January 22 group and the beginning for that of
February 14th — the two tours will meet and enjoy a Car-
nival Ball together on February 15, the first night in Brazil
of one group and the final night of the other."

Prices on the 26-day Tour are the same for both
groups, of course. Including all expenses (even tips to
guides) and a tax deductible $500 donation to Field Mu-
seum, the tour costs $2,050.

Stops on the Tour are: Manaus and the Amazon, the
modern capital of Brasilia, the gem center of Belo Hori-
zonte, the Portuguese colonial village of Ouro Preto, Rio
de Janeiro and its beaches of white sand, Petropolis and
its imperial museum and stunningly different private gar-
dens designed by Roberto Burle Marx, the home of Burle
Marx at Barra Tujuca, Sao Paulo and the Butantan Sanke
Farm, Curitiba, Vila Veiha, Iguacu Falls, the Augusto Ruschi
estate and hummingbird center in Espirito Santo and the
excitement of Carnival in Salvador, Bahia.

In addition to Mr. Clark, whose field is plants and
gardens, each tour will also be accompanied by an emi-
nent zoologist. Dr. Austin Rand, Chief Curator of Zoology
and an expert on birds, will accompany the Tour which
begins February 14, and another zoologist specializing in
birds will be found for the January 22 Tour. With the

Page 4 AUGUST

Tour groups averaging about 30, each member will have
ample opportunity to ask questions about the animals,
birds and plant life encountered in Brazil.

Brazilian specialists will also be available to talk with
Tour members at various stops. Dr. Ruschi will discuss
birds, orchids and bromeliads, his principal specialties,
during the Espirito Santo stop, and Burle Marx will express
his views on garden design and botany at Petropolis.
There will also be a meeting with gem cutters and a talk
by the geologist, Francisco Mueller Basto, at a dinner at
Belo Horizonte.

Guides familiar with the various local areas will join
the Tour at all major stops. The Tour is designed so that
members will be given a wide ranging and many-dimen-
sioned survey of Brazil's natural history and people.

Four Tour meetings will be scheduled during Decem-
ber and January as preparation for the Tours.

Further information or copies of the June Bulletin,
with the Tour itinerary, may be obtained by writing:
Field Museum Brazil Tour, Field Museum of Natural His-
tory, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois,
60605. A deposit of $500 is required and single room
accommodations for the Tour are $95 extra.

Royal palms in Kio's Botanic Garden make a dramatic fore-
ground for the Christ the Redeemer figure on Corcovado Mountain.

Roberto Burle Marx is the originator of a new school
of landscape design based on abstract art.

Above: Modern sculpture and landscaping add to the impact of
Brasilia's startling impression. This work is on the first floor
of the foreign ministry.

Below: Blue and green hummingbird sits on her tiny eggs in a
nest in a small hanging bromeliad, Neoregelia punctatis.sima.

AUGUST Pages

Fall Workshops for Members' Children

A series of Saturday morning workshops for the children and grandchildren of Museum Members will be held
for the fifth consecutive year by the Raymond Foundation this fall. Youngsters will meet Museum staff members
and work with specimens and materials from scientific collections. The small group workshops, geared to dif-
ferent age levels, are planned to stimulate and develop interest in the study of the natural sciences. The programs
for younger children last about an hour, those for older children about an hour and a half. Extra time should
be allowed if children plan to bring specimens for identification.

Reservations arc necessary and an application is included in this issue of the Bulletin. Since it may not be pos-
sible to accommodate all applicants, we urge that applications be sent in early. Each applicant will be scheduled
into one program only and reservations will be accepted in the order they are received. Applicants accepted
will receive a confirmation card which will serve as his or her admission to the workshop.

October 5

Life in an Old Dead Tree

Marie Svoboda and George Fricke, Leaders
For ages 5-7 1 0:30 A.M.

Parents are also invited. 1 :30 P.M.

This special program for family groups will show the dif-
ferent kinds of animals that might make their homes in an
old dead tree. Such a dwelling is not chosen for its beauti-
ful setting, but for the protection it offers.

October 12

Indians of Woodlands and Plains

Harriet Smith. Leader
For ages 8-10 1 0 :30 A. M .

For ages 11-13 1:30 P.M.

Indian tribes have developed ways of life adapted to their
environment and have also shown great skill in utilizing
natural materials to suit man's purposes. In this work-
shop, youngsters will handle various naturally-occurring
raw materials and see how the Indians used them in making
tools, weapons and household equipment. Movies showing
the variations of Indian Life in the woodlands and on the
western plains will also be shown.

Page 6 AUGUST

October 19

Boneyard Menagerie

Ernest Roscoe. Leader
For ages 6-8 1 0:30 A. M. and 1 :30 P.M.

This workshop will "rattle the skeletons in a few closets"
by discussing the prehistoric relatives of familiar animals
found in zoos and aquaria. Children should be accom-
panied by at least one parent. Be prepared for a few
surprises!

Caveman to Civilization

Edith Fleming, Leader
For ages 10-1 3 10:30 A.M.

A movie on the life of the cave men and how they hunted
prehistoric animals opens this workshop. Boys and girls
will also examine actual tools used by cave men thousands
of years ago, learn how they were made and compare them
with modern tools.

October 26

Find, Seek, Discover

George Friclie, Leader
For ages 6-7 10:30 A.M. and 1 :30 P.M.

Parents are invited
In this special program for family groups, the enjoyment

of exploring natural phenomena is stressed. This will be
a "treasure hunt" in the Museum halls to illustrate the
fact that life is all around us if we will take the time to
observe nature carefully.

November 2

Rock and Mineral Kingdom

Ernest Roscoe, Leader
For ages 9-1 3 10:30A.M.

Parents are Invited.

This is a slightly advanced program on rocks and minerals.
After a talk on the qualities and characteristics of different
rocks and minerals for their identification, youngsters will
be sent to the exhibition halls with question sheets to answer
independently. Children may bring their own specimens
for identification.

November 9

Bones to Bodies

Ernest Roscoe, Leader
For ages 9-13 10 :30 A. M .

Parents are Invited

This workshop emphasizes the structure of the vertebrate
skeleton. Specimens and Museum exhibits will illustrate
the important points of the subject.

if there Is more than one child In your family who wishes to attend a workshop, please make a
duplicate application for each child.

FALL WORKSHOPS FOR MEMBERS' CHILDREN

SATURDAYS in the MUSEUM, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. See article for details on programs. Please list the
program you wish to attend in order of your preference. Sorry, only one program can be scheduled for each child.

Program

Date

Hour

1st choice

2nd choice
3rd choice
4th choice

Name

Age

Tel.

Address

City

State

Zip

Membership in name of

Cut along dotted line and mail to:

Raymond Foundation, FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605

AUGUST Page 7

NEW PERMANENT COHO, ALEWIFE EXHIBIT
OPENS IN HALL OF FISHES

A new permanent exhibit opening Au-
gust 1 in the Hall of Fishes features two
of the most prominent fishes found in
Lake Michigan, the Coho salmon {On-
corhynchus kisutch) and the alewife (Alosa
pseudoharengus) .

The growth stages in the three-year
life cycle of the Coho salmon will be
depicted including two models of the
adult male fish to show the different
coloring pattern in the breeding male.

The Coho salmon, a native of the
Pacific Coast area, was raised in hatch-
eries in Michigan and released in 1966
into streams which feed in Lake Mich-
igan. Since then, the Coho salmon has
established itself well and has become
a favorite of sport fishermen. This spe-

Taxidermist Carl W. Cotton prepares a model
of an alewife for the new exhibit in Hall N.

August hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday,
CALENDAR OF EVENTS Tuesday and Thursday; 9a.m. to 8p.m.,

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

August 1 Thursd.w Film Series for Children Final film in a series of four
movies shown free to youngsters. "Life All Around Us," will be shown at
10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Through August 15 M.\s.\d.^, King Herod's Fortress Special exhibit of his-
torical data and archaeological treasures from the 1963-65 excavations at
Masada, led by Yigael Yadin. The Museum's largest special exhibit in several
years includes scrolls found in the caves of Bar-Kokhbar on the western shore
of the Dead Sea in Israel. Museum members and their families admitted free;
Xon-members admission, 75 cents for adults, 35 cents for children. Free
film on Masada shown daily at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p m. in the Lecture Hall.

Through September 16 C.AMOUFL.JkCE in N.-vture Photographic exhibit in color
by Edward S. Ross, an entomologist, demonstrates a variety of ways in which
living things are protected by coloration. Three-dimensional Museum ex-
hibits supplement the photographs. Hall 9 Gallery.

Continuing in August Egypt Through .\ Biologist's Eye Photographic ex-
hibit by Dale J. Osborn, Field Associate in Zoology. Moved to Hall J.

Through August 31 Field Museum Gener.\l Highlights Tour Free public
tour of the Museum, conducted by the Raymond Foundation. Tour is fol-
lowed by a film, "Through These Doors." Tour begins at 2 p.m., Monday
through Friday. Film will be shown at 3 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

Through August Summer Journey : The Fishes of Lake Michig.\n A do-it-your-
self tour for youngsters which will acquaint them with some of the residents of
Lake Michigan. Sponsored by the Raymond Foundation. Any child who
can read and write may participate in the Journey Program. Free Journey
sheets are available at the North and South Doors and the Information Desk.

Half A Billion Years of Illinois History Do-it-yourself tour for Museum vis-
itors in observance of the state's Sesquicentennial celebration covers aspects of
anthropology, botany, geology and zoology. A free brochure, available in
Stanley Field Hall, provides a guide to pertinent exhibits.

cies may grow to a length of 32 or 33
inches and weigh up to 25 pounds.

The Coho salmon remains near shore
during the spring but moves into deeper
parts of the lake during the summer.
In the fall of its third year, the fish
moves inshore again and then goes up
streams to spawn.

This predator feeds on many fishes
in the lake, including alewives.

The alewife, a native of the Atlantic
Coast, probably migrated to Lake Mich-
igan through the other Great Lakes.
It appeared in Lake Michigan about
20 years ago and has flourished.

Here the alewife has a three-year life
cycle, although in its Adantic Coast hab-
itat it may live from five to seven years.

Toward the end of their life cycle,
the alewives come close to the shore to
spawn, usually in the late spring and
early summer. The heaps of dead ale-
wives which have been notorious on
some beaches and shorelines occur at
the time of this inshore migration. The
alewives who spawn in July die some-
time later, probably during the winter.

The newly hatched alewives remain
close to shore until the autumn after
they are spawned. They feed on plank-
ton which they strain from the water
with very efficient "gill traps." When
they are older they move into the mid-
waters of the lake where they eat a type
of small crustacean and the larvae of
other fishes.

Alewives also have some commercial
value. More than 50 million pounds
of these fish were caught and processed
for pet food last year.

Both the alewife and the Coho sal-
mon are 'success stories" in terms of
the Lake Michigan habitat. The brief
life spans are indicative of the high rate
of survival of the young of these two
species.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVEI.T ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS S0«09 A.C. 312. 922-94t0
FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Pages AUGUST

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

BULLETIN

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 39, Number 9 September 1968

AMERICAN
INDIAN
FESTIVAL

The American Indian Festival

September 23

to

October 1 3

By Lois Rubinyi

Festival Coordinator, Raymond Foundation

The symbol of the American Indian Festival
is shown on this month's cover. The design,
from a Pima basket in the Museum's Grier
Collection, represents the house of Siuhu, a
Pima legendary figure whose mountain home
was so hidden by confusing trails that no one
could find him.

Rose Ayala, a volunteer at the American Indian Center, conducts a session of
the Center's Community Services Day Camp. Photo by Orlando Cabanban.

To BE ALONE in a large city — to be cut off from family,
friends, land and, most importantly, from one's own iden-
tity— this is often the situation of the Indian who comes to
Chicago. Indians have been arriving in Chicago in increas-
ing numbers, from a few hundred in the early 1950's to the
present population of 16,000. Many come as family units,
but the largest number come alone. Many have come to
participate in Bureau of Indian Affairs vocational train-
ing programs, biU a number also come on their own.

Their existence largely unknown to the general Chicago
public, these Indians from 99 tribes in 28 states and Canada
have, nevertheless, a valuable contribution to make to the
cultural and social life of this city. It was in this spirit that
the idea for an American Indian Festival developed. A great
deal of the creativity and ingenuity of mind, heart and hand
that enabled these various Indian peoples to survive and
flourish across much of the United States still remains. Since
the culture of any people is often intimately related to the
land where they live, it is not surprising that Indian cultures
have changed even as the American landscape has been
altered.

Few people see any continuity between the Indian cul-
tures of the past and the present. Our image of the Indian
past comes largely from novels (often highly romanticized),
television, and films. The generalized Indian stereotype
takes little cognizance of the great diversity of Indian cul-
tures on the American continent, including vast differences
in language, religion, government, art and social organiza-
tion. Few people have had any contact with the Indians
of today.

The American Indian Festival was conceived with the
idea of providing a creative context in which person-to-
person contact between Chicagoans — Indian and non-In-

dian— could take place. In creating the festival, the Museum
is working with the American Indian Center. The Center,
a non-profit organization, has sought by its own activities
to preserve Indian culture. Most importantly, it provides
a focal point for Indian social activity in the large city.

The Museum has long displayed some of the most beau-
tiful creations of Indian cultures in its halls, but objects
alone can never fully tell the story of their creation and cre-
ators. The emphasis of the festival is on living people and
their work and its major theme is American Indian culture
from past to present: continuity and change. Daily activ-
ities include demonstrations by Indian artists and crafts-
men of skills from many cultures such as : totem pole carving
from the Northwest Coast, basketry, beadwork, and costume
making from the Plains and Woodlands, with related films
on these crafts. Special events include performances by an
Indian choral group, dancing, and a canoe race on Lake
Michigan. Special exhibits will include a photographic
essay on the Indians of Chicago and a display of traditional
and modern Indian arts and crafts. The climax of the
festival will come the last two days with a Pow Wow given
by the Indians in which all Chicagoans — Indian and non-
Indian — will participate.

Many of the festival activities relate to some aspect of
Indian arts and crafts, but, most importantly, these are re-
lated to the total context of Indian life. Too often, Indian
life both past and present has been devitalized by reducing
it to a series of rudimentary skills and craft productions.
The art of any people is a part of their culture and as such
is intimately related to all aspects of their way of life. It
reflects among other things, a particular view of the world,
raw materials which are available, and the amount of leisure
time a group of people has to pursue such interests. A

Page 2 SEPTEMBER

projectile poLnt can be admired solely because of its fine
workmanship, but how much more meaningful to us if we
can see it as the means of supplying a people with meat to
keep them from starvation. A clay pot may appear imin-
teresting until we realize that it has held life-giving water
for the desert people who made it. We can then more
deeply appreciate the meaning of the beautiful designs ap-
plied to the pot: billowing rain clouds, falling rain, rain-
bows, and tender young corn plants. The delightful juxta-
position of the utilitarian and the artistic can be a constant
source of pleasure to discover. Watching a craftsman at
work gathering his materials and working with them, one
gains an increased respect for the extensive knowledge re-
quired for the production of these articles.

Change is an important theme in the festival. The way
of life of any people is a dynamic ever-changing process.
This was true of Indian cultures long before the Europeans
came. Designs on early Indian pottery show much ex-
change of ideas between different groups of people. New
techniques were also adopted — one very dramatic example
being the art of weaving which was learned by the Navajos
from the Pueblos. With the coming of the Europeans,
changes came rapidly. New materials were adopted : glass
beads were added to the traditional porcupine quill decora-
tion of the Plains and Woodland Indians, silver was com-
bined with the native turquoise to make Navajo jewelry,
and wool from sheep brought by the Spaniards replaced the
traditional cotton used in Navajo weaving. Shapes and
uses of objects also changed. Rugs began to be made com-
mercially by the Navajo as trade goods— design and color
were often suggested by the trader. Metal containers were
used by the Pueblo Indians for water storage and began to
replace clay pots. Pottery began to be made more and more
for tourists with new shapes and designs added to please the
tourist's taste (which was often lamentable). Understand-

ably, the meanings and function of many articles changed.
Kachina dolls are regarded by some as toys rather than as
representations of Hopi dieties. Iroquois false-face masks
are used in interior decorating in addition to traditional
curing ceremonies.

Today it is not surprising to see an Indian dancer wear-
ing moccasins with Woodland Indian beadwork, a Plains
Indian costume, and a Navajo Squash Blossom necklace.
The arts and crafts of many diverse culture areas in the
United States are being brought together. There appears
to be a search among many American Indians, as there is
among other groups within the American population, for a
common identity and the means to achieve this. Indian art,
dance, and song have taken on new meaning in this search.
It is important to stress, however, that this artistic heritage
is only one aspect of the modern Indian self-image. As one
young Indian expressed it:

The culture I am talking about is not something
like a war bonnet and a pow wow dance put on for
tourists. It's something that the Indian has in the way
the Indian lives. Not as he lived in the past, but as he
lives now. That exists in his being an Indian. (Stan
Steiner, The New Indians, 1 56)
Chicago is fortunate that so many cultures and tradi-
ditions are represented in her diverse population. It seems
appropriate that the Museum which contains so much about
people should be the major focal point for their meeting. It
is our hope that the American Indian Festival will show the
continuity through time of American Indian social life and
culture and form a bridge between the past — represented
by the articles on exhibit — to the present and future — rep-
resented by the people you will meet in the Museum.

The Illinois Arts Council, a stale agency; the Ernest G. Shinner
Foundation; and the Wieboldt Foundation provided financial assist-
ance Jor the American Indian Festival.

Pow-wows are held periodically at the American Indian Center, providing Indians from many tribes
living in Chicago with a focal point for social activity. Photo by Orlando Cabanban.

SEPTEMBER Page 3

They built; they did not destroy

A REMARKABLE THING

By Sol Tax

Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago

Acting Director, Center for the Study of Man,

Smithsonian Institution

From a luncheon address at the first annual meeting of the Foundation
of North American Indian Culture, Bismarck, North Dalcota, Decem-
ber 6, 196S.

Wood earring of eagle and whale, by David Williams, Sr., Tlingit
Indian. Loaned by Indian Arts and Crafts Board.

Those of us who bring the European heritage often have
feelings of guilt. We are proud that our fathers brought
forth two new nations dedicated to liberty and to equality.
But we know that it was not quite a virgin wilderness from
which Canada and the U.S.A. were born. The American
Indians who came thousands of years before had done a re-
markable thing, relating human needs to the natural world
in every corner of this continent. On the Pacific coast they
learned how to live with salmon without destroying the sal-
mon— and this required a marvelous technology. Just so
Eskimos and Indians learned to live in the arctic, and made
all of the inventions that were needed. In California it was
acorns, which cannot be eaten unless men learn first to leech
out the bitterness. In the Southwest the Indians learned
to live with the desert, in the South and East with the great
forests. Here on the plains the miracle was no less, for they
showed us how the setded agricultural life of the river beds
could combine with life on the high plains where man could
live with buffalo. In every case they built; they did not
destroy. They combined nature, man, and God into a har-
monious whole. When Spaniards brought the horse to
Mexico the Indians showed well how they could weave the
new into the old. The horse almost instantly became in-
tegrally part of the older life, part of the harmony of man-
nature-spirit. In the days of their freedom the nations of In-
dians not only thrived, but they thrived by discovering how
to live with nature and with God without destroying either
— or themselves. They changed readily and sometimes rad-
ically, as their environments changed or they moved into
new areas or with the new discoveries they themselves made.
They were never lonely individuals because they belonged
to communities and each community was a moral order
built on a right way to live in harmony with fellow tribes-
men, which meant to live in harmony too with the greater
universe. We think now of these tribes having developed
"genuine" cultures: customs and ways and deep feeling
about the right way to live; beauty in everything made by
men because what was made was made with love and came
from and was part of the universe.

Now, Europeans thousands of years ago took a different
path. We discovered how to conquer nature. It was an
act of will in our European tribal past that changed us
from the way of tribal peoples. We invented something
called "work," which is something from which we need
vacations, as though what needs to be done must be sepa-
rated from what we want to do. We also began to change
the earth, and to glory in changing it; and to treat nature

Page 4 SEPTEMBER

like a thing, and the supernatural as something for Sunday
— both separated from ourselves; and eventually we found
ourselves treating one another as things also — each sepa-
rated from the others, competing in a struggle to surpass.
I am not glorifying the tribal way which was the Indian way
or denigrating what we are. We too are marvelous to be-
hold. In a few thousand years we have indeed conquered
nature. When I first read that there now exists an atomic
reactor that produces more energy than it consumes it
crossed my mind that we seemed to be repealing some funda-
mental law of physics, just as in the past few years we have
repealed one of our oldest proverbs, that what goes up must
come down. But no, we have repealed no physical laws.
That atomic reactor, (I think it is called a breeder reactor,
since it breeds energy) is simply turning matter into energy.
Man has become so powerful that he has begun to reduce
the total quantity of the matter that constitutes our planet.
The mind calls up a picture of the earth getting smaller and
smaller until it disapf)ears. But wait — as we transform our
earth into energy, we shall use the energy to take us to other
planets. If the universe is infinite, of course we can believe
that progress can go on forever. In your minds is the ques-
tion, "Is that progress?" But if you question progress at this
point in our long history, you have to question it all the way
back to the time, whenever it was, that we began our adven-
ture in manipulating nature instead of relating to it, and in
taking upon ourselves the role which we attribute every Sun-
day to the Almighty.

and excitement of their dance and their song, and the gran-
deur of their thought and ritual, but because they are a
living example of another way of life. We need the model of
that way of life not because we ourselves can turn back his-
tory and become again like tribal peoples, but because
while they exist there is a chance to learn from them some of
the basic values of life which (like matter) we have ourselves
transmuted into energy. To the degree that we can regain
these basic values we may learn to live with ourselves
again.

Friends of American Indians are fond of remembering
the cultural debt that we owe to them — tobacco (which
we misuse), chocolate, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, pumpkin,
turkey, and so on — it is hard to imagine our world without
these. We also know that Indian ideas of democracy, and
the federations of tribes, influenced the birth of our nation
and our Constitution. We know how much our language,
our place names, our nature-lore, have gained froin Amer-
ican Indians. I am suggesting that the cultural contribu-
tion that the Indians offer to us — and which we reject — is
far greater than these items which we have accepted.

Many of us, particularly in the East, are surprised to
know that Indians are not disappearing — indeed Indians
who identify as Indians, who associate with Indian com-
munities, and live in terms of Indian values — even if they
half starve to do so — Indians in this sense are actually in-
creasing in numbers every year. This is due biologically to
modern medicine, the control of contagious diseases, and

Walrus figure carved from loalrus ivory, by Eskimo Indian. Loaned by Indian Arts and Crafts Board.

I am part of our European civilization, one of the mem-
bers indeed of the very university where man first achieved
his latest and greatest technical mastery over nature. I ad-
mire the mind and the spirit which is ours; I do not deni-
grate it. Nor do I say that the individuals of any popula-
tion are better than those of another. We European Amer-
icans have as far as I know as many noble spirits and warm
and kind people as any other group; we also have our share
of small and evil people. I am only trying to distinguish
two ways of life, two paths for men and mankind. American
Indian communities need to be sustained, not only or even
mainly because of the beauty of their artifacts, and charm

especially the saving of lives of children. But it is due
equally to an act of will on the part of Indians. From the
beginning of our history on this continent we have made it
difficult for Indians to continue to live as Indians. We
took away their means of making a living as Indians, of-
fering them this difficult choice: "Maintain your commu-
nities and live in terms of Indian values," we told them.
"If you can't feed yourselves that way in our competitive,
utilitarian, impersonal society, then change into white men.
Leave your communities and your values; stop living in
ways you think proper; and you can eat and have the things
you need." It was an act of will that the American Indians

SEPTEMBER Pane 5

generally have rejected the choice — an act of will of which
they should feel proud. They chose the way of our fathers
who left Europe in small ships to face unknown hazards and
hardships rather than submit to tyranny or violation of con-
science. What is no less important is that we still offer them
only the impossible choice — live like white men, or not at all
— and that they still refuse. To resolve the problem which
is our problem — we say, "keep your culture if you will, but
not at our expense" — and impatiently we throw them into
the water to sink or to swim, as we say. But the Indians
stubbornly neither sink nor swim; they float. They retreat
into themselves, unable to explain that they cannot and will
not be like us — that would be discourteous and aggressive
and not good Indian behavior. They plead silendy for
understanding, patience, and help. And the help that we
give them is offered as charity, in paternal spirit, forcing
them in order to live they lose the independence which is
their traditional heritage and the birthright of every com-
munity. Outsiders manage their affairs; because they can-
not pay for their community schools and hospitals, they are
not allowed to manage them. And then we complain that
they do not know how. Indian tribes have from time im-
memorial managed the most difficult community decisions,
and did so with consummate skill. Otherwise they would
not have survived. They could do it now, if we let them
do it in their own way. What needs to be done to protect
Indian communities is to help them to protect their small
remaining land base — which is their tribe — and to help them
to provide means to earn a living and to maintain health and
education; help them to do what needs to be done — help
them with money and skills — ^but let them do it for them-
selves. We shall prove ourselves wise enough to run their
lives only when we find ways to let them run their own.
But we have to provide some replacement for the continent
which we took from them, until freely they as communities
can invent means to adjust to this new environment of the
white man as once they adjusted to changes in nature.

If we can work this miracle of human relations as we
have worked miracles of technology, our reward will be
great. First, we shall have resolved a problem which weighs
heavily on our hearts and consciences. Second, we shall
have breathed new life into communities that are paralyzed,
and we shall witness a rebirth of Indian culture. When we
speak of the cultural heritage of the American Indians
that we think to preserve, we are thinking of the arts and
crafts and song and dance that have come to Indians from
their forefathers. This is good. With encouragement and
markets the traditional Indian products can continue to
be produced in quantity, and the Indian powwows can
be made attractive to tourists. This recognition of the
value of Indian culture by the larger society is good, and
helps American Indians both economically and psychologi-
cally. But it is not enough. This living on the past is living
off capital. Art is not art, and music is not music, if it
comes ready-made. We appreciate the old masters, but we
demand of our artists that they be creative so that our gen-
eration, too, will produce those who will some day be old

masters. Indian culture was changing and creative, devel-
oped out of the fabric of community life. When we think
of preserving Indian culture we do not think alone of the an
and artifacts which are reflections of the Indian cultures of
the nineteenth century, but of the potential for creation that
exists also in the twentieth century. Only by freeing Indians
to live as they wish as Indians can we expect that life will
again be breathed into the Indian culture that we preserve.
Creative arts — all culture — are reflections of communities.
Our great reward, if we help American Indian communi-
ties to develop freely in their own full directions — our great
reward will be that we shall see a renaissance of Indian cul-
ture, changing with the times but remaining Indian. Indian
culture is the basic identification with fundamental values
and beliefs that have come down from the past in each In-
dian nation. These are fundamental values, and just as the
values of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin are living
guides to us today, in spite of the fact that we have moved
from an agricultural horse-and-buggy style of life to one
that is in many ways far richer. So the basic American
Indian values so important to be preserved will be best pre-
served if the Indian communities are protected by changes
in outward things that will protect but not offend their inner
values. With Indian community values preserved, the arts
will be protected so that they can develop. Just as there are
both museums to preserve the best of the old and also studios
to create the new, without which our culture would dry up
and die, so if we speak of preserving Indian culture we
must plan first of all to help Indians to gain autonomous
communities which will be their studios for the creation of
a living culture in the spirit of the changing past.

Necklace made of caribou hoof, by Eskimo. Loaned
by Indian Arts and Crafts Board.

Pao(6 .SEPTE.MBER

The Edward E. Ayer

Fall Lecture Series 1968

Moose
John Bulger's "Rivers"

October 5

Our Western Parks

Arthur Dewey

Our magnificent national parks in a film
portrayal that covers the four seasons. The
human element — sports and camping — is
shown as well as the wildlife and natural
wonders.

October 1 2

Florence and the Heart of Italy
Eric Pavel
Magnificent Renaissance treasures of Flor-
ence serve as a backdrop for current artistic
activity. Colorful celebrations and visits to
famous scenic areas throughout Italy are
also featured.

October 1 9

Nature's Plans and Puzzles
C. P. Lyons
Curious adaptations of animals to various
environments are explored. Studies of
birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and am-
phibians are interwoven with studies of
plant life and the earth's geology.

October 26

Skis Over McKinley Hans Gmoser

The first ski traverse of Mt. McKinley and
a skier's escape from an avalanche are
among highlights in this tribute to the ad-
venture of skiing in various areas of North
America.

The beauty and excitement of natural wonders and varying cultures fronfi the
artistic centers of Italy to the skier's world on the mountain slopes of Alaska will
be featured in this year's Fall Lecture Series. The films are prepared and presented
by well-known travelers and lecturers, each stressing human interest factors as well
as the natural appeal of different areas of the world. The nine films will be shown
in the James Simpson Theatre of the Field Museum of Natural History at 2:30 p.m.
on successive Saturdays from October 5 through November 30. Reserved seats
for Museum Members will be held until 2:25 p.m. Attendance is limited to adults
and children of Members. Admission is free.

November 2

Ireland Nico/ Smith
Emphasizing the people of this "land of
castles and cottages," the span of Ireland
from metropolitan Dublin to vast estates
and historic castles to quiet seacoast vil-
lages is explored.

Pageant
Eric Pavel's "Florence"

'zF

Shrine
Philip Walker's "Japan"

Jaunting Car
Nicol Smith's "Ireland"

November 9

Japanese Summer Phi/ip Wa/I(er
The contrasts and blending of ancient and
modern Japan are revealed in its people,
its cities, its cultural traditions and arts,
and its industries.

November 16

Sweden Raiph Gerstle
Progressive, modern Sweden is viewed
against a background of its traditional cele-
brations and maritime history. The no-
madic Lapps and their lives above the
Arctic Circle are also featured.

November 23
Wild Rivers of North America
John Bulger

Wilderness waterways from Tennessee to
the Arctic tundra lead travelers through
furious rapids, into raging forest fires and
on whale hunts, with glimpses of wildlife
in unspoiled areas near these waters.

November 30

Four Worlds of Switzerland
Alfred Wolff
French, German, Austrian and Italian in-
fluences in Switzerland are illustrated
through regional festivals, crafts and un-
usual local institutions in this small and
beautiful country.

SEPTEMBER Page 7

Monday through Friday the buses roll down Museum Drive
to the Museum's soiuh entrance, spill out their loads of chil-
dren and park five abreast the lenght of the drive. The
children rush up the steps, line up in pairs and wait to be
checked in. Inside, Stanley Field Hall is criss-crossed by
straggling regiments of wide-eyed children. Many of these
children are taking part in what the Chicago Public School
Board of Education calls a Selected Cultural Field Expe-
rience.

Thousands of children tour the Museum in a year and
each year that number increases. \Vith the advent of the
federal government's Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, which, among other things, provides funds for buses
for children in economically depressed communities, the
number of school groups touring the Museum has swelled
tremendously. Without this subsidy these children are un-
able to afford the fare needed for a chartered bus. Head-
start, settlement house groups, church groups, school classes,
clubs and day camps continue to come to the Museum in
ever-growing numbers.

This is, of course, partially a reflection of increased effort
to reach and aid the inner-city child in a constructive and
progressive way. Museums across the country are taking
part in this effort and the Field Museum is no exception.

As I stood and watched the seemingly endless parade of
children streaming through the Museum halls, I couldn't
help wondering^how much do they get out of these tours?
is the effort and expense justified or is this a well-intentioned
but misdirected expenditure of energy and money?

To answer these questions I took a tour with a group of
third graders; I read books; and I talked to administrators,
teachers, Museum personnel, social workers and children.
As a result, I arri\-ed at the suspected conclusion for some
unexpected reasons.

This is in no way a comprehensive or statistical survey
supported by sophisticated computer-tabulated data. It is,
rather, a casual compilation of the views of experienced, in-
terested and concerned people involved in the education of
children.

I began the project by consulting Miriam ^Vood, head
of the Raymond Foundation, the Museum division con-
cerned with booking, arranging and guiding tours, as well
as conducting workshops, journeys, and many other special
programs.

Miss Wood is a petite, soft-spoken woman whose gra-
cious manner and ready smile belie a mind crammed with
facts and figures on civic, federal and private education pro-
grams and data on how these programs relate to the Mu-
seum. When questioned on these matters, she doesn't
require time to gather her thoughts — they are seemingly
permanendy gathered and ready for use. In addition to
big, formal programs. Miss Wood is interested in small, in-
formal efforts such as those of a secretary who devotes her
weekends to enriching the life of one slum child by taking
him to Museums and other such places, or a family that
brings small groups of handicapped children to the Mu-
seum in the family stationwagon.

Ml

The other time

by Patricia M. Williams
Field Museum Press

Miss Wood is acutely aware of the role the Museum can
play in aiding the inner-city child, the handicapped child,
the problem student, as well as the average and superior
students. However, she emphatically stresses the need for
adequate financial support necessary to fulfill this role.
There must be well-trained staff members available to guide
these children, as well as facilities and equipment for spe-
cial groups.

Last year the Raymond Foundation registered an un-
paralleled 6,214 groups, including 324,661 persons, and
expects to top that figure this year. Miss Wood has six
highly-trained and expert staff lecturers and nine volim-
teer guides to handle this burgeoning number. The vol-
unteers are members of a recently formed, enthusiastic group
of women who have completed an intensive training period
and who are now qualified to conduct a tour of Indian and
North American mammal exhibits tailored to the third-
grade curriculum of the Chicago public schools.

Groups are, of course, welcome to tour independently —
without Museum guides. However, the advantages of a
guided tour are obvious and numerous, as pointed out in
the following letter from Mrs. Yuji Kobayashi, a room-
mother at Oscar Mayer School, Chicago.

"As a room mother I have accompanied my children's
classes on a number of field trips. During some of these
museum trips I have noticed that the teacher experiences
difficulty in explaining exhibits to the children in her
group. The children at the head of the line can hear her
talk quite well but those in the rear can hear very little.
Those nearest the exhibit also are able to read the signs and

Pages SEPTEMBER

came on my birthday."

fully see the display but those farther away are only able to
catch a glimpse of the exhibit as they move on the next
display.

"The conducted tour is quite different. When my son's
class went on the conducted tour at the museum, they were
first given an introductory talk about the exhibits they were
to see that day. They were then conducted to tlie various
displays that were related to a specific subject which, in this
case, was the American Indians and their masks. At each
display the guide gave a little talk and then the children
asked questions. The guide was able to answer them where-
as a teacher would have had difficulty in doing so.

"The children gained greater appreciation for the In-
dian masks and their meanings. The class then was able
to apply their new found knowledge in their classroom. I
believe the conducted tours are a great benefit to the chil-
dren in light of the limited time they are able to spend on a
field trip."

At Miss Wood's suggestion I arranged to join a group of
third graders as they took a guided tour of the Museum.
When I arrived for the tour Miss Wood and three volunteer
guide-lecturers, Mrs. C. W. Sidwell, Mrs. Charles Fuller
and Mrs. Robert Elmore — all from the Service Club of Chi-
cago, were holding a hasty strategy meeting. The logistics

of marshalling hundreds of children a day through the ap-
propriate areas of the Museum are staggering and arc care-
fully planned by the Raymond Foundation staff. This
group's plans were being revised because instead of the
expected 60 students, over 100 arrived. This meant that
rather than each volunteer taking 20 students — a workable,
controlable number, she would have to take over 30. The
difficulties of maneuvering, making oneself heard and en-
couraging discussion increase proportionately with the num-
ber in a tour group. It was finally decided that the volun-
teers would take 90 of the students and the others would
have to tour on their own.

The third-graders on this tour were from an area of
Chicago that sociologists euphemistically term blighted or
economically depressed. The common, accurate and pain-
ful term for this area is slum — hard-core slum. Almost
all of the children had been to the Museum at least once
before.

Ninety children, three volunteers, two teachers and I
proceeded to the second floor meeting room to begin the
tour with a movie. The movie prepares the students for
the coming tour and, as an observant teacher pointed out,
settles them down after the excitement of the bus ride.

After the movie each volunteer took a group of children

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SEPTEMBER Page 9

and we began to tour the Museum. The teachers put all of
the problem children into one group — Mrs. Sidwell's — and
I tagged along after them.

Inspiteof Mrs. Sidwell's friendliness and encouragement,
the children had few questions regarding the Indians and
were generally unresponsive. Their attention span was
brief and, except for an exhibit of Indian children's toys,
they were easily distracted.

By the time we got to the animal exhibits the children
were more relaxed and had apparently decided that I was
no source of disciplinary action. As we crossed Stanley
Field Hall a scrawny boy, who frequently broke into ener-
getic dance steps, had pulled a cigarette in a long black
holder out of his back pocket. He stuck it into his mouth
in a manner strongly reminiscent of FDR, puffed out his
chest and convulsed his buddy.

It was this boy who asked the most observant questions
about the animal exhibits. He and several of the other chil-
dren were very interested in the deer and beaver, but when-
ever one of them raised his hand to ask Mrs. Sidwell a
question, the teacher passed behind him, placed a hand on
his shoulder and frowned. They stopped trying to ask ques-

problems. The teacher was young and cheerless. She
seemed to know the children and their needs and was not
indifferent to them, but seemed discouraged and tired. I
asked her, "Have you been here before with a class?"

"No, although we take many tours a semester — since the
government money is available — we haven't been here be-
fore. This is the first time we have had a g^iided tour of any
of the places we have been."

"Does it make a difference?"

"Yes — the children seem to be getting something out of
it and there is some point and organization to what they are
seeing, instead of just wandering around. Besides, it's very
hard to take 35 kids to a strange place with no one to help,
except maybe one mother. Just maintaining discipline then
is hard enough."

"Is it worth the effort?"

"Emphatically yes. If you could see them in the class-
room— they twitch and wiggle and can't seem to sit still.
They get so bored so easily. This helps to create a positive
approach to school."

"How much do you expect them to retain? Any of it?"

"No — no facts. They will, hopefully, get a general im-

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tions and we moved along quickly, quietly and with dis-
cipline.

When we were in the Hall of Woodland Indians Mrs.
Sidwell had pointed out a necklace of grizzly bear claws and
commented on the bravery of the Indian who had such a
necklace. Now, as we paused before an exhibit of grizzly
bears, I said to the little girl next to me, "See — there are
the grizzly bear's claws. Remember the Indian's necklace
made of grizzly bear claws?"

The girl looked at me and then looked at the grizzly
bear. She examined him from snout to stern and then
asked, "Where are the claws?"

"On the ends of his feet — like toenails."

"Oh, I didn't know what claws were."

How much were they actually comprehending? I asked
the teacher and she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Some
of it — not all, but they understand some."

These students were third-graders doing upper first grade
work. Some were slow learners and some were discipline

pression of what they have seen. They won't remember any
facts specifically. If we come again — and then perhaps
again — and took the same tour, then they would begin to
remember facts and associate them with other things they
have learned. It takes constant repetition — everything.
Over and over and over."

"Is this a good response for them?"

"Yes — they're doing well. Better than some other
times."

The tour over, we returned to Stanley Field Hall, the
children were reunited with the other two fractions of their
group and the volunteers had a moment to rest and discuss
this group. It's not easy to take a group on tour and, al-
though new on the job, these women were good at it. They
feel that they are doing something worthwhile and look for-
ward to their tours — and it shows.

Academic preparation for a Museum tour is as varied
as the teachers who present it. .Some teachers give no intro-
ductory material at all, apparently thinking that the Mu-

Page 10 SEPTEMBER

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seum is the best introduction to the study unit. Others
bring their classes at the end of the study unit, using the
Museum exhibits as a summary. The Chicago Board of
Education recommends planning the "educational goals of
the field trip carefully and cooperatively with the pupils in
advance of the tour." Mrs. O'Connell, a successful and
enthusiastic teacher at Oscar Mayer School, brings classes
to the Museum often and prefers to come midway through
a study unit. She finds that someone new — the guide-lec-
tuer — rekindles the children's interest. In her view, the
school and the Museum supplement one another.

Follow-up is vital to reinforce the Museum experience
and can be quite creative. Some schools and groups, such
as the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago, simply engage in
structured conversation, discussing in a casual way the
things seen at the Museum and relating these things to other
experiences. The Institute, a division of the Church Fed-
eration of Greater Chicago, is not an elementary school and
therefore has no set study units for children, but they are
attempting to enrich the lives of inner-city children and
encourage "image explosion" and "imaginal" education.
The children draw pictures of things seen at the Museum
and discuss them repeatedly in various contexts.

The Chicago Board of Education lists a variety of follow-
up procedures — making booklets, writing themes, reading
stories, making checklists, etc.

Mrs. O'Connell's class of above-average students sug-
gested their own project. They made masks similar to those
made by Indians and took great care to ensure "authen-
ticity." The masks were featured in a student art exhibit
and some months later, on a return tour, the children
brought their masks to the Museum to show the staff-
lecturer.

Sullivan House, a settlement house in the inner city, has
an effective and on-going follow-up program. Douglas
Dillon, director of Sullivan House, brought nine boys rang-
ing from 10 to 15 years of age to the Museum for a short
visit. This visit was a flop. The boys, three of whom are in
Educable Mentally Handicapped classes and all of whom
have been involved with the police, paid little attention to
the exhibits and ran around as if in a fun house. The rep-
tile hall alone held their brief interest and the collared lizard
intrigued them.

The following summer on a camping trip to Utah, they
caught a collared lizard and, on return to Chicago, asked
to go back to the Museum to re-examine the Museum's dis-
played lizard. This began a series of regular Museum visits.

Mrs. Barbara Polikoff, of the Sullivan House staff, re-
lates, "Mr. Dillon thought of the idea of taking a camera to
the exhibit halls and giving each boy a chance to take a few
photographs. This follow-up of photography was very im-
portant because the boys were able to bring their museum
learning right back to Sullivan House. They photographed
the lizard, complete with the labeled information, and hung
the best of the photographs on their bulletin board."

This established the pattern for subsequent visits. When
they wanted ideas for designs in art, they roamed the an-
thropology halls with the camera. One of them photo-
graphed a Chinese vase and, back at Sullivan House, an-
other boy saw the photo and used a variation of the design
to decorate a ceramic bowl he made. As Mrs. Polikoff
states, "The museum had stimulated a desire to learn in
these boys that school has never been able to rouse."

Long-range retention of the Museum experience is, of
course, greatly reinforced by a strong follow-up program.
However, even when facts are forgotten, the positive im-
pression of the Museum remains. This fact was stressed
repeatedly by social workers, teachers and administrators
who deal with children whose attitude toward education
is negative.

Mrs. Jean Feiler of the Ecumenical Institute explained
that children from the Institute respond not just to exhibits,
but to the total Museum. In the Museum they lose their
passivity and are stirred by their surroundings. Mrs. Feiler
says, "It is as though their environment had made them
different. Remove the environment and the child is trans-
formed."

According to Mrs. Feiler, a group of three and four
year olds from the East Garfield area was taken on a full
summer of touring. They covered all the museums, parks
and zoos possible. When they were asked what they liked
best of the things that they had seen they repeatedly cited
the neatness, order and cleanliness of the Field Museum.

Of course, it is desireable that facts and insights gained
at the Museum be retained as well and, although I was
unable to discover any testing data to support this, they
imdoubtedly are. One teacher was able to question a group
of children who had toured the Museum two years pre-
viously and reported that they had good and specific fact
retention. I spoke to a man who described himself as
having been a "slow learner and poor reader with litde
interest in school," and who had taken a Museum tour in
fifth or sixth grade — about 23 years ago. He specifically
recalls the guide describing the Multi-levelled Hopi Indian

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SEPTEMBER Page 77

pueblos and asking, '"How would you like to climb all
those ladders every time you went out of the house to play:"
That's long-range retention!

This man was typical of the kind of child who apparently
receives very great benefit from the Museum tour — a slow-
learner and/or poor reader. This kind of child is not unique
to the inner city or lower economic levels. He is found in
the most elite suburbs as well.

A young, sixth-grade teacher in one of the far north-
west suburbs has found the Museum experience so stimu-
lating to the slow learners and poor readers in his classes,
that he woiJd like to establish a small "museum" in his
classroom. The idea is to provide visual, tangible experi-
ences with the objects under study, for example, Indian
tools and household items. The interest in these items is
first stimulated by seeing them and, perhaps, handling
them. The poor reader is then sufficiently interested to
make a greater effort to read about Indian life in his text-
book.

This process was reiterated by Mrs. O'Connell who felt
that, although because of their lack of eloquence they may
not readily indicate this importance, the Museum tour
may be more important to the slow-learning group than
it is to the average and superior students. She continued

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to State that the Museum tour encourages the poor reader
to read extra-curricular books. These books may be at a
much lower grade level, but the reading is voluntary and
pleasurable. Due to the interest in Indian art stimulated
by Museum exhibits, several books on the subject have
been added to the library of Oscar Mayer School.

In a letter the Sixth Grade Department of the Arling-
ton Heights Public Schools stated, "The slower students
could handle the museum displays easily in a structured
situation. They do like to see items of some interest. We
believe that the slower students need more concrete learn-
ing situations. Your displays help fill a basic need for this
type of student. They can get more from you (the Museum)
than from countless books and teacher lectures."

Further corroboration was provided by the following
from Illinois Education, "Field trips which tie in with class-
room instruction are viewed by nearly every teacher and
and administrator as being an almost ideal learning ex-
perience for the slow, reluctant learner. Because this young-
ster usually has had limited positive contacts with the com-
munity, field trips not only provide stimulating experiences
but meet his needs for activity while removing him from
the often non-stimulating environment of the school and
classroom. And teachers have the opportimity to interact
with him on a more personal, one-to-one basis."

The Chicago Board of Education gives Museum field
trips an unqualified boost when they state, "A visit to the
Field Museum of Natural History is a valuable educational
experience for every elementary school child." Further,
with the insight gained from the tour, "the pupils are
better able to observe knowledgeably how people have
striven and continue to strive to improve their ways of
living and to relate themselves to the improvement of com-
munity and city life."

Finally, I consulted the children themselves. Some of
the older children gave parrot-like answers, saying what
they thought I wanted to hear, but by sifting through
garbled syntax, reading between the lines and collecting
back-handed compliments, I amassed an impressive array
of spontaneous and sincere solicited testimonials.

I talked to one girl who remains unique and unfor-
gettable. She was a skinny, Negro eight-year old from a
poor neighborhood. She wore a red wool cap topped by
an enormous multi-colored pom-pom and her teacher de-
scribed her as an "uninterested student." I began by
asking her,

"Is this your first trip to this Museum?"

"No. I was here two times already."

"Did you see the Indians then, too?"

"I don't remember."

"Oh. Well . . . what did you like best on your other
trips?"

"Nothing. I don't remember nothing."

After a long, disappointed pause, I asked, "Did you
come with your school class both times?"

"No — only one of the times."

Again we endured a long pause. Then she volunteered,

"The other time I came on my birthday."

"Oh?"

"My mother told me I could pick two presents for my
birthday and if she could get them she would. I picked
a doll and a trip to this Museum with my mother and
father and brother."

She liked and remembered something and whatever
it was merited the sacrifice of a toy and was worth sharing
with her family. That's a sincere tribute from any eight-
year old. From this one it was a rousing ovation.

The success and value of a Museum tour can be meas-
ured in many ways, among them, the slow-learner's grasp
of a previously unreachable concept; the anti-school child's
pleasure in an educational institution; the appreciation of
order by a child from a disordered environment; and the
stimulation of the desire for knowledge in all children.
By these standards, I found the tours to be valuable and
worth all the effort and expense required.

Page 12 SEPTEMBER

Right: When living, "Joseph" prob-
ably looked like this artist's recon-
struction of a Mastodon. (From a
painting by Charles R. Knight in
Hall 38, Fossil Vertebrates.)

Below: AiUhor cleans one of the mo-
lars which probably troubled "Joseph"
during his life. Shown is the roof of
the mastodon's mouth. Titsks grew
from the sockets below the teeth.

''JOSEPH" == story Told By a Fossil

by Gwendolyn Hall

Preparator, Department of Geology

Among the many specimens which come to the Mu-
seum's paleontology laboratory for preparation are a few
which emerge as distinct "personalities,"' by virtue of un-
usual aspects of their fossil remains. Some of these speci-
mens even get dubbed with names.

"Joseph" is a case in point. He was a mastodon (Matn-
mut americanum) and unique aspects of his fossil remains
gave us an interesting insight into what he experienced as
a living individual.

Mastodons were common in the midwest 8,000 to
10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene. "Joseph" was ap-

SEPTEMBER Page 13

proximately 10 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed about
six tons, with 8-foot tusks. His appearance was generally
that of a very large, stocky elephant. His fossil remains
were discovered in 1960 in a bog in Medaryville, Indiana,
by an excavator working on property owned by K. H.
Hiippert of Chicago. Mr. Hiippert contacted Dr. Rainer
Zangerl, Chief Curator of Geology, who, along with Dr.
William TiirnbuU, Associate Curator of Fossil Mammals,
went to the site and inspected the bones which had been
removed from the bog with a power dredge.

For seven years, "Joseph's" bones, covered with dried
mud, roots and burlap bags, were stored in the Museum
before they were brought to the laboratory for cleaning
and repair. The skeleton is very well preserved and has
been restored into an excellent study specimen.

"Joseph" lived to be very old and suffered from several
infirmities of old age. He carried the additional burden
of dental trouble.

In the lower right mandible, there is the malformed
stump of a molar which indicates a once painfully draining
abcessed tooth. {See photo, A.) He also has a large cavity in
his first lower left molar. Both left molars are very flat
and worn down in contrast to the relatively unused teeth
in the right mandible. The worn teeth on the left indicate
he favored that side for chewing to avoid biting down on
the abcessed tooth. It was the excessive wear that weakened
the first left molar, leaving it susceptible to decay.

At some point in "Joseph's" life, a two-foot portion of
on tusk had been broken off, exposing the pulp cavity.
This healed and the end of the tusk was worn smooth
before he died.

"Joseph's" jaws showed more than bad teeth. On the
surfaces of the mandibular condyles (the part of the jaw
that joins to the skull), especially the left, are heavy, rough,
pitted calcium deposits, diagnosed as evidence of chronic
arthritis. The heaviest calcium deposit is on the right glen-
oid fossa (on the skull at its juncture with the jaw). {See
photo.) With these multiple handicaps, eating must have
been difficult for this huge animal.

Evidence of arthritis is also present in the condyles at
the base of the skull and the processes on the neck vertebra
which show enough calcium deposits to indicate he could
scarcely turn his extremely heavy skull from side to side.
The sajyiie type of calcium deposits are found in the rest of
the vertebral column and the heads of the ribs as well.

Supporting his own body weight mvist have been another
painful experience as the articulatory (moving joint) sur-
faces of his limbs were also arthritic. His movement was
probably very slow and restricted because of the swollen,
stiff joints. This lack of mobility may well have caused the
death of this aged mastodon since it is likely that he died
in the bog where his bones were found.

"Joseph" was a member of a former giant "race" that
left no direct descendents. The modern elephants of Af-
rica and India are related to the mammoth {Mammuthus
primigenius), a contemporary of the mastodon and an ani-
mal very similar in appearance.

The large lighter area in the center of the photo is a calcium de-
posit on the right glenoid fossa, emdence that arthritis was present
where rear portion of the jaw joined the skull. The rough, pitied
area is similar to calcium deposits found on articulatory {moving
joint) surfaces throughoiit "Joseph's" skeleton. He suffered from
extensive arthritis.

Malformed stump of abcessed molar (A) shows extensive damage.
Molar above (B) is intact except for a large cavity (dark area).
The complete tooth measured about 5 inches long by 21^ inches
wide.

Page U SEPTEMBER

Fall Journey:

Hunt With The Cavemen

by Edith Fleming, Raymond Foundation

Mankind was probably cradled in Africa and from this
birthplace gradually spread into Asia and finally into Eur-
ope. Our own hemisphere was unpeopled until about
25,000 years ago when the Paleo-Indians began to filter
across the Bering Straits from Asia. This is recent com-
pared to the antiquity of man in Europe, where more than
500,000 years ago small bands of hunters roamed the coun-
tryside foraging and hunting wild animals. Between 100,000
and 35,000 years ago Neandertal people lived in Europe.
Cartoonists have depicted them as slow-witted and bestial,
but recent research and study indicates they were more like
modern man than was formerly believed. They are now
classified by many as a type of Homo sapiens, but the
first truly modern man, called Cro-Magnon Man, did not
migrate into Europe from the Middle East imtil the late
Ice Age, about 35,000 years ago.

The story of the early hunters of Europe can be followed
on the Fall Journey, "Hunt With The Cave Men." Pre-
historic man pitted his skills against animals like the woolly
rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, cave bears, bison, wild horses
and reindeer. These furnished the necessities of life — food,
clothing, tools, fuel for fire, even oil for stone lamps.

Gradually, these primitive people invented new and
better tools and worked out improved hunting methods.
Stone and bone tools as well as the bones of animals found
in caves or at camp and hunting sites tell the story. Enor-
mous piles of bones have also been found at the bases of
cliflfs, leading some scientists to conjecture that organized
hunting bands pitched camps near the trails the animals
followed from winter feeding grounds to smiimer pastures
and drove the animals over the cliffs to kill or immobilize
them.

Only the hunter's skill stood between him and starvation
and he apparently resorted to magic to augment his own
powers. In subterranean cave passages primitive artists
drew lifelike pictures of great animals they hoped to kill.
To make these drawings these people had to move through
dark and dangerous tunnels lighted only by burning animal
fat flickering in a stone lamp. Perhaps the early hunter
braved the dangers of becoming lost or being attacked by
an animal in the belief that this test of courage might work
a stronger magic.

Through thousands of years man worked out a way of
life suited to the Ice Age. Then the glaciers receded and
as the climate grew warmer, water from the melting glaciers
formed rivers, lakes and marshes. New kinds of trees grew
and forests eventually covered what had once been frozen
tundra. The great animals of the Ice Age died off or moved
farther north and the hunting life of that period came to an
end. The cave art evidently disappeared about the same
time.

New animals, including deer and wild boar, roamed the
land and man was forced to adapt his himting methods to
this new environment. He developed new weapons — bows
and arrows, spears with tiny flint points. Instead of large
hunting bands needed to hunt the large cold weather ani-
mals, single hunters pursued the smaller, more elusive game
of the warmer period.

New sources of food were available, too, including seeds,
nuts and berries. Groups of families could live together
where these foods were plentiful and there was abundant
fish and game. There had been great changes in the cli-
mate, in the character of the country, in the animals and
food sources and in the way people lived. They were learn-
ing to get the most benefit from their environment and ap-
proaching a time when they would develop farming skills.

The Fall Journey Number 55, will take boys and girls
on their own or with their families through the Museum's
Hall of European Prehistory (Hall C). Here they will travel
through thousands of years, starting with early himters and
completing their journey with the prehistoric farming sun-
worshippers of Western Europe.

A new journey is offered every three months by the Ray-
mond Foundation. With the successful completion of four
journeys boys and girls are awarded certificates naming
them "Museum Travelers." After eight journeys tRey be-
come "Museum Adventurers" and 12 journeys make them
"Museum Explorers." After 16 successful journeys they are
ready for a special journey, "The Voyage of the Beagle,"
when they study in the Museum exhibits the natural history
described by Charles Darwin on his famous voyage. Young-
sters successfully completing the special journey will be
awarded certificates as members of the "Museum Discov-
erer's Club."

Journey question sheets and further information on the
Journey Program may be obtained at the Information Booth
in Stanley Field Hall or at the South Door of the Museum.
The Fall Journey begins September 1, ends November 30.

SEPTEMBER Page 15

MEMBERS' FESTIVAL OPENS ANNIVERSARY YEAR

AiN exciting evening is planned for Mu-
seum Members on September 27 when
the series of special events for the 75th
Anniversary year ojsens with a Members'
Festival from 4 to 9 p.m., in connection
with the American Indian Festival.

The Members' Festival will include
demonstrations of weaving, moccasin
beading, totem pole carving, porcupine
quill working, leather work, Kachina
doll carving and basketry by Indian ar-

tisans representing several tribal groups.

Hand games and use of sign language
will also be demonstrated. A program
of traditional dances by local Indian
groups is also scheduled.

Special exhibits of modern and tradi-
tional Indian arts and crafts will be on
display in addition to three stationary
displays which will remain on view until
mid-November. The major exhibits in-
clude "New Directions in American In-

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

September Hours: September 7, 9 a.m.
8 p.m.; September 2, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Sep-
tember 3 through October, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Through September 1 6 Camouflage in N.-^ture Photographic exhibit in color
by entomologist Edward S. Ross demonstrates a variety of ways in which living
things are protected by coloration. Three-dimensional Museum exhibits sup-
plement the photographs. Hall 9 Gallery.

September 23 — October 1 3 American Indian Festival features demonstrations
of traditional and contemporary arts and crafts by Indian artists, special ex-
hibits, films, lectures, a canoe race, a special Members' Festival and coopera-
tion in the celebration of Indian Day in Chicago. The American Indian Fes-
tival activities will be presented in cooperation with Indian groups in Chicago.

September 27 Members' Festival A special evening event to enable Museum
Members and their families to get an unhurried look at the many demonstra-
tions of arts and crafts, a program of American Indian singing and dancing,
and exhibits, films and lectures related to the American Indian Festival.

September 28 Indian Day in Chicago A full schedule of arts and crafts demon-
strations will be featured.

September 29 Lake Michigan Canoe Race Museum representatives will greet
participants at the finish of this race, which will begin at Wilmette Harbor
and end at Burnham Harbor on the Lakefront. The race, sponsored by the
Chicago Indian Canoe Club, is an annual open invitation event.

September 23 - November 1 5 American Indian Exhibits "New Directions in
.American Indian Art," "Contemporary American Indian Art," and "Indians
of Chicago — 1968" (a photo essay by Orlando Cabanban), will be part of the
Festival and be continued following its close.

Through November Fall Journey; A Hunt With The Cavemen The do-it-
yourself tour introduces youngsters to the Museum's exhibit area dealing with
Stone Age man. Any child who can read and write may participate in the
Journey program sponsored by the Raymond Foundation. Free Journey sheets
are available at the Museum entrances.

Half A Billion Years of Illinois History Do-it-yourself tour in observance
of the State's Sesquicentennial celebration takes visitors on a capsule journey
through the worlds of anthropology, botany, geology and zoology. A free
brochure provides a guide to pertinent exhibits.

MEETINGS:

Chicago Shell Club, September 8, 2 p.m.

Nature Camera Club of Chic.\go, September 10, 7:45 p.m.

Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter, September 17, 7:30 p.m.

dian Art," "Contemporary Traditional
American Indian Art," and "Indians of
Chicago — 1968." The last is a photo-
graphic essay on the present Indian resi-
dents of Chicago and their lives here.

Films related to various aspects of In-
dian culture will be shown continuously
in the James Simpson Theatre. All
other activities of Members' Festival will
be held on the main floor of the Muse-
um. Light refreshments will be served
during the evening.

Program arrangements for the Amer-
ican Indian Festival and the Members'
Festival were made by Robert Rietz,
executive director, and Miss Faith Smith,
both of the Chicago Indian Center, Dr.
Donald Collier, Chief Curator of An-
thropology, Solomon A. Smith II, Co-
ordinator of Temporary Exhibits, and
Lois Rubinyi, Festival Coordinator for
Raymond Foundation.

Faith Smith of the American Indian Center
examines a Hopi Kachina figure, one of
many Indian art objects to be on display
during the Festival.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAO AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHfCAGO. ILLINOIS 60605 A.C. 312. 922-9410
FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Page 16 SEPTEMBER

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 39, Number 70, October 1968

y

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r/

P

;;^v* .,

''•*tB«>ftn;ac .

"Earth, Life and Man"

75th Anniversary Lecture Series

"Earth, Life and Man," a series of public lectures by Museum Curators, will begin October 27 as part of |the
75th Anniversary Year special programs and events at Field Museum.

The lectures will focus on research activities of the scientific staffs in the Museum's four departments, anthro-
pology, botany, geology and zoology. They are designed to bring the Museum Members into closer contact with
work being done in the departments and to broaden understanding of the physical and biological world and the
nature, history and evolution of life on this planet.

The lectures will be divided into three groups — fall, winter and spring — and will be held on Sunday afternoons at
1 :00 p.m. in the Lecture Hall. The series is intended primarily for Museum Members but admission will be open to
Interested members of the general public.

The fall group of lectures will begin October 27 and end on December 1 . Details of the winter and spring lecture
series will be given in future BULLETIN articles.

October 27
MUSEUM SCIENCE
AND EXPEDITIONS

Dr. Robert Inger,

Curator, Amphibians

and Reptiles

Dr. Inger will introduce the series of
talks to be presented and discuss goals of
research activities in the Museum. He
will explore the changing character and
role of Museum expeditions and field
trips over the years and new trends tak-
ing shape in research.

(Photos, right) Nanga Tekalii, Dr. Inger's
expedition campsite in the Borneo rainforest,
1962-63; Student Wayne King {now Curator
of Reptiles, Bronx Zoo) works in the camp
laboratory.

November 3

METEORITES: A POOR

MAN'S SPACE PROBE

Dr. Edward J. Olsen,

Curator, Mineralogy

Dr. Olsen will discuss what men have
determined about the earth and solar
system, based on research findings on
meteorites over the past several hun-
dred years. Of particular interest is the
unique role played by museums in this
research effort.

(Photos, left) "Diablo" crater near Winslow,
Arizona, is the largest known meteor crater in
the world; the scene on this old woodcut is be-
lieved to represent a meteor shower.

Page 2 OCTOBER

ii^ iiri^iTi

November 24

HUNTING MONKEYS

IN THAILAND

Dr. Jack Fooden.

Associate, Mammals

Dr. Fooden will discuss his 1967 trip
into west-central Thailand to collect
monkeys. Reasons for the trip, his col-
lecting experiences and the exp)edition
results will be included in the talk, as
well as descriptions of various areas he
visited.

(Photos, left) Dr. Fooden's campsite near the
village of Pong Nam Ron in Western Thai-
land; leaf-eating monkeys {genus Presbytis)
from an area near Thailand's western border.

November 1 0

CENTRAL AMERICAN

MOUNTAINS AND FORESTS

Dr. Louis 0. Williams,

Chief Curator, Botany

The Museum's history of intensive re-
search on the botany of tropical America
will be reviewed by Dr. Williams, who
will also discuss the terrain and flora of
the Central American countries.

(Photo, right) Low clouds surround the Cen-
tral Mountains rising behind this farm and
forest in Honduras.

December 1

THE'AMAZON VALLEY FOREST

Dor)ald R. Simpson.

Assistant Curator,

Peruvian Botany

The westernmost region of the Ama-
zonian jungle in eastern Peru has been
little explored by scientists. Mr. Simp-
son has made two field trips there and
will describe some of the plants of this
wild forest region and how they are used
by both local inhabitants and in export
areas for food, medicine, ornament and
building.

(Photo, below) Dr. Louis O. Williams and a
Peruvian botanical collector examine flora in
a small man-made clearing in the dense Ama-
zonian jungle.

November 1 7

ESKIMOS AND RUSSIANS

IN SOUTHWESTERN ALASKA

Dr. James W. VanStone

Associate Curator,

North American Archaeology

and Ethnology

In the 19th century, the Russians pene-
trated southwestern Alaska, exploring
and trading with the Eskimos and estab-
lishing missionary outposts. Dr. Van-
Stone will describe the history of this
period and relations between the Rus-
sians and the Eskimos.

(Photo, right) Present-day Eskimo women
clean fish along the banks of the Nushagak
River in Alaska.

OCTOBER Page 3

Anthracomedusa turnbulli

Jellyfish

in

them

thar

hiUs

by Eugene S. Richardson, Jr.
Curator, Fossil Invertebrates

The strip mines of Illinois are one of the two or three
finest areas in the world for collecting invertebrate fossils.
Behind the enormous coal mining machines of the Pea-
body Coal Company come the geologists, amateur and
professional, searching for animals dead a quarter of a
billion years. In this article. Dr. Richardson tells of two
important finds from Pit Eleven, near Wilmington, Illinois.
In two photo reports that follow, the Bulletin presents the
lively Museum field crew that worked the area during the
past summer, and a survey of the Pit Eleven fauna.

It's five million, six hundred thousand years to the mile.
By the time you've driven fifty miles southwest from the
modern center of Chicago, you step out of your car onto the
280,000,000-year-old rocks of the Pennsylvanian period in
the spoil heaps of a strip mine outside of Wilmington, Illinois.

You have brought some peanut butter sandwiches (or
other delicacy) and a jug of water, of course — and you're
going to catch jellyfish. This is a field trip. Perhaps you
are one of the Museum's field crew. Or perhaps you're one
of the hundreds of amateur collectors who are drawn to this
spot. In either case, you have come for fossils, the remains
of prehistoric life. More importantly, you are helping in a
nearly unique cooperative venture in which Museum scien-
tists and amateur collectors pool their efforts to elucidate a
part of the story of life in the vanished past.

Working alone or as members of the Earth Science Club
of Northern Illinois, the Des Plaines Valley Geological So-
ciety or other such organization, a host of collectors pursue
their hobby and the advancement of science at the same
time. Returning home tired and happy after a day in the
field, these enthusiastic cooperators wash their specimens,
carefully identify them, catalog them, and put them ten-
derly away in museum-style cabinets. Many an architect
in this area would be startled, revisiting what he had thought
was to be a recreation room or a utilitarian basement, to
find it brightly lighted, lined with handsomely built hard-
wood cabinets of shallow drawers, with perhaps a few glass-
topped display cases or a work table with the latest stereo-
zoom microscope.

If this is your first field trip, you look a bit uncertainly at
the steep and random spoil heaps with their slippery surface
of clay and pebbles. The spiky xerophytic vegetation that
is beginning to cover the hills bites you on the ankle. The
unshaded sun hammers down on your head and shoulders.
You look hesitantly at that dark line in the west, remember-
ing that this is "Tornado Alley." You wonder why some
people prefer strip mines to the corn fields that were here.

But look now at some of those pebbles on the hillside.
They are red, brilliant in the sunshine. They are sym-
metrically shaped, rounded, somewhat flattened. These
are ironstone concretions, a thing apart, something special.
A drab gray when first dug up by the giant excavating ma-
chinery, they redden — it's a kind of rusting — in a year or
two as sun and rain and air attack them. When first
dumped on the spoil heap, they were still encased in the
drab gray shale where they grew an eon ago, formed by
interaction of mineral-bearing water and an organic nu-
cleus, an animal or a plant. The shale, exposed to weather,
has now broken down to the clay of the hills, but the stxirdy
concretions remain. Some, you note, have broken in the
winter frost and summer sim. You pick one up, already
neatly split along its equator. There, in its center, is a

Page 4 OCTOBER

neatl)- preser\'ed shrimp, the fossil remains of a creature
that lived here more than a quarter of a billion years ago,
a specimen unseen by human eyes imtil you picked it up.
Forget the slippery hills, the prickle-bushes, the beating sun !
Forget the possible thunderstorm; you're out for fossils!

The strip mine was not actually dug for the purpose of
turning up fossils. From the point of view of the operator
(a curious view, perhaps) the fossils are a by-product and
coal is what they're after. Fifty to a himdred feet below the
flat farmland lies one of the most extensive beds of coal on
this continent. Known here as the Wilmington Coal, it is
the Colchester Coal of western Illinois, the Lower Kittan-
ning Coal of Pennsylvania, and has other names where it is
mined in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, Michigan and
other states.

Coal, as is well known, is made up of the carbonized re-
mains of plants. Plants in such numbers as to make up this
vast bed mean a forest of uncommon size. Study of the
Pennsylvanian rocks and coals by many geologists in the
century past enables us to visualize this forest of the Wil-
mington Coal. Giant tree-sized ferns and horsetails and
their allies, shallow-rooted, quickly growing, continually
falling and accumulating on the sodden ground, lived in a
vast flat swamp. Only under water can the fallen trees go
through the proper chemical changes to become coal.
Broad though that swamp forest was, it continually shifted
its position, forming a broad band, probably hundreds of
miles across, between an inland sea to the south and west
and the modest uplands to the north and east. Trees on
those uplands, falling on drier ground, decayed without
trace while the trees in the great swamp built up the layer
of substance that was almost coal. Sea level rose (or the
crust of the continent sank) ; gently the sea advanced across
Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois. Now the former swainp
forest was buried under sea-floor muds; the broad belt of
swamp moved on ahead into what had been the uplands.
For a while, when the shoreline lay here near Wilmington,
the advance of the sea was halted.

This was the time when the fossils that we find were liv-
ing. For you are walking now on that former shore. But
how shall we define that shore? It was no sandy strand with
land on one side and sea on the other. Back into the swamp
forest ran countless intricate inlets, bays, bayous and chan-
nels; far out to sea stretched a complex of islands, bars,
peninsulas and shallows. Mud, carried through the swamp
by sluggish streams, poured into the edge of the sea, build-

ing a delta. Like all deltas, it was chiefly under water. In
lime, before the sea resumed its march across the low and
swampy land, the delta muds-built up to a hundred feet in
thickness. Now, this seems utterly improbable in water that
we have solenmly declared to be shallow. The answer lies
in the behavior of the earth's crust. Under the center of
Illinois during this Pennsylvanian period the crust sagged
more than elsewhere. While the shoreline tarried at the
strip mines, the inland sea floor slowly dropped at about the
same rate as the mud accumulated, and the water remained
shallow.

Animals of many kinds lived on the flanks of the growing
delta, drawn by the nourishing water near the swamp.
Worms and snails, shrimps and clams, chitons and sea-
cucumbers moved about on the mud surface, some in great
numbers. Through the murky water swam Tully Monsters,
sharks, bony fishes, shrimps, scallops and many others. The
water draining from the land carried along fronds and pin-
nules, spores, stems and seeds; insects, thousand-leggers,
spiders and little amphibians drifted with them out onto
the delta.

All of these and more, falling to the sea floor, were
quickly covered by the raining mud — so quickly on the
whole that they had no time to decay before they were en-
cased forever in the firm sediment. Before decay could
attack, each little fossil-to-be was locked into place by a
halo of iron mineral that soaked and hardened the shale it
lay in. Teeth and bones remained unchanged as time went
on; shells changed from one limy mineral to another or dis-
solved, leaving a perfect mold.

But what of the soft tissues of the animals? They broke
down chemically after having left their impress upon the
rock. All that remains today for the collector is the impres-
sion, plus some invisible amino acids and other organic com-
pounds that have soaked into the rock. Except in these strip
mines, it is most extraordinary to find even an impression
of a soft-bodied animal such as a Tully Monster or a worm
— or a jellyfish. Many of these impressions, exposed on the
broken equator of a split concretion, have almost no relief —
no ups and downs. It is the organic leftovers that finally
make them visible. When a concretion has been cracked by
sun and frost, the inside surface is exposed to two powerful
oxidizing agents, sun and air. Between them, they make
the ironstone turn red, just as the outside of the concretion
did before. But where the amino acids had soaked the rock,
on the impression of the fossil, they take up the oxygen be-
fore the iron gets it, and the impression remains pale.

Drawings, by the author, of five different specimens of Octomedusa pieckorum. Invertebrate fossils may be preserved at
any angle, and a series such as this provides a great deal of information about the animal.

OCTOBER Pages

Often we find pale markings of no definable shap>e.
Those unrecognizable ones must represent some of the
shapeless masses of jelly-like material that lie about on any
sea floor. There was enough to them to start the chemical
process that built a concretion, but they tell us nothing defi-
nite. Others have a shape revealing some soft-tissued crea-
ture gently buried while yet intact. Among these are bril-
liantly visible jellyfish.

Here and there about the world there have been finds of
fossil jellyfish. The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, which
will occupy a four-foot shelf when fully published, devotes
only 27 pages to an exhaustive surve\- of the world's fossil
jellvfish. They are not abundant. But they are dispropor-
tionately interesting because they represent imusual forms
of preservation. Paleontologists, like other people, savor ex-
ceptions. One treasures the improbable. We like jellyfish.

A few years ago, one of the collectors cooperating with
the Museum, Jim Turnbull of Libertyville and the U. S.
Marines, dropped in to see us with a perfectly fine jelh-fish
in one of the familiar ironstone concretions. Recognizing
its significance, Jim kindly gave it to the Museum for per-
manent deposit. We jokingly ordered some more. He re-
turned to the strip mines, to the hill where he had found
that one, and the following week was back with two more,
which he also deposited with us.

Jim's jellyfish are large and splashy specimens, four or
five inches across the bell, with groups of tentacles almost
that long hanging from four corners. Faint dark lines cross-
ing the bell correspond to certain structures known as septa
that similarly divide the bell of some modern jellyfish into
four areas. When Professor Ralph Johnson saw the speci-
mens, he recognized them as being very clearly members of
a living group, the Order Carybdeida, but a species new
to science.

Somewhat earlier, I had the privilege of examining the
collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Piecko of Chicago, collec-
tors who also cooperate with the Museum. Among their
fossils were several small concretions containing another
kind of jellyfish. The Pieckos generously deposited several
of them at the Museum. The Piecko specimens were tiny,
less than an inch across, light pink against a darkly oxidized
background. They had eight stubby litde tentacles evenly
spaced around the edge, with a velum, or litde shelf, around
the inner edge of the bell. But the clinching point was the
mouth, a small x-shaped impression on a little mound in the
center. Again, an undoubted jellyfish, but one not so closely
modeled on the lines of any known modern form.

Now we had two kinds of Pennsylvanian jellyfish from
the strip mines. As Dr. Johnson and I visited collections in
the homes of other cooperative strip-mines enthusiasts, we
saw other specimens of the same two jellyfish, but no addi-
tional forms. It was time to make them known to science.

Thereupon, according to the time-honored practice of
collaborating authors. Dr. Johnson wrote the descriptions
and handed me the typescript. I made changes and addi-
tions and subtractions in red pencil and handed him the
miuilated remains. He rearranged it, keeping some of my

Octomedusa pieckorum

work and restoring some of his. This resulted in a nice,
clean typescript; I made some more red hen-tracks. He
weeded them out, the paper was re-typed, and we sub-
mitted the result to the Chief Curator of Geology. From
him it went off to a reader outside the Museum and re-
turned with blue pencil marks. \Ve accepted some of the
pencilling, re-typed the manuscript, and sent it again to the
Chief Curator, from whom it went first to the Director and
then to the Editor. Even so does a legislative bill pass from
House to Senate to President to Printer. In due course the
Museum Press produced a nicely printed little book on the
jellyfish, the product of two authors and with the advice and
consent of an adequate chain of authority.

He who puts a fossil (or a living animal or plant) up)on
the record for the first time, has the prerogative of devising
its scientific name. Some of these names are frightful jaw-
breakers and should never have been thought up; others
may conceal a story or a joke. Often the scientific name is
based on the collector's name. \\'e elected this latter course,
in recognition of the collecting prowess of the donors of the
:* jellyfish. Anthracomedusa turnbulli says in Greek {Anthracome-
dusa) "Coal-Age Jellyfish" and in Latin "of Turnbull."
Similarly, Octomedusa pieckorum means "Eight-sided Jelly-
fish" (in Greek) "of the Pieckos" (in Latin).

Soon after this little book appeared, copies of it came
into the hands of our cooperating collectors. Mr. A. W.
Kott, of Summit, Illinois, dropped in to see us one day and
received a copy. 'So that's what the jellyfish look like, is it?'
said he. 'Yes,' I replied; 'They're very rare.' Having stud-
ied the pictures, Mr. Kott went forth into the sfxjil heaps
and was back at the Museum again the following week —
with four hundred specimens of the little Octomedusa.

We are in a position to say that there are jellyfish in
them thar hills.

Page 6 OCTOBER

Above, hammers raised in geological salute,
the Mazon Creek Faunal Study Field Crew,
known also as the Pit Eleven Players.
Left to right. Professor Ralph Johnson, Charles
Shabica, Peter Kranz, Ida Thompson, Arthur
Zangerl, Paul Lund.

The Hunters...

the Pit Eleven Players

The Mazon Creek Faunal Study project,
supported in part by National Science Founda-
tion, sent a field crew to Pit Eleven three
days a week this summer. Led by
Ralph Johnson, Associate Professor of Geo-
physical Sciences, University of Chicago, the
effort was the first intensive, large scale
survey of the area by professional and student
geologists.

Johnson, who can use the carrot as well as
the stick, quickly established ground rules for
his brave band of assistants and graduate
students. Discovery of sixty identifiable speci-
mens on any given day in the field entitled
the team to a party (a small one).
Thus, a specimen was quickly tagged an
M-P, or Micro-Party.

Below, a view of the Peabody Coal Company
mining operation at Pit Eleven. The
enormous wheel excavator in the background
is nearly fourteen stories tall, and the length'
of a football field. It moves 3500 cubic
yards of earth an hour, and in two sweeps dis-
poses of the entire Pleistocene overlay, about a
million years of geological history.
In parts of northern Illinois, the Pleistocene
rests directly on the Pennsylvanian and there is a
geological gap of 250 million years. The
middle machine, a thirty cubic yard drag line,
scoops about fifteen feet of Pennsylvanian
shale, and the final, smallest shovel, excavates
the coal itself. The coal measure is
generally from two to ten feet thick.

Charles Shabica, a graduate stu-
dent at the University of Chicago,
in discussion with Melbourne
McKee, a chemist with Peabody
Coal. McKee 's advice and help
have been invaluable to the Ma-
zon Creek project.

Field Museum International Scout
gives an idea of the size of the
30-cubic-yard drag-line shovel.

OCTOBER Page 7

One of the hazards of the strip mines is a
peculiar, grey, exceedingly viscous mud. Shown
here are two victims, below, a grasshopper,
and above, a University of Chicago
Travelall. The grasshopper was rescued by a
geologist; the truck, up to its hubcaps in
the stuff, was pulled out by tractor.

With the exception of the sponges, nearly all

the major groups (phyla) of the animals now

living are represented in the strip mines. The

coelenterates, the jellyfish, are shown on

pages 4-6. Echinoderms, which today include

the sea cucumbers, starfish and crinoids, are

also in the area.

Scientists grc

different phyla.

worms,

"Oliver Hardy," sc

qualities. Both are

names are cor

the species a

them is a Tully

animal.

Jenny Coyle, a young Antioch College co-op
student working at Field Museum, spent
many hours collecting at Pit Eleven.
Each member of the team had responsibilities
other than mere fossil collecting. Miss Coyle
was morale officer.

Shabica waters the crew mascot, a "Pit Eleven
Plant," or "Barbed Wire Bush." This
nasty little plant was just one more hazard
faced by the collectors. Most of their
ankles are still scarred.

Of the molluscs, collectors hav

left, scallops, center, an

ishingly, a squid. This find ai

cover of the national journal,

the earliest squid found so fc

Hunter Johnson and his crew at sundown,
before the long journey home.

Page 8 OCTOBER

...and the Hunted

a Gallery of Fossils

iworms into a number of
wn at left are two annelid
"Cooper" worm and the
Tied for its round, bristly
ychaetes. Their common
lent for discussion before
ctually described. Below
ister, a strange worm-like
yet assigned to a phylum.

The arthropods, a large and very successful

group, are very prominent in the strip

mines. Shown here are a millipede, top, and a

horseshoe crab; below left, shrimps, top

and side views: a flying insect and,

far right, a spider.

Phylum Chordata contains all the backboned
animals, including ourselves. Pit Eleven
has iungfish, lampreys and other fish, one,
baby coelacanth, is shown below. Collectors
have found some amphibians, right. Amphib-
ians are about as far as the vertebrates had
gone during the Pennsylvanian Age.

jnd clams,
est aston-
red on the
7ce. It is
y 100 mil-
lion years.

OCTOBER Page 9

Carnival in Bahia is a delightful confusion, more
provincial and spontaneous than in sophisticated Rio.

From the vast Amazon rainforests in the north to the over-
powering falls of Iguacvi in the south, Brazil, giant among
nations, offers almost everything for the natural history en-
thusiast.

So great is Brazil's attraction that one 35-member tour
leaving from Field Museum February 14 is fully subscribed
and another 20-member tour departing January 22 is half-
filled, according to Phil Clark, Field Museum's Public Re-
lations Counsel who will lead both tours.

Mr. Clark, a plant specialist, points out that the season
chosen for the two tours is ideal, both in its comfortable
temperatures and for the green and flowery countrysides.
The most beaiuiful flowering plant during the tours, he said,
is the flowering tree, Tibouchina, which usually bears purple
blossoms but occasionally ones of brilliant pink. Known in
English as "glory tree," it is called flor de Quaresma or
Lent flower because the Lenten-purple blossoms open dur-
ing the Lenten Season. In thrilling contrast with the purple
in many forests and gardens are the bright yellow Cassia
trees, again in various species and varying shades.

Brazil Tours Popular

A Few Openings Remain
in Second Tour Group

Ornate opera /(dk.vk ut Manuus was built during a rribber
boom in the late 1800's. (Photos by Phil Clark.)

Trees of Lent flowers, or Tibouchina, bloom deep
purple to brilliant pink during Lenten season.

The tours will visit outstanding private homes and gar-
dens as well as stopping in wild areas. Both sections of the
tour will be accompanied by specialists in plants and animals.

Stops for the January 22 - February 16 tour, in reverse
order from those of the February 1 4 - March 1 1 tour, will
include: Manaus for a trip on the .Amazon-connected rivers;
the ultra-modern capital city of Brasilia; the gem center of
Belo Horizonte; the Portuguese colonial town of Ouro Preto;
the white beaches of Rio de Janiero; Petropolis for the dra-
matic gardens of the landscape abstractionist Roberto Burle
Marx; the snake farm of Butantan in Sao Paulo; Curitiba
for the red sandstone formations and Araucaria forests of
Vila Velha; Iguacu with its many tremendous waterfalls;
Espirito Santo for the hummingbird center and garden es-
tate of naturalist Augusto Ruschi, and colonial Bahia for the
joyous confusion of Carnival.

Cost of the tour, including all expenses and a $500 tax-
deductible donation to Field Museum, is $2,050. A $500
deposit is necessary to hold a reservation. Extra charge for
a single room is $95.

Reservations or additional information may be obtained
by writing: Brazil Tour, Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 60605.

Page ni OCTOBER

^^^l^^^^r

1 i^fci

^^^^^^m

The Commercial Press Model, the only Chinese
typewriter actually produced for commercial

use.

luick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

CHINESE TYPEWRITERS;

A case of stimulus diffusion

now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of thej

B/ Kenneth Starr,

Curator, Asiatic Archaeology and

Ettinology

Anthropologists make common use of two terms in refer-
ring to the process whereby cuhural elements, either mate-
rial or non-material, diffuse or spread from one culture to
another. These terms are diffusion and stimulus diffusion,
which A. L. Kroeber, pioneer American anthropologist, dif-
ferentiated as follows:

In ordinary diffusion . . . both the principle and its
mechanism are taken over by a receiving culture from
the inventing one. Occasionally, however, there are
difficulties about acceptance of the mechanism. . . .
The idea or principle may then also fail to be accepted.
But again, the idea may exercise an appeal that causes
it to penetrate. An effort may then be made in the re-
ceiving culture to devise another mechanism that will
produce the desired result. Thus an invention, or rein-
vention, is stimulated by contact transmission or [stim-
ulus] diffusion.'
The process of stimulus diffusion is quite strikingly illus-
trated by the manner in which the basic idea of the Western
typewriter spread to China and Japan, whose systems of

visual linguistic symbolism, distinguished by the use of
"characters" (as 4^ , for blue), instead of an alphabet (a
symbol for each sound) or syllabary (a symbol for each syl-
lable), necessitated an almost complete reinvention.

Three variant forms of the Chinese typewriter have been
produced: the several models produced in the late 1920's
and the 30's by the Chinese publishing company, the Com-
mercial Press, Ltd.; the experimental model introduced in
1946 by the International Business Machines Corporation;
and the exjserimental model invented in 1947 by Lin Yutang.

The Commercial Press Model

Based on a Japanese prototype, the earliest Commercial
Press model was produced commercially in Shanghai in the
mid-20's. During the next decade the company produced
several other models, all based on the same mechanical
principle, but differing slightly in operational details as the
invention was refined. The model described here was mar-
keted in the mid-30's and seems to have been the last the
company produced. ^

Structural Features

The Commercial Press typewriter consists of four main
parts: the base, the frame, the grid and finder-chart, and
the superstructure.

Base. The heavy base is formed of two sturdy planks,
spaced slighdy apart and set horizontally between two cast-
iron side pieces. This base is 17J^ inches wide, 163^ inches
deep and 2]4 inches high.

OCTOBER Page 11

Frame. The base carries a cast-iron frame that supports a
mobile grid containing several thousand pieces of type, the
superstructure, and a typing lever and associated ejector-pin.

Grid attd finder-chart. The grid that holds the type fits
into a tracked carriage that rides on the cast-iron frame.
This grid of type moves from side to side on one pair of
tracks, then, together with this first pair of tracks, backward
and forward on a second pair of tracks and, by a combina-
tion of these two separate movements, diagonally and cir-
cularly.

This grid contains spaces for 2,546 separate pieces of
type (67 across, 38 from front to back). The spaces are
open at the top and partly so at the bottom, with just a
slight lip to keep the type from falling through. The pieces
of type rest loosely, face up in their spaces, with the type
faces, as seen by the operator, backward (mirror image),
oriented to the right, and in reverse order, relative to each
other. Thus, with Arabic numbers as examples, two verti-
cal rows of type would appear as follows:

rvJ O

•4- <L>

lO oO

on 1^

Extending from the front of the grid is a short flat metal
arm. This arm carries a wooden knob, by means of which
the grid is moved, and at its free end, a finder-needle. It is
with this needle, used in conjunction with the finder-chart,
that one locates a specific piece of type in the grid, for grid,
finder-needle and finder-chart are interrelated.

The finder-chart, which in a wild sort of way corre-
sponds to the keyboard of a Western typewriter, is vital to
the operation of the machine, and carries the phoperly
printed form of each of the 2,546 pieces of type in the grid,
with the location of the character on the chart keyed to that
of the corresjionding piece of type in the grid.'

The characters on the chart and the corresponding pieces
of type in the grid are organized by two principles, fre-
quency of usage and the traditional "radical" system of
classifying Chinese characters. The primary organization
is based upon estimated frequency of usage. Thus, to re-
duce lateral movement of the cumbersome grid, the most
frequently used forms are located in the center of the chart
and grid, while the less frequently used forms, divided into
two groups, are relegated to the sides. There is also a small
additional section containing special forms, including Chi-
nese and Arabic numerals, the English alphabet, forms of
address used in correspondence and forms of punctuation.

Secondary organization is according to the traditional
classificator>- system. Briefly, this system is based upon the
fact that the great majority of Chinese characters are com-
posed of two elements, a phonetic element and a meaningful
element, the latter commonly called a "radical." Each of
the several tens of thousands of characters in the language is
subsumed under one or another of these radicals, which are
set in number (214), fixed in their sequence and standard-
ized in form and broad meaning. Thus, radical 9 /». is
human, radical 75 :^ is tree or wood, and radical 140 ^^ ,

grass. The characters in both the central and peripheral
groups are organized by this system of radicals, with the only
difference being that the peripheral group of characters is
divided into two parts, in much the same manner as a two-
volume Chinese dictionary, with characters subsumed imder
radicals 1-96 at the right of the central group and, along
with the special forms, those subsumed under radicals 97-
214 continued at the left.

The characters on the chart are keyed to the corre-
sponding pieces of type in the grid. The positions and ori-
entations of the two relative to each other, however, arc
directly opposite. Thus, the characters on the finder-chart
are in prop)er classificatory sequence and are properly
printed, while the pieces of typ)e in the grid are in reverse
classificatory sequence, backward and oriented to the right.
With Arabic numerals once again as examples, this rela-
tionship is illustrated here. The usefulness of the chart is
apparent.

In construction and function, the carriage is crudely
similar to that of a Western typ>ewriter. Thus, it moves
from left to right and is equipp)ed with a carriage release.
The paper is inserted in similar fashion and can be released
by means of a key. Two other keys below and forward
from the carriage allow for spacing and backspacing. There
is also a ribbon and a single margin bell.

-Along with the grid of type, the selector arm and the
typing-lever and ejector-pin, are distinctive features of this
typ>ewriter, for together they form the basic mechanical
modification that allows the typing of a character-language.
The Commercial Press typewriter operates on the basis of
a selection of some 2,500 separate pieces of type set in a
mobile grid. The mechanics of printing one of these char-
acters is based on the joint action of the selector arm, the
typing-lever and the ejector-pin. The selector arm is metal,
pivoted at its inner end to the front center of the machine,
immediately above the mobile grid. The free end of the
arm extends out over the grid and is designed to move ver-
tically in an arc upward and back toward the platen. Seen
from three-quarter view the head of this arm is similar to a
socket wrench, with the square hole of a size to accommo-
date a piece of typ)e. This selector arm is op)erated by the
typing-lever.

Parallel to the selector arm, and on its left, is a second
and more slender arm that supports a roller which as unit
also moves in a small vertical arc. \Vhen the selector arm
is at rest, this roller sits upon the wrench-like head of the
arm, but when the selector arm travels upward, the roller
is pushed forward and upward in a small arc, out of the
path of the selector arm.

Operational Features
To type, for instance, the character for pear . ^ , a kind
of tree and its fruit, the typist must first locate the piece of
typ)e whose face bears the character for pear. Referring to

Paof 12 OCTOBER

the finder-chart that he has pulled out of its slot, the typist
searches out the printed character (or pear. An experienced
operator will know the precise location of the /)Mr-character
on the chart. A less knowledgeable typist will look, first,
in the central section and then, failing to find the character
there, in one of the two peripheral sections. In either case,
the operator will focus on those portions of the central or
peripheral sections of the chart wherein are located all char-
acters having the radical for tree :^ (radical 75) as their
meaningful element. (Within the group having the same
/r«-radical, subclassification is based on the number of addi-
tional writing-strokes. Thus, the character for pear ^ ,
with seven additional strokes, would precede the character
for kind, style or form ^ with eleven extra strokes.) The
operator then grasps the knob on the metal arm and moves
the entire unit in such way that the finder-needle at the end
of the arm points to the character for pear printed on the
finder-chart. By synchronization, the selector arm then lies
immediately above, and the ejector-pin, immediately below,
the corresponding piece of type for pear.

By partially depressing the typing lever, the typist raises
the ejector-pin and pushes the piece of type for pear upward
into the waiting wrench-like head of the selector arm.

This action locks the piece of type in the head of the
selector arm and, at the same time, turns it a quarter-turn in
counter-clockwise direction, so that the character will be
printed in proper orientation, that is, standing on its feet.
(The procedure outline here produces horizontal lines of
characters, reading from left to right, in Western fashion,
as 1-2-3. Setting a thumbscrew in the head of the selector
arm prevents the piece of type from rotating and so produces
lines of characters that still read from left to right, but that
lie on their sides as ■^ - fN - ro . By turning the finished page
of typing a quarter-turn in clockwise direction, the result is
a page of characters printed vertically in columns and read-
ing in traditional Chinese manner, from the top right corner
of the page to the lower left corner.)

At the same time the piece of type is turning, the hard-
rubber wheel lying atop the head of the selector arm rises,
releasing the selector arm. Final downward pressure on the
typing-lever lifts the selector arm sharply upward, causing
the piece of type, locked in the head of the arm, to strike
against the ribbon and so print the character on the paper
behind. As pressure on the typing lever is relaxed, the proc-
ess is reversed and the piece of type is returned to its space
in the grid. The cycle now is complete, and the operator is
ready to repeat the whole incredible procedure for the next
character.

The Commercial Press typewriter, which is capable of
thirty to thirty-five symbols a minute, may be likened to a
miniature printing press. The two other character type-
writers described more briefly below differ appreciably in
both structural and operational principles, especially the
method of character selection*.

The IBM Model

First exhibited in New York in 1946, at which time I

observed it in operation, the Electro-Automatic Chinese
Typewriter was built by IBM with the assistance of Mr.
Kao Chung-chin, a Chinese engineer and communications
expert. The machine was never produced commercially.

Structural Features

Although not so clumsy in appearance as the Commer-
cial Press model, the IBM machine still is quite bulky, meas-
uring 24^ inches wide, 17 inches deep and 13 inches high.

Externally, an aluminum housing leaves open to view
only the carriage and keyboard. The carriage, similar to
that of a Western typewriter, consists of a platen to carry the
paper and the several keys and levers for its operation. The
keyboard, the salient external feature of the Electro-Auto-
matic, consists of forty-three keys ranged in two parallel
rows and divided into four groups. Thirty-six of the keys
are numeral keys that serve directly in the typing, while the
remaining seven keys operate allied mechanisms, as follows :
543210 0123456789-

9876543210 0123456789-

Internally, the Electro-Automatic is distinctive and is
based on a mechanical principle differing entirely from that
characterizing the Commercial Press model, with its font of
2,546 separate pieces of type. The IBM model uses as its
"font" a drum, revolving continuously and capable of lat-
eral motion as well, whose outer surface carries 5,400 type
figures, arranged in vertical (running around the drum) and
horizontal rows. These type figures, which include English
letters and business symbols as well as Chinese characters,
are grouped according to frequency of use. The first group
of 1,000 characters is centrally located and includes 90% of
the characters used in ordinary correspondence and 95%
of those used in telecommunication. The second group is
comprised of some 3,000 characters normally used less than
10% of the time. The third group consists of characters
used less than 1 % of the time. This grouping serves to de-
crease the lateral movement of the drum, thereby increasing
typing speed.

Operational Features

The operation of the IBM model is quite simple, but for

the average Westerner, astonishingly clumsy, for requisite

to the operation of the Electro-Automatic is the cold-blooded

memorization of 5,400 four-digit numbers. Although gen-

OCTOBER Page 13

erally alien to Europeans, such massive memorization is inti-
mate part of the Chinese and Japanese tradition. For 2,000
)ears Chinese scholars committed Confucion classics to mem-
ory, and even today Chinese telegraphers transmit memo-
rized numbers assigned to characters rather than the char-
ters themselves. The Chinese engineer, Mr. Kao, planned
on a four- to six-month period for the memorization of the
5,400 characters and the numbers assigned to them.

Grouped according to the three usage categories de-
scribed above, each of the 5,400 symbols has a designated
four-digit code number. From here on the actual typing
procedure is very simple, for it involves only the depression
of four keys, one in each of the four groups. The six keys
in the upper left group determine the thousands digit, the
ten keys in the lower left group determine the hundreds
digit, the ten keys in the upper right group, the tens digit,
and the ten keys in the lower right group isolate the unit
digit and, in addition, operate the typing mechanism. The
first two of these number-keys define the lateral location of
the character on the drum, and the second two, the vertical
location within one line running around the circumference
of the drum.

Once the desired symbol has been mechanically located
the typing mechanism prints it by the action of a hammer
that slaps the paper against the type face. As the drum is
in almost continuous motion, however, synchronization is
not always perfect, and as a result, the printing sometimes
is uneven, with either top or bottom of the symbol improp-
erly printed.

The Electro-Automatic prints in either horizontal lines
(Western style) or vertical columns (traditional Chinese
style), and in the hands of an expert ojjerator the machine
theoretically is capable of typing 50 symbols a minute.

The MiNGKWAi Typewriter

i

1

1

1 ii

1

(.

-It

' I'i

2

-

^--

--

7

ii

' 11

5

i

tt

1
1

1

The Mingkwai Typewriter was demonstrated early in
1947 by its inventor, Lin Yutang, the well-known Chinese
author and educator. As with the IBM machine the Ming-
kwai differs from the Commercial Press model in both struc-
ture and operation. It is in respect particularly to method
of character selection that the Mingkwai has a major ad-

vantage over the other two tyjjcwriters.

In outward appearance the Mingkwai is more nearly
comparable in shape and size to a Western typewriter.
Thus, a hood covers the mechanical heart, and keyboard
and carriage are patterned after the Western original. The
machine measures 14 inches wide, 18 inches deep and 9
inches high.

Diagram of the "Magic

Eye" viewer on
the Mingkwai typewriter

Despite their similarity in placement and arrangement
to those on a Western typewriter the keys of the Mingkwai
are labeled in quite different manner. Thus, there are sixty-
four round keys, eight square ke>s and several levers. By
use of shift levers each of the round keys represents several
alternative symbols. Most prominent on the machine, how-
ever, is a viewing device that protrudes from the hood just
above the keyboard. As we shall see, this device, the "magic
eye," performs a vital function.

As devised by Lin the interior of the machine has some
8,000 type figures mounted on octagonal bars rotating
around the axes of six cylinders. The Mingkwai is said to
be capable of typing 7,000 whole characters and, by com-
bination of component elements, a theoretical total of 90,000
"manufactured" symbols.

Operational Features
As will be recalled, the Commercial Press typewriter
utilized two principles in selecting one of the 2,546 avail-
able pieces of tyf)e, one, frequency of use and, two, the tra-
ditional radical system of organization. The IBM model
also utilized frequency of use, but dispensed with the radical
system and, instead, relied upon memorization of four-digit
numbers assigned to each of the 5,400 symbols on the surface
of the revolving drum. The Mingkwai machine operates on
an entirely different scheme, that of breaking up the char-
acters into component parts. The principle thus is similar
to that which underlies the traditional method of dividing
characters into phonetic and radical or meaningful elements.
Instead of classifying the characters by their 214 radicals,
however, the inventor groups them by their top and bottom
parts. According to Lin, who refined his system of classifi-
cation over a 30-year period, 36 tops and 28 bottoms ex-
haust the possibilities of top and bottom components to be
found in the corpus of Mingkwai characters. To operate
the machine one therefore only has to be able to recognize
in any character the presence of one of the tops and one of
the bottoms, an easy matter even for those only slightly
versed in Chinese. Once these 64 components are part of
one's experience, the actual typing procedure is admirably
simple, for it consists only of depressing three keys for each
character typed.

Page 14 OCTOBER

First, from among the 36 keys composing the top three
rows of the keyboard, the operator selects and depresses the
key that represents the top (or top left) component of the
character to be typed. Thus, for the character fS {mate,
companion) the typist depresses the f key, and for the char-
acter ^ (blue), the ^^ key. This step isolates out all of
those characters having those particular tops.

Second, from among the 28 keys composing the bottom
two rows of the keyboard, the operator depresses the key
that represents the bottom (or bottom right) component of
the character. Thus, for the character "fg , the typist
would select the- 12 key, and for the character £ , the —
key. This step acts further to isolate out from those char-
acters having the same top element all those characters
having the bottom element represented by this second key
that was depressed.

With the depression of two keys, one from the upper
rows and one from the lower, a gi-oup of characters has been
isolated, all of which have similar tops and bottoms. Lin
Yutang has calculated that out of his selection of 7,000 char-
acters, there will never be more than eight with common
tops and bottoms. After this electronic process of elimina-
tion has taken place, this group of not more than eight char-
acters with common tops and bottoms appear on the "magic
eye" viewer located on the front of the hood.

By a process of visual selection, then, the typist has only
to pick out of the group of characters, numbered from one
up to eight, the specific character that he wishes to type.
The most frequently used 900 characters are in position one,
making for greater typing efficiency. The operator then
merely depresses the corresponding square numeral key on
the keyboard, in this instance key number four, and auto-
matically the character 'fS is printed. Lin's novel system
of character division allows for greater typing efficiency, for
only three keys are needed to type a character, and the
jjeriod required for training is much shorter and simpler.

The Mingkwai, as with the Electro-Automatic, is said
to be capable of producing 50 symbols per minute when
operated by a skilled typist. That number, though low by
Western typing standards, is superior to that generally ob-
tainable with a writing-brush, and there are the further
advantages of greater legibility and the availability of car-
bons. This last, it may be noted in passing, also is a factor
in the great popularity of the ballpoint pen in Eastern Asia.
Summary

The three Chinese typewriters described above consti-
tute excellent examples of reinvention as a result of stimulus
diffusion. These character typewriters represent a situation
in which a basic invention, the Western typewriter, was
modified in both principle and structure to meet the de-
mands of a radically different system of writing.

Because of historical and cultural factors these reinven-
tions have been but partially accepted into Chinese culture,
for the Chinese still depend almost totally on copyist and the
traditional writing-brush. There are several reasons for this
lack of general acceptance. One, China still predomi-
nantly is an agricultural country and not yet sufficiently

needful of the typewriter as an element of common usage.
Two, the large population insures an abundant supply of
scribes, as all who have frequented government and business
offices in China will attest. Three, the narrow selection of
characters is a drawback, particularly in the case of the
Commercial Press model. Four, in the case of automated
models, maintenance and operation are factors, as well as
cost, for such models would require a corps of trained main-
tenance people and an even supply of electricity, still an ex-
ception rather than a rule in many parts of China. Finally,
there still is some conservatism as regards the mechanical
reproduction of characters. Just as the English courts for
many years refused to allow their records to be typed, so
also there has been some reluctance among the Chinese to
discard the brush and inkstone.

Given the present state of China's culture and economy,
one can say with fair certainty that in the foreseeable future
the Commercial Press style of typewriter, in the form of one
of the new Japanese models, will satisfy such need as exists.
Should Chinese economic progress allow for some other
form of automated typewriter, such use would be very lim-
ited. Either way, the situation would be an example of
stimulus diffusion, through modification of the Western
typewriter to meet the demands of a character language.

One other possibility should be considered. The com-
ments made here concerning the acceptance of the type-
writer have been predicated on the assumption that the
Chinese wovild continue in their traditional system of writ-
ing. It is within the realm of possibility that in response to
pressure from the non-character world, the Chinese ulti-
mately might adopt a system of phonetic or syllabic writing,
although such change does not seem likely, given the re-
markable tenacity of Chinese cultural tradition. Such a
shift thus would obviate the need for a character typewriter,
and the Western-style machine, already refined to a high
degree, then could fill the cultural need. In such a case the
result then would be a rejection of the reinvention in favor
of the original invention, the Western typewriter. Should
this alternative occur, the situation then in part would be
a case of the Chinese modifying their traditional native sys-
tem of writing to conform with one or another of those used
in the non-character world and to fit within the limitations
of the original foreign invention. Such a situation indeed
would constitute an interesting turn in the endless flow of
cultural change.

• Kroeber, A. L. Anthropology (New York, 1948: pp. 368-69).

• The Japanese, with whom the idea of the character-typewriter
seems to have originated, still actively produce and market such
typewriters which, although highly refined and, in some cases,
automated, are based on the same structural and operational prin-
ciples as the Commercial Press model here described. The Japa-
nese also manufacture a syllabary-typewriter, similar to a Western
typewriter, but with the keyboard modified to accommodate their
more numerous syllabary of kana symbols.

' The 2,546 symbols include but a small portion of the total
corpus of Chinese characters. The selection is based on common
business usage, but even so is not always adequate.

* "Two new Chinese typewriters," The China Magazine, vol. 17,
no. 8 (August, 1947), pp. 48-55.

OCTOBER Page 15

CALEN DAR 0 F EVENTS October hours.- 9 a.m. la 5 p.m., daily.

October 5 "Our Western Parks," narrated by Arthur Dewey, opens the Ed-
ward E. Aver Fall Lecture Series for 1968. Dewey's film explores the animals
and flora of several national parks, and sports available to people visiting these
areas. The free film-lecture series will begin at 2 :30 p.m. in the James Simpson
Theatre and will continue on successive Saturdays through November.

October 6 .American Indians Today Festival Lecture Series "The Indians
Stand Together," by Dr. Nancy O. Lurie, Department of Anthropology,
University of Wisconsin. James Simpson Theatre, 3 p.m.

October 12 Fall Lecture Series "Florence and the Heart of Italy," by Eric
Pa\cl, will be shown at 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

October 13 American Indians Today Festival Lecture Series "The Indians
Are Here to Stay," by Dr. Sol Tax, Chairman, Department of Anthropology,
L^niversity of Chicago. James Simpson Theatre, 3 p.m.

October 13 American Indian Festival A Pow Wow, arranged by the Indian
community of Chicago, will close the special Anniversary Year event, which
includes demonstrations of Indian arts and crafts by Indian artists, exhibits of
contemporary and traditional Indian art and a photographic essay of Indians
presently living in Chicago. Three special exhibits will continue to Novem-
ber 15: "New Directions in American Indian Art," a display of modern items
influenced by traditional designs; "Contemporary Traditional American In-
dian Art," an exhibit showing traditional arts and crafts made by present-day
artists, and "Indians of Chicago, 1968," a photographic essay by Orlando
Cabanban. Financial assistance for the American Indian Festival was given
by: the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; the Ernest G. Shinner Foundation
and the Wieboldt Foundation. 1 to 9 p.m.

October 19 Fall Lecture Series "Nature's Plans and Puzzles," C. P. Lyons'
film study of interesting adaptations of living things to their particular environ-
ments. 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

October 26 Fall Lecture Series "Skis Over McKinley," by Hans Gmoser,
includes the first ski traverse of Mount McKinley in Alaska and exciting scenes
of skiing in other North American mountain areas. 2:30 p.m., James Simpson
Theatre.

October 27 Audubon Wildlife Film Series "Land of the Cactus," narrated
by Allan D. Cruickshank, is the first in a program sponsored by the Illinois
.\udubon Society. Admission is free. 2 :30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Through October Fall Journey "Hunt With the Cavemen" The Museum's
Fall Journey for Children introduces youngsters to the exhibit area dealing
with prehistoric man. Any child who can read or write may participate in the
Journey Program. Free instruction sheets are available at Museum entrances.

October 27 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series First in the Anniversary
Year series of lectures by Museum Curators is "Museum Science and Expedi-
tions," by Dr. Robert Inger, Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles. Free to
Museum Members and interested adults. 1 p.m.. Lecture Hall.

Half a Billion Years of Illinois History Do-it-yourself tour takes visitors on
a capsule journey through the worlds of anthropology, botany, geology and
zoology, concentrating on the prehistory and early residents of Illinois. A free
brochure provides a guide to pertinent exhibits and is available in Stanley
Field Hall.

Nature Camera Club of Chicago, October 8, 7:45 p.m.

Chicago Mountaineering Club, October 10, 8 p.m.
MEETINGS: Chicago Shell Club, October 13, 2 p.m.

Sierra Club, Great Lakes Chapter, October 15, 7:30 p.m.

Illinois Orchid Society, .October 20, 2 p.m.

FESTIVAL FEATURE:

LECTURES ON
TODAY'S INDIANS

A series of four timely lectures, "Amer-
ican Indians Today," will be featured
during Field Museum's American In-
dian Festival, September 23 through
October 13.

The speakers, well-known anthropol-
ogists from Midwest colleges and univer-
sities, are specialists in aspects of Amer-
ican Indian life.

The two lecturers for October are Dr.
Nancy O. Lvirie and Dr. Sol Tax.
Dr. Lurie is chairman of the Depart-
ment of Anthropology at the University
of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Her primary
field work has been among the Winne-
bago of Nebraska and Wisconsin and the
Dogrib Indians of the Sub-Arctic. In
1961, she was Assistant Coordinator to
Dr. Tax in the .'\merican Indian Chi-
cago Conference.

Dr. Sol Tax, chairman of the Depart-
inent of Anthropology at the University
of Chicago, is special advisor to the sec-
retary of the Smithsonian Institution and
editor of the journal Current Anthropology.
A former president of the American An-
thropological Association, he also organ-
ized the American Indian Chicago Con-
ference in 1961. He is president of the
International Union of Anthropological
and Ethnological Sciences. He has done
extensive work with the Fox Indians of
Iowa and the Maya Indians of Guate-
mala.

The speakers for the two lectures held
in September were Dr. Merwyn S. Gar-
barino of the Anthropology Department
of the University of Illinois Circle
Campus and Prof. John Hobgood of
Chicago State College.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLfNOlS 60605 A.C. 312. 922-9410
FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIEII-D. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

Pase 76 OCTOBER

PRINTED BV FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

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Meta Howell 1899-1968

Meta Pauline Howell (Mrs. Frederick S. Howell), the
Museum's Head Librarian, died suddenly on Saturday,
August 31, 1968, one day before her 20th anniversary in
that position. Though in ill health she was thought to be
recovering and was to retire toward the close of this year.

Mrs. Howell (nee Armbruester) was born in Dusseldorf,
Germany, on November 7, 1899. She came to the United
States in 1902 and was naturalized in 1916. She studied at
the University of Buffalo and received her library degree in
1924. Before coming to Chicago she worked at the Public
and Grosvenor Libraries in Buffalo. In 1926 she accepted
a job as a Branch Librarian for the Chicago Public Library,
and from 1927 until 1947 she worked at the Museum of Sci-
ence and Industry, first as Assistant Librarian and, after
1941, as Head Librarian. She joined the staff of Field
Museum in 1947. She was married to Mr. Frederick S.
Howell in 1934.

Mrs. Howell loved librarianship and was devoted to im-
proving and enlarging the Museum's Library. One of her
first concerns as Head Librarian was a complete overhaul of
the acquisition and exchange program, particularly as it re-
lated to serial publications. She has written that "Research
centers, such as those served by museum libraries, are be-
yond the general book stage. Their primary need is for
literature of an intensive nature, written at the specialist's
level. This material is to be found only in the journals, the
bulletins, the revistas of the learned societies and research
institutions. As one of our paleontologists put it, 95 per
cent of all written material he consults is in these publica-
tions. This is particularly true in the case of the [Field]
Museum. . . ." Because of this she was very conscious of
the serious gaps the Depression and World War had caused
in our serial holdings and proceeded, with characteristic
energy and thoroughness, to fill them. In cooperation with
the Museum's Publications Division the exchange program
was completely revised. The system she devised can be
found in her article "Exchange of Serial Publications and
Its Place in Museum Libraries" {The Museum News, v. 29
(1952), no. 14, pp. 6-8); the results can be seen in the Li-
brary's catalogue and on its shelves.

As an adjunct to this program Mrs. Howell was instru-
mental in working out an agreement between the John
Crerar and the Museum Libraries whereby hundreds of nat-
ural history serials and numerous books on entomology and
malacology were deposited with us on "permanent loan."
These have been a welcome and valuable addition to our
collections.

Mrs. Howell's emphasis on this aspect of library work
continued until her death and resulted in greatly strength-
ening our position as one of the nation's foremost sources of
specialized information in the natural sciences. In 1963 she
realized a long-time ambition when, through the kind offices
of former Senator Paul H. Douglas, the Library was named

Mrs. Howell assisting Dr. Louis O. Williams, Chief Curator, Botany,
in the Library.

a depository for selected government publications under the
Depository Library Program. Our Library, at that time,
was the only museum library so designated.

The Library's growth was such that Mrs. Howell be-
came seriously concerned about overcrowding in the stacks
and increasingly cramped working quarters. At the Direc-
tor's request she submitted, in 1963, a report on current
needs and a projection of those of the next 20 years. This
in time resulted, by means of a grant from the National Sci-
ence Foundation, in a greatly expanded stack area, new
facilities, and money to complete the reclassification pro-
gram. A complete discussion of this can be found in her
article "The Museum Library in Transition" {Chicago
Natural History Museum Bulletin, v. 36 (1965), no. 5, pp.
2-3, 7-8).

Mrs. Howell possessed a driving and dynamic personal-
ity that strongh- affected all who worked with or for her.
She was prepared to defend her positions on important
matters with great vigor, and sometimes heat. But she was
fortunate in possessing another attribute of a commanding
personality : fairness. She had the ability to see other points
of view and was willing to modify her stand or change her
mind. She was a bit of a feminist and felt very strongly that
in the world of affairs men and women should be accorded
equal treatment. She was not above using "feminine wiles"
in an argument; but, as she proudly told me once, she
"never resorted to tears to win one."

Mrs. Howell was not an easy person to know well.
There was an air of formality about her that she strove to
maintain. On the job she presented the sternly professional
facade of a dedicated career woman; in private, she was
gregarious, had a lively sense of humor, and was full of
kindness and concern for others. As one who worked for
her for 10 years I came to know both sides of her personality
and respected the one and very much liked the other. She
shall be missed in the Library and in the Museum; but her
work remains and will be of continuing value to the staff
and to the public as long as the Museum endures.

— W. Peyton Fawcelt, Associate Librarian

Page 2 NOVEMBER

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by edward j. olsen
curator, mineralogy

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The Barranger Crater, near Winslow, Arizona, is nearly a mile across. U.S. Route 66 is the faint line visible beyond the crater.

'"Make a wish on a falling star." At one time or another
most children have given this fanciful method a try to ob-
tain some much desired toy or treat. As yet there have been
no reports of successful attempts to get, say, a bicycle this
way, however, falling stars have, over the centuries, pro-
vided men with answers and clues to much more sophisti-
cated wishes. Ever since man became aware of the universe
around him he has had a burning desire to know what's
"ovit there." One of the earliest sciences to be born was
astronomy, which literally means "to order the stars." As-
tronomy grew partly out of necessity, to construct a calendar
which would permit the prediction of seasons for the pur-
pose of planting crops. 1 1 grew also out of an overwhelming
curiosity. Already in the Stone Age the basic ideas of the
calendar were created; recent findings have shown that
England's famous Stonchenge was an actual working cal-
endar. By Egyptian and Greek times calendars had grown
to be quite accurate. This left curiosity.

In olden times any curious object or phenomenon thai
took place in the "air" was called a "meteor." Thus people
lumped together such unrelated things as comets, tornados,
aurora, fog, rainbows, water spouts, sun dogs, moon halos,
rain, meteorites, lightning, thunder, clouds, snow, and swamp
fires. Because of this, much later in the 19th and 20th cen-

turies, the study of weather came to be called meteorology, or
the study of phenomena that take place in the air. With
time it became obvious that some of these phenomena, such
as comets and meteorites had nothing to do with the weather
as such. The objects which retained the basic name, mete-
orites, meaning meteor rocks or rocks that come through the
air, were thus rightly excluded from meteorology.

Meteorites have had a long, but spotty, history. The
chance of a person actually witnessing a meteorite fall is ex-
tremely small. On the other hand, the chance of seeing
burning meteor streaks, what children call "falling stars,"
in the night sky is fairly good. Thus in prehistoric times
when the population of ancient men was quite small the
absolute number of witnessed falls would necessarily be
small. As the population increased and spread over wider
areas the absolute number of direct observations must have
increased also. When the first witnessed fall took place is,
of course, buried in prehistory. The first recorded case we
have is that of an iron meteorite which fell in the ancient
country of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, around 2000 B.C. It was
put into a temple as an object of worship and later, in Ro-
man times, was transported to Rome where it remained for
500 years before being lost. In the New World the Mound
Builders of the Ohio valley, around 400 B.C., had a small

NOVEMBER Page 3

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Woodcut of the Ensisheim Meteorite which fell in

iron meteorite to which they appeared to attach religious
significance. No one knows how old it is. However, it was
unearthed during an archaeological dig in the early 1900"s
and presently resides here in Field Museum.

In most cases meteorites which were seen to fall ended
up in religious temples of one sort or another. For over
2,000 years, in the ancient countries surrounding the Medi-
terranean Sea, meteorite worship was widely practiced.
Even today meteorites are kept in some of the older temples
of the middle east and the orient, especially Japan. Through-
out ancient times more and more meteorites were observed
and collected. They were generally considered to have
mystical significance and even today, principally in the east,
but also in such western countries as the United States,
ground-up meteorite powder, taken orally, is considered by
some people to have the power to cure a wide variety of dis-
eases. Man, nevertheless, has always been a practical fel-
low, and the possible mystical or supernatural value of a
meteorite, especially an iron one, was often overbalanced
by this practicality. Very probably the first iron metal uti-
lized by man consisted of objects pounded out of bits of
meteorite iron. A necklace of meteoritic iron beads was
found in a tomb dating from the First Dynasty of Egypt,
5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Moimd-building jieople in the
New World similarly used this kind of iron. Those of the
Ohio valley made meteorite iron beads, and farther west,
near the town of Havana, Illinois, several meteoritic iron
beads were found. These objects date from about 400 B.C.
Later, the North American Indian, who, before contact with
Europeans, had not yet developed the technique of smelting
iron out of its ores, used bits of meteorite iron for weapons
and tools. In the meteorite exhibit here at Field Museum
a large iron meteorite, called Navajo, shows gouges and
scars where Indians attempted to cut out metal for use.

Alsace, France {now Germany) on November 16, H92.

Thus, throughout ancient times, and in all lands, meteo-
rites were known, used, and often revered because they fell
from the heavens. The Greek, Diogenes, suggested they
were related to the stars, although Aristode did not think so.
Later, in the Middle Ages, the German philosopher, Para-
celsus, pronounced they did indeed fall from the sky. Thus
it stood for some time until 1 772 when the Paris Academy of
Sciences, then the center of western scientific scholarship,
solemnly pronounced that "the falling of stones from the sky
is physically impossible" and that meteorites, as such, did
not exist but were simply terrestrial rocks that had been
"struck by lightning." This pronouncement was signed,
among others, by the very brilliant AntoLne Lavoisier, who
is considered today to be the father of the science of modern
chemistry. The sad result of this was that some institutions
and individuals became embarrassed by their meteorite col-
lections and gave or threw them away.

Meanwhile, meteorites continued to fall and be found.
Unfortunately, none ever fell through the roof of the Paris
Academy of Sciences, nor was any major scientist ever a wit-
ness to a fall. The reports of farmers and herders, even the
mayor of one city, were written off as nonsense. And so it
continued for years. In 1807 when a meteorite crashed into
the ground near Weston, Connecticut and two Yale College
professors went to collect it, no less a scholar than Thomas
Jefferson said it was easier for him to think that two Yankee
professors would lie than to believe stones would fall from
heaven.

As time went on, however, the evidence became over-
whelming and in the very vigorous scientific atmosphere of
the late 19th century meteorites finally came into their own,
as the only real physical objects man has from interplane-
tary space. Their study has grown since that time, as meteo-
ritics, a word coined by the late Dr. Oliver C. Farrington,

Page 4 .\0V EMBER

/"*▼»»»% '

fable 1. — Minerals Which Occur in Meteorites
Chemical elements which form theni

Name of
mineral

Stone-iron meteorites, such as the one illustrated above, have a distinc-
tive appearance unlike any naturally-occurring terrestrial rock.

who was a leading meteorite worker and was a curator at
Field Museum from 1894 to 1933.

At the present time meteoritics has become quite cosmo-
politan. People who work in it include physicists, chemists,
geologists, astronomers, metallurgists, organic chemists, en-
gineers, and statisticians. In general, this study can be di-
vided up into four main categories: (1) mineralogy and
chemical composition of meteorites; (2) ballistics of meteo-
rites— the study of meteorite orbits, fall phenomena, and
impacts; (3) physics of meteorites — age determinations,
magnetic features, radioactivities, cosmic ray effects; (4)
organic chemistry- — study of organic compounds in some
meteorites.

Although it is convenient to divide up these areas of
study it must be understood that each one interacts with the
other so it is hard to talk about any one category exclusively.
Nevertheless, for the remainder of this article I will deal
mostly with category (1).

Because of the ancient practice of worshipping meteo-
rites, it has come down to us today that they are something
unique and special. In reality, most of them are very much
like some terrestrial rocks, and some few of them are quite
difficult to distinguish visually from certain kinds of com-
mon earth rocks. Of the seven common minerals which
make up most meteorites (see Table 1) only one of them,
schreibersite, is not known to occur in terrestrial rocks, but
it is found in some man-made steel mill products, and could
occvir naturally at depth within the earth.

1. Olivine Magnesium, iron, silicon, oxygen

2. Pyroxene Magnesium, iron, calcium, silicon, oxygen

3. Feldspar Sodium, calcium, potassium, aluminum,

silicon, oxygen

4. Metal Iron, nickel, cobalt

5. Troilitc Iron, sulfur

6. Graphite Carbon

7. Schreibersite Iron, nickel, phosphorus

Table 2. — Meteorite Groups
Group Subgroups Principal minerals making up each group

STONE Chondrites Olivine, pyroxene, metal, troilite, feldspar

.^chondrites Feldspar, pyroxene
STONE-IRON Pallasites Metal, olivine

Mesosiderites Pyroxene, metal
IRON Octahedrites Metal, troilitc, graphite, schreibersite

(has Widmanstatten pattern)
Ataxites Metal, schreibersite, troilite, graphite

(has no Widmanstatten pattern)

Meteorites fall fairly neatly into three groups depending
on which combinations of these minerals make them up
(see Table 2). Because they are generally composed of the
same minerals as some terrestrial rocks, the question always
arises, how are they to be identified? For iron meteorites this
problem is not so difficult as for a stone meteorite. Although
iron and iron-nickel metal does occur in terrestrial rocks, it
is extremely rare, being limited to a few occurrences in Ore-
gon, New Zealand, Germany, and Greenland. So, except
for the added complication of man-made steel mill scrap and
slag, which can be found almost anywhere in industrialized
nations like the United States, pieces of metal which are
found stand a good chance that they are not natural terres-
trial irons. In addition, the Austrian scientist, A. von VV^id-
manstatten, in 1808 discovered that the metal in most iron
meteorites forms in two diflferent kinds of structures in a
regular geometrical arrangement. The reasons for this are
now very well understood but are beyond the scope of this
particular article. What is important here is that by cutting
flat, polishing, and slowly etching with acid, this geometrical
pattern of iron-nickel can be brought out, much like chem-
ical treatment brings out the image on an exposed piece of
film. This kind of structure is unique and is not found in
any terrestrial iron, or man-made metal product. These
iron meteorites are called octahedrites and the geometrical
pattern is called a Widmanstatten pattern in honor of the
discoverer. Among the iron meteorites only 14% of them
have compositions which do not consist of two kinds of
metal structure, but only one. For these no geometrical
etch pattern exists and other tests must be used.

Stone meteorites are not quite so easy. Fortunately,
however, most stone meteorites fall into a major subgroup
called chondrites [con'-drites], because they contain small
spherical clusters of grains of the minerals olivine, pyroxene,
and feldspar, called chondrules [con'-drools]. The chon-
drules are held together by a matrix of fine grains of the
same minerals plus some metal and troilite. These little
spheres range from less than a tenth of an inch to occasional

NOVEMBER Page 5

large ones which are over one-half inch. In a microscope
section it is quite easy to see chondrules and occasionally a
meteorite is found where they are so abundant they crumble
away into one's hand. Chondrules are unique to stone me-
teorites. They are not found in any terrestrial rock. Fortu-
nately, the great majority of stone meteorites, 94% of them,
are chondrites. The other 6% are achondrites, which means
"without chondrules." It is difficult to distinguish achon-
drites from some kinds of terrestrial rocks, especially the
common rock basalt, and sf>ecial, often elaborate, testing is
required in some cases.

Stone-iron meteorites consist either of irregular lumps
(not chondrules) of olivine contained in a network of metal

to tell what chemical elements arc present in the star, and
from the relative intensities of the colors characterizing them
it is possible to determine the relative quantities of these
elements.

Now, as it turns out, most stars consist dominantly of the
element hydrogen along with small quantities of other chem-
ical elements. Indeed, the entire universe consists mostly
of hydrogen (over 93%). When the spectroscope was first
turned on the nearest star to the earth, namely, the Sun,
hydrogen was found along with a small, but significant per-
centage of other elements: calcium, oxygen, silicon, magne-
sium, aluminum, iron, sulfur, phosphorus, sodium, potas-
sium, carbon, nickel, cobalt, etc. When the relative amounts

Chondrules shown against a one-inch scale illus-
trate the range of sizes among individual chon-
drules. They are unique to stone meteorites.

Cross-section of chondrule (light, round area) in the Ensis)ieim
chondrite meteor depicted in the wood cut. (Magnified IfO times.)

(these are called the pallasites) or a filigree of metal con-
tained in a mass of mostly pyroxene (these are called the
mesosiderites) . In either case no stone-iron could be mistaken
for any terrestrial rock. They have a unique appearance.
Knowing the chemical composition of meteorites, espe-
cially the largest group of them, the stone meteorites, per-
mits us to make a series of deductions that would delight
Sherlock Holmes. In the last century a device called a spec-
troscope was invented. It permits one to take the light of a
star, concentrate it by a lens system, and break it up into its
spectrum of colors. In such hot objects as stars the chem-
ical elements that compose them are constantly emitting
light, and each element has a characteristic group of colors
it emits. When all the colors from all elements in a given
star are blended together, as they are when they are emitted
from the star, the star generally appears white. The spec-
troscofje is designed to imblend them back to the individual
colors of the elements that emitted them. Thus it is possible

of these were compared with stone meteorites it turned out
that, element for element, they were almost identical, but
different from other observed stars. Furthermore, when
compared with the surface rocks of the earth's crust, the
compositions are quite different. From this we can deduce
that these elements, which form the solid minerals of meteo-
rites, in the same relative proportions, were derived from
matter being boiled off the Sun and condensing into solids.
[The large amount of hydrogen, which is a gaseous element,
does not condense into these solids and thus does not enter
into the formation of solid objects in the solar system. It
exists mostly as a thin, interplanetary gas, and partially as
gas trapped between the mineral grains of solid objects.]
The condensation process would involve cooling and the
combination of elements together into minerals and the so-
lidification of these molten droplets of minerals into solids.
These droplets would be the chondrules observed in the ma-
jority of meteorites. Thus meteorites are, with a high prob-

Page6 .\0V EMBER

^aT»»»\' ' • ' ^.•.<

ability, objects of our own solar system and do not come
from beyond that. Now, since we know by radioactive dat-
ing methods, that meteorites were formed generally around
A]/2 billion years ago, we may also tentatively deduce that
the composition of the Sun itself had remained fairly con-
stant for that period of time otherwise the Sun's composition
today would be difTerent from meteorites. This can only
be a tentative deduction at this point because the argument
is, as you will notice, quite circular.

Finally, since the earth's crust is so difTerent from meteo-
rites and the Sun's atmosphere we conckide that some proc-
ess must have taken place on the earth that did not take
place in meteorites. From a large amount of geophysical

back to a little over 3 billion years are known. Thus, we
conclude that it took about 1 — billion years for the crust to
form. From the differences in chemical composition of the
crust relative to meteorites we can tell what chemical ele-
ments had to have been separated out of the original matter
to form the crust, and also make some deductions about the
elements that separated out in the downward direction to
form the core of the earth. What arises from all this is the
view of the earth as a layered planet with an iron-nickel
core, surrounded by a thick mantle with the composition of
a rock called peridotite (consisting of olivine and pyroxene
with some feldspar, and very much like stone meteorites in
composition except for the elements extracted to make the

The Navajo iron meteorite (Hall 35) is about three feet long and contains a pre-ierrestrial crack.
Gouge marks were made by Indians attempting to break off pieces for use in tool-making.

Widmanstalten pattern is illustrated

in this iron meteorite from LaPorte,

Indiana.

evidence we know that the earth consists of various layers
going downward : the crust, the mantle, and the core, and
that these layers represent difTerent rock types with difTer-
ent chemical compositions and minerals. We also know that
the mantle makes up about 88% of the volume of the earth,
with the core making up over 10% and the crust, on which we
live, making up less than 2%. We may assume that the
earth was once a homogeneous object with no original layers
and with the same composition as meteorites and the solar
atmosphere, that is, formed from elements boiled off the
Sun also. Since astronomers believe that all the objects in
the solar system, planets and meteorites, were formed at
approximately the same time, then the earth must also be
4}/^ billion years old. This is, in fact, the basic method for
determining the age of the earth — from meteorites. Thus,
we may conclude that the layers formed during this 41/^-bil-
lion-year period. Now, by measuring the age of the oldest
crustal rock which can be found we can obtain a measure of
how long it took for the crust to form. Crustal rocks dating

core and crust). Over this is a thin crust consisting of a
basaltic base (basalt consists of mostly feldspar and pyrox-
ene) with a granitic outer portion (feldspar and quartz).
During this large scale chemical reconstitution of the earth
obviously any original structures from the earth's early days,
namely, chond rules, would be destroyed.

Thus, a study of the minerals and chemical compositions
of meteorites has permitted us to make some deductions re-
garding their origin, the origin of the earth, the chemical
history of the Sun, and a view of the interior of the earth.
Each of these considerations is, however, constantly being
reviewed by research workers in meteoritics as new data
come to light. At the present time some alternative views
are showing promise and may alter these deductions over
the coming years; however, the basic arguments will not
change. Even after the moon and other planets are visited
and sampled by men the key to the origin and early develop-
ment of the solar system will come from the study of me-
teorites.

NOVEMBER Page 7

Wearing dramatic and colorful costumes, Chicagoland Indian residents representing
many tribes gathered for the Pow Wow. (Photo by Orlando Cabanban.)

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Above left, Indian women in colorful tri-
bal dress joined the men in the dancing.
Above A/fl'/Jt Youngest Pow Wow partici-
pants await their turn to perform in the
dancing. Right. Tony Hunt, a KwakiutI In-
dian, carved and painted a 10-foot totem
pole. (Photos by Ferdinand Huysmans.)

'^'Ak<-^~ '

The goal of Field Musi
only to provide a shovi
creations but to give ni
to meet members of 1 1
city. With the cooper i

Exciting Indidi. ^d
of the Festiv

(Photo by Ferdi

A rapt audience

Pages NOVEMBER

lerican Indian Festival in Pictures

I's American Indian Festival was not
ie for Indian artisans and their
' Chicagoans their first opportunity
jmall, but vital Indian community in the
n of the American Indian Center

in Chicago, the Festival and the closing Pow Wow proved to be
a success as evidenced by the attendance of 1 1 5,336 for those
three weeks, compared to 67,552 for the same period last
year. Visitors came away with a sense of the vigor and variety
of the Indian contribution to American culture.

Photographer Orlando Cabanban captures the climax of the
three-week American Indian Festival in this month's
cover photo. Indian residents of Chicago were joined by
Museum visitors for an exciting Pow Wow, which featured Indian
dancing and singing in the building and outdoors on the south
lawn.

were a highlight
ow Wow.

i Huysmans.)

These visitors, who wore colorful headgear for the occasion, learned
how Hopi Kachina dolls are made by Ernest Naquayouma.

(Photo by Ferdinand Huysmans.)

Navajo weaver Irene Tsosie makes

an Indian rug following a process

that is centuries old.

(Photo by Ferdinand Huysmans.)

^ns as Mrs. Ann Lim, a Winnebago, explains the intricacies
adwork. (Photo by Orlando Cabanban.)

Winnebago Indian Rob Johnson demon-
strates hand games for a school group at
the Festival.

(Photo by Ferdinand Huysmans.)

NOVEMBER Page 9

Turning Over An Old Leaf

by Patricia M. Williams
Field Museum Press

The Stanley Field Plant Reproduction Laboratory
oj Field Museum has produced the most extensive
series of plant reproductions in the world. Here
Mrs. Williams tells the story of plant modeling.
Shown above is a model of the peanut plant, Arachis
hypogaea.

Today, with department stores, drug stores and discount
stores all selling fairly lifelike artificial flowers and plants,
the marvelous Museum plant reproductions may too easily
be taken for granted. Although understandable, this is un-
fortunate because these plant reproductions represent a con-
tinuing program of experimentation and artistry spanning
many years.

Before the turn of the century, "taxidermists had been
purchasing heavy leaves from manufacturers of millinery
supplies and wiring them to any sort of branch in order to
provide 'atmosphere' for their groups of mounted animals."'
Probably the color of the leaves was determined more by
the current styles than by the reality of nature and "... the
effect produced was so completely lacking in scientific ac-
curacy that the use of such crude-looking accessories may
have served to prejudice curators against the habitat group
as a museum exhibit." -

The first real improvement in plant reproduction was
made by the Mintorn brothers and their sister, Mrs. Mo-
gridge, for the British Museum (Natural History). "They
had invented a process of manufacturing flowers and leaves
which were so perfectly modeled and natural in appearance
that they became one of the wonders of London."^ Midst
great fanfare the Mintorns were brought to the American
Museum of Natural History to create the accessory foliage
for Jenness Richardson's groups of North American birds.

Page 10 .\0V EMBER

k&'^ * AT^ *

"The results obtained by the Mintorns were very beautiful
but, as time showed, they would not stand the test of our
varying museum atmosphere, with its summer's moisture
and winter's dryness, but curled up"^ and had to be re-
placed. The Mintorn's process was also so slow and com-
plicated that it was too expensive to use for any large groups
needing hundreds or thousands of leaves.

Following the Mintorn failure, interest in producing
durable and realistic foliage grew. Carl Akeley, the famous
taxidermist, was among those vitally interested in this prob-
lem and it was he who finally provided the solution.

While Akeley was employed by the Milwaukee Public
Museum he began to plan an ambitious series of four habi-
tat groups showing the Virginia deer amid their appropriate
surroundings in spring, summer, autumn and winter. In
1896, when Akeley came to the Field Museum, he was still
planning and devising methods to create these groups.
Working in his own studio after his Museum day was over,
he used his now-famous manniken method to mount the
necessary deer for the exhibits. Next, he began the repro-
duction of the deer's habitat. Akeley "believed it as im-
portant that the natural abode of the deer should be cor-
rectly portrayed as that the deer should look like deer."^
It was, then, necessary to "reproduce the budding trees and
the earliest flowers of spring; a thickly shaded lily pond deep
in summer woods; the brilliant foliage of autumn; and,
finally, the leafless trees and the mossy ground, covered with

winter's snow. The production of such elaborate exhibits
required exhaustive research, a large expenditure of time
and a great deal of money."*

He succeeded in finding a simple method of creating
lasting, scientifically-accurate foliage which became known
as the wax-leaf method. He made plaster molds of fresh
leaves and used these molds to cast wax leaves which he col-
ored and trimmed. Using this method Akeley proceeded
to make the 1 7,000 leaves needed for the four deer groups.
However, the manufacture of so many leaves was more than
he could accomplish alone so he employed "several men
and women helpers to work by the hour in his shop, imder
his direction, but all of the delicate and difficult work he
did himself."' Akeley patented his process, but apparently
never asked for any royalty for its use.

As Akeley continvied to work at night, his payroll con-
tinued to mount. Finally, "he reached a point where he
had to know whether or not the Field Museum would pur-
case "The Four Seasons" once they were completed. The
curator of zoology finally agreed to recommend the pur-
chase of one of the four groups. Then Carl conferred with
President Harlow N. Higinbotham who asked whether the
Museum could not obtain alt four groups. Carl assured him
that it could."*

Evidently Akeley was a far greater craftsman than busi-
nessman for when the four years' work was done and the
Museum purchased the groups at the agreed price Akeley

i

Accurate representation of a Michigan summer habitat of White-Tailed Deer was painstakingly devised by Carl Akeley. His four
exhibits showing these animals in all seasons were the first "trtie habitat" displays.

.NOVEMBER Page 11

Above, Models of Psilocybe Caerulescens were part of a past
special exhibit on "Mexican Sacred Mushrooms." Right, A
portion of the "Illinois Woodland" diorama in Hall 29 includes
trees and many types of plants made under the supervision of
Emil Sella.

found that while "he had come out even on expenditures for
labor and material, for his own time and for profit there was
nothing.'"-' His wife was to later state that "Constituted as
he was and striving always for perfection in his work rather
than for this world's goods, the knowledge that he had in-
vented excellent methods and the acceptance by the Field
Museum and by the scientific world at large of his long-
cherished dream of the habitat group amply repaid him.
He often remarked that he felt this was 'a pretty good four
years' work."'"

"Pretty good" it was! — in those four years he invented
an original type of manniken for taxidermy and an effective
process of manufacturing plant accessories and he intro-
duced the concept of painted backgrounds for mammal
habitat grovips. The blending of these three achievements
in the "Four Seasons" resulted in "the first true habitat
groups of mammals. To be sure, accessories and back-
grounds had occasionally been used for other taxidermic
groups of mammals, especially in ornamental wall cases,
but any accessories and background that were available or
that suited the taste of the artist had usually been employed.
To portray a true habitat group, in other words a Jaunal
habitat group, the accessories must have been secured from
and the background must show the actual place in which the
specimens were obtained.""

The "Four Seasons" were installed in the Field Museum
inl902 and today, 66 years later, are still on exhibit (Halll 6).

In these 66 years the Museum has added to its halls
many famous habitat groups and botanical exhibits featur-
ing plant reproductions. The quality of "The Four Sea-
sons" plant reproductions has not only been equaled but
has been surpassed by the efforts of the technicians of the
Museum's Stanley Field Plant Reproduction Laboratory.
"Alpine Vegetation" and "Seashore Vegetation" (Hall 25)
are excellent examples of the achievements of this depart-
ment and were created by Emil Sella with the assistance of
Frank Boryca.

Although Sella retired in 1961, Boryca is still busy out-
fitting the Museum's exhibits with greenery. Twenty-nine
years ago he left a job in a foundry to become a mold -maker
in the plant reproduction lab. As the years passed and staff
members retired or left, he moved forward to fill their jobs
and is now expert in all aspects of the lab's work. Over the
years technicians have made many modifications in Ake-
ley's original method and now have a great array of mate-
rials with which to work, but many of the essentials remain
the same. For large leaves — such as a cabbage leaf — Boryca
still employs a plaster mold to create a wax replica. To
cast smaller leaves Boryca uses a pale green plastic in metal
dies. The green color is easier on the eyes than white and
it affords a base for additional coloring. Boryca adds to
this color with dye, striving for the gradations of color found
in nature rather than accepting the easily-achieved, uni-
form hues of mass-produced leaves.

Page 12 NOVEMBER

Frank Boryca works diligently on the preparation of a
portion of a plant model.

Meticulous attention to detail is apparent in this model of
a Bell Pepper, Capsicum frutescens var. Grossum.

Akeley probably used scissors to cut the serrations into
leaf edges. Because tools for this task are not commercially
available, Boryca has devised and made his own. He has
welded bits of fine-toothed hacksaw blades to ordinary pajjer
punches which enable him to bite very uniform and delicate
serrations into leaf edges.

Boryca's technical skill and expertise have not, however,
reduced his job to a rote repetition of daily tasks. Each
plant reproduction presents new problems to be solved. Be-

fore beginning to make a reproduction, Boryca studies the
plant in life whenever possible; he studies botanical draw-
ings and photographs; he examines the actual plant micro-
scopically and makes careful notes regarding the color and
structure. The importance of this preliminary study is em-
phasized by George E. Peterson, Technical Supervisor, Ex-
hibition Department, American Museum of Natural History,
when he says, "No techniques or methods, no matter how
highly developed or skillfully carried out, can succeed in
giving life to artificial plants unless the preparator is him-
self completely familiar with all aspects of the plant in its
growing state. He must have observed nature itself with
such care that he will recognize not only by his artistic in-
stinct, but also by his highly trained eye, any fold or permu-
tation of an artificial plant that is not consistent with its
appearance in nature." '-

Right now Boryca is working on a reproduction of
Thumbergia, a plant replete with engineering difficulties.
He had to experiment to find a way to join the blossom's
six petals to the stem because there is no petiole to cover the
point of fusion. Therefore, the six supporting petal wires
must narrow to one slender stem wire. Precise and delicate
soldering was the solution.

Obviously, such care and attention to detail is time-con-
suming and, as is so often heard, "Time is money." There-
fore, Lothar Witteborg, Chief, Exhibition Department, is
planning to begin use of the method of vacuum forming.
"This process of shaping thermoplastic sheets by means of
air pressure or negative pressure is used on multiple or gang
molds" '^ when a vast number of leaves is required to fill out
the background of a case. Coloring may be done with an
air brush, further saving time while achieving an even,
transluscent finish. Using this method, the 17,000 leaves
made over a period of years by Akeley and his staff could
easily be done in three months by two or three people, ac-
cording to Witteborg.

From milliners' supplies to Akeley's "Four Seasons" dis-
coveries and on through the years to plastic, progress con-
tinues to be made in plant reproduction. The plants are
increasingly efficient to produce and are ever more lifelike
and lovely. The poet, Alexander Pope, once said, "All
nature is but art," and here at Field Museum the imitation
of nature has become an art as well.

' Mary L. Jobe Akeley, The Wilderness Lives Again. Dodd,
Mead & Co., New York, 1940, p. 68.
' Akeley, p. 69.
' Akeley, p. 69.

* Frederick A. Lucas, "Akeley as a Taxidermist." Natural
History, Vol. XXVII, no. 2, p. 151.

' Akeley, p. 68.

• Akeley, p. 68.
' Akeley, p. 71.
» Akeley, p. 72.
'Lucas, p. 151.

•» Akeley, p. 75.
" Akeley, pp. 73-74.

"George E. Petersen, "Artificial Plants." Curator, Vol. 1,
no. 3, Summer 1958, p. 34.
" Petersen, p. 26.

NOVEMBER Page 13

m

^^/ ' ^^-^ 1 ft K

^B ^ T MK M.m m\

C y

:r^0_ r^ \^ ROUTE OF FRANCIS BRENTON

"=\!a« ^"X, O^'E""* SEGRADA - JUNE 6. 1967 - OCTOBER 14. 1968

"* " PREPARED B* JOMHION SlA.MOKSt MOTORS

BRENTON
IS BACK

Francis Brenton prepares the Sierra Sagrada
for display at the Museum

A few jjeople manage to "do their thing" in a fashion
that pleases everyone and Francis Brenton, British sailor-
explorer-writer-photographer, is one of these.

Brenton arrived there on October 14, completing the
final phase of a 15,000 mile solo round trip voyage between
Chicago and West Africa which began on June 6, 1967.

Aboard his singular craft, the Sierra Sagrada, (or Holy
Mackerel), were artifacts acquired in West Africa for Field
Museum. To many, this is delivering the goods the hard
way, but not to Brenton, who taught himself to sail on his
first solo trip across the Atlantic in 1961. Greeted by Mu-
seum officials and the press at Burnham Harbor, he de-
scribed his most recent voyage as "uneventful." The only
snag occurred almost within sight of his destination when,
after 1 5,000 miles of smooth p)erformance, his outboard mo-
tor failed. He was towed into port by a Chicago police-
boat, the Louis A. Abbott, sister launch of the Morris Friedman,
which escorted Brenton on his last arrival two years ago.

Bren ton's association with the Museum began in 1966
when he was commissioned by Dr. Donald Collier, Chief
Curator of Anthropology, to buy a sea-going canoe from
Colombian Indians in South America. He ultimately
bought two, a 22-foot canoe made by the Cuna Indians of
Panama and the Sierra Sagrada. He lashed the canoes to-
gether, rigged a sail, and guided the craft from Cartagena,
Colombia, across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico,
skirting Hurricane Alma on the way, and up the Mississippi
River to Chicago. The 3,190 mile journey took 81 days.

On the first leg of the Chicago-Senegal trip, Brenton
navigated the St. Lawrence Seaway and a North Atlantic
route to test two theories he developed on his 1961 solo
crossing of the South Atlantic. He had found that the high
humidity in southern waters eliminated the need for carry-
ing fresh water, something he wanted to test under northern
aunospheric conditions. He also navigates without a sex-
tant or radio transmitter, relying on a solar navigation
system of his own.

The west-east leg of the trip included several severe

storms and a misadventure with a Russian ship which ap-
parently thought he was in trouble about 30 miles off the
West African coast. The Kostroma hauled Brenton's craft
aboard and took him to a Moroccan port. From there he
traveled to Dakar, Senegal, aboard a Danish ship and began
collecting for the Museum in December, 1967.

He returned to Chicago by air in April, bringing some
artifacts, then went to the Canary Islands to initiate still
another adventurous project, a solo low-altitude balloon
crossing of the -Atlantic, which he was ultimately forced to
cancel.

The long voyage from Dakar to Chicago was begun
May 31, 1968, a trip he completed in 117 days. His
course took hiin to the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, towards
Florida along the Inter-Coastal Waterway to the St. Law-
rence Seaway and into the Great Lakes.

Brenton has an almost offhand attitude toward the haz-
ards of his ventures, remaining affable and unassuming
despite his accomplishments. Meanwhile, some landlub-
bers are truly puzzled by his actions, as happened in Lee-
lanau County, Michigan, early in October. County Sher-
ifTs deputies there were somewhat alarmed to see an odd-
looking craft bobbing near shore during a Lake Michigan
storm. According to an article in the Leelanau Enterprise
and Tribune of October 10, an undersheriff and a deputy
reported meeting a "bewhiskered man (who had a British
accent)" who told them "he had sailed all the way from
.Africa and was headed toward Chicago." The undersheriff
said he "had never seen a boat like that . . . about 25 feet
long, bright red, had two masts, an outrigger and an out-
board motor." They planned a further investigation of
the "mysterious seafarer" but the weather cleared and he
was gone the next day. They have probably learned by
now it was Brenton.

A native of Liverpool, 41 -year-old Brenton lives in Chi-
cago between trips and worked at LaSalle Photo Lab before
his African voyage. Plans for future projects are indefinite.
— Elizabeth Alanne, Field Museum Press

Page U NOVEMBER

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

November hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, and
November 29, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

November 2 Fall Lecture Series "Ireland," by Nicol Smith focuses on the peo-
ple of this "land of castles and cottages." 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson
Theatre. Admission is free.

November 3 "Earth, Life and Man," Lecture Series The 75th Anniversary
Lecture Series by Museum Curators continues with "Meteorites, A Poor Man's
Space Probe," by Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator, Mineralogy. 1 p.m. in the
Lecture Hall. Admission is free to Museum Members and interested adults.

November 9 Fall Lecture Series "Japanese Summer," by Phillip Walker contrasts
ancient and modern Japan. 2 :30 p.m., James Simpson Theatre.

November 10 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series. "Central American
Mountains and Forests" will be discussed by Dr. Louis O. Williams, Chief
Curator, Botany. 1 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

November 1 6 Fall Lecture Series "Sweden," by Ralph Gerstle, a film study of this
country's traditional and modern aspects. 2:30 p.m., James Simpson Theatre.

November 17 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series "Eskimos and Russians
in Southwestern Alaska," by Dr. James VanStone, Associate Curator, North
American Archaeology and Ethnology, explores the relations between these
two cultures in the 19th century. 1 p.m.. Lecture Hall.

November 23 Fall Lecture Series "Wild Rivers of North America," by John
Bulger shows wilderness waterways and life near these rivers froin mid-America
to the Arctic. 2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

November 24 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series "Hunting Monkeys in
Thailand," by Dr. Jack Fooden, Associate, Mammals, includes reasons for this
field study, expedition experiences and results. 1 p.m., Lecture Hall.

November 30 Fall Lecture Series "Four Worlds of Switzerland," by Alfred
Wolff. Aspects of French, German, Italian and Austrian influence in Switzer-
land are shown in this film. 2 :30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Through November 1 5 American Indian Exhibits "New Directions in Amer-
ican Indian Art," "Contemporary American Indian Art," and "Indians of
Chicago — 1968" (a photo essay by Orlando Cabanban). Hall 9 Gallery.

Through November Fall Journey: "Hunt With the Cavemen" Do-it-yourself
tour for youngsters introduces youngsters to the Museum's exhibit area dealing
with Stone Age man. Any child who can read and write may participate in
the Museum Journey program sponsored by the Raymond Foundation. Free
Journey sheets are available at Museum entrances.

December 1 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series • "The .'\mazon \'alley
Forest," by Donald R. Simpson, Assistant Curator, Peruvian Botany. 1 p.m.
in the Lecture Hall.

Half A Billion Years of Illinois History Do-it-yourself tour in observance of
the State's Sesquicentennial celebration takes visitors on a capsule journey
I through the worlds of anthropology, botany, geolog>- and zoology. A free

f brochure guides visitors to pertinent exhibits.

MEETINGS:

Chic.jigo Shell Club, November 10, 2 p.m.

Nature Camera Club of Chicago, November 12, 7:45 p.m.

Chicago Mountaineering Club, November 14, 8 p.m.

Great Lakes Chapter of Sierra Club, November 19, 7:30 p.m.

NEW MEMBERS JOIN
BOARD OFTRUSTEES

Two prominent Chicago businessmen
were named to the Board of Trustees
of Field Museum of Natural History at
a recent meeting held 75 years to the
day from the founding date of the Mu-
seum in 1893.

The Board elected Thomas E. Don-
nelley II and John S. Rininells as its
new members.

Thomas E. Donnelley II
(left), (photo by Fabian
Bachrach)

John S. Runnells
(right), (photo by-
Homer Holdren)

Mr. Donnelly is a manufacturing group
superintendent with R. R. Donnelley
and Sons Company of Chicago. He
also serves on the board of directors of
the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Lake
Forest-Lake Bluff Community Fund
Board and the Chicago Youth Centers.

Mr. Runnells is a registered repre-
sentative with William Blair and Com-
pany, investment bankers in Chicago.
He is a board member of the Chicago
Boys Club and the American Brahman
Breeders Association.

Both of the new Trustees reside in
Lake Forest.

Although Field Museum enters its
75th year with the Board of Trustees
meeting, oflficial celebration of the ani-
versary began with the American indian
Festival, the first of several special events
planned for the coming year.

FIELD MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

ROOSEVELT ROAD AT LAKE SHORE DRIVE
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS tOSOS A.C. 312, 922-9410
FOUNDED BY MARSHALL FIELD. 1893

E. Leland Webber, Director

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS

NOVEMBER Page 15

Give a Gift of Lasting Pleasure

You will be remembered . . . and
appreciated ... for your
thoughtfulness in giving a
Membership in Field Museum of
Natural History. Many Members
do this annually for friends and
relatives at Christmas time. This
is a gift that spreads a triple
measure of holiday cheer . . .

to the recipient— enjoyment and
opportunities for increased
knowledge during the entire year.

to yourself— a gift of four
beautiful color reproductions of

bird paintings by the famous artist
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, done on a
Field Museum expedition to
eastern Africa.

to the Museum — needed support
to help in carrying out research
and educational programs, as well
as exhibit renewals and additions.

Be an armchair shopper and
increase your holiday pleasure!
Use the special gift-order envelope
enclosed. The announcement of
your thoughtful gift will arrive
just before Christmas with a
beautiful card in your name.

'*%•♦>'_•• '/*♦.•.»>••"#.•...* v«'«v. *_..%»»•.♦*.- -.^♦^•.•, r - '.»♦.» *.•••-.«.-.'♦'«*' ',*''«'4'\'_''. .' /i»*'»v^ ••'

BULLETIN FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

\'olume 39, Number 12 December 1968

firu6 fuperba^pue Katherina,
The Kathcrine Peare tree.

Englands chiefeft Herbarift, Mafter

fobn Tar^n/m.

.\ THIS AGE of specialization, when more
and more seems to be written about less
and less and libraries are bursting with
the accumulated fruits of inan's scolar-
ship, it is sometimes pleasing to be re-
minded of a simpler and less cluttered
^a<4C3Bp%m^ era. I had this experience recently
when, among books to be catalogued with titles such as
A Stereotaxic Atlas of the Brain of This and A Re-
vision OF THE Genus That, I came upon the Theatrum
BoTAMCXJM of John Parkinson, "Englands chiefest herbarist."
Here, in a thick, closely printed folio volume, was a com-
pendium of everything known on the subject to that time,
written clearly and tersely in English for both the profes-
sional and the non-professional alike. Here was the doctor's
"current therapy" and the layman's "home medical com-
panion," a flora, a materia medica, almost a phannaco-
poeia, leavened moreover with a vast range of classical
learning and considerable folk-lore. It was the author's
second book, published in his 73rd year, and has an inter-
esting history.

\'ery little is known about Parkinson's life except that
he was born in 1567, that sometime before 1616 he was prac-
ticing as an apothecary, and that he cultivated a famous
garden, "well stored with rarities," in what is now the heart
of London. Such was his skill in his chosen profession that
he was appointed Apothecary to King James I. and re-
ceived, from his successor King Charles I., the title Botani-
cus Regius Primarius. He died in 1650.

His first, and most popular, work was published in 1629
and bears the punning title Paradisi in Sole Paradisus
Terrestris (Park-in-sun's Earthly Paradise). It was more
of a horticultural work than an herbal, as its subtitle indi-
cates: "A Garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our
English ayre will permitt to be noursed up : with A Kitchen
earden of all manner of herbes, rootes, & fruites, for meate
or saiise used with us, and An Orchard of all sorte of fruit-

bearing Trees and Shrubbes fit for our Land together with
the right orderinge planting & preserving of them, and their
uses & vertues." This was the first work of its kind of any
consequence to be published in England and provides a
complete picture of the English garden at the beginning of
the seventeenth century. Nearly 1 ,000 plants are described,
most of them exotics, and 780 illustrated. About 120 vari-
eties of tulip are mentioned, 50 hyacinths, 50 carnations,
and more than 40 "Flower de luces," or irises. There are
60 kinds of plums, as many apples and jaears, thirty cherries,
and more than 20 peaches. But despite its wide range the
work was incomplete in its three parts: the "Garden of
Pleasure," or flower garden, the vegetable garden, and the
orchard. A fourth part, a "Garden of Simples" (medicinal
plants), was lacking and the author promises in his preface
that it would be shordy forthcoming.

Eleven years later, in 1 640, this part finally apf>eared as
Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, or. An
Herball of a Large Extent. The delay in apjjearance
is attributed to "the disastrous times" and other hindrances
— possibly the cutting of the 2,600 wood-blocks. During
this time Parkinson's original intention, to supplement the
Par.'^disus with a treatise on medicinal herbs, grew into one
of a broader nature, to present in its totality the botanical
science of his day.

The Theatrum Botanicum, according to one authority,
is the largest herbal in the English langviage and contains
descriptions of approximately 3,800 plants, 1,000 more than
are contained in one published seven years earlier. Its ar-
rangement is somewhat confused and is based primarily on
the real or supposed medicinal qualities of the plants de-
scribed. Parkinson divides his plants into 17 "Classes or
Tribes": 1. Sweete smelling Plants. 2. Purging Plants.
3. \'enemous. Sleepy, and Hurtfull Plants, and their Coun-
terpoysons. 4. Saxifrages, or Breakestone Plants. 5. Vul-
nerary or Wound Herbes. 6. Cooling and Succory-like
Herbes. 7. Hot and sharps biting Plants. 8. Umbellifer-

Pagt2 DECEMBER

'*'.v \» • ' /^t.»»*v»'»" #.•.,.»%'♦%▼/,. ... %»»».#A- - - %».•.♦, r ' v»*.» ».'* • •••• . *.'*'*%'.. . _ «;*'*»*\ \'. / y:»v»v^

The ornamental title-page of the Theatrum Botanicum. The two main figures, Adam and Solomon, represent toil and tvisdom, re-
spectively. On the four corners are female figures representing the known continents, each surrounded by specimens of its vegetation.
Clockwise from the upper left these are: Asia, Europe, America, and Africa. At the bottom is a portrait of Parkinson. This
month's cover is taken from John Gerard's Herball, from ivhich many of the illustrations for the Theatrum Botanicum were derived.

ous Herbes. 9. Thistles and Thorny Plants. 10. Fearnes
and Capillary Herbes. 11. Pulses. 12. Cornes. 13. Grasses,
Rushes and Reedes. 14. Marsh, Water and Sea Plants,
and Mosses, and Mushromes. 15. The Unordered Tribe.
16. Trees and Shrubbes. 17. Strange and Outlandish Plants.
This classification bears little relationship to modern ones
and its value can be judged by Parkinson's naive comment
on class 15: "In this Tribe as in a gathering Campe I mvist
take up all those straglers, that have either lost their rankes,
or were not placed in some of the foregoing orders, that so I
may preserve them from loose, and apply them to some con-
venient service for the worke."

The scope of the work has been admirably summed up
by J. Reynolds Green in his A History of Botany in the
United Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the End
OF the 19th Century (London, 1914): "The descriptions
in many instances were new, and great care was exercised
to secure accuracy in indicating localities. In the enumera-
tion of the synonyms the author incorporated the valuable
work of K. Bauhin's Pinax, and in many cases verified them
by reference to the original authors. In dealing with the
medicinal peculiarities of the plants he quoted largely from
the more exclusively galenical works of the time, the writ-
ings of De L'Ecluse, Orta, a Costa, Monardes, and others.
He discussed also the opinions of Greek, Roman, and Ara-
bian physicians, and took the greatest care to render his
account as complete as the general state of knowledge would
permit."

Nevertheless the emphasis of the work remained med-
ical, as it had to, for the herbal served a definite and very
useful function. It was not primarily concerned with plants
as such, but with their use in curing man's illnesses. To
understand its use we must know something of its under-
lying medical philosophy.

The pathogenic theories of that time were derived from
the well-known doctrine of humors. It was asserted that
the four elements, water, air, earth, and fire, or their asso-
ciated qualities, wetness, dryness, cold, and heat, corre-
sponded in the human body to the four humors, phlegm.

g
s

Perhaps the most curious "botanical" listed in the Theatrum is
mummy, being, as Parkinson tells us, "of much and excellent use
in all Countries of Europe." Among other things it is prescribed as
a "cordiall for the heart and preventeth the danger of poyson."

bile, atrabile, and blood, and hence to the four tempera-
ments, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic, and sanguine.
Subscribers to this belief held that good health depended
on the harmony of these humors and that disease resulted
from a dishannony. As a result the remedies were largely
allopathic and designed to dispel humoral disturbances.
George H. M. Lawrence, in his excellent essay Herbals:
Their History and Significance, tells us how this was
accomplished : "The treatment to restore harmony when
disease was present followed in general one or more of three
steps or stages: the early stage, before diagnosis could ap-
proach certainty, when it was the practice to prescribe herbs
and other medications that would be bland body builders,
tonics, and stimulants; the critical and debilitating stage,
when one would prescribe herbs for specific ills but that
would not be unduly drastic on ingestion (using such prepa-
rations as distillates and decoctions in all manner of com-
bination with nonpurgative ingredients) ; and finally, at the
crisis, to induce the discharge of disharmonious humors
through every available orifice and pore, doing so by the
administration — often in rapid succession — of puratives,
diuretics, cathartics, and emetics, and often accompanied
by such more rigorous practices as bloodletting, enemas, or
cupping." We may shudder at this treatment, secure in
the knowledge that the efTects of most of the herbs were at
best negligible; but we should remember that this was part
of the medical "science" of Parkinson's time and of earlier
centuries. Still, as one writer observed, "How fortunate
that, by the side of scammony, rhubarb, cassia and senna,
the poppy was also cultivated!"

Herbals serve a somewhat different function today. They
are the source materials for the study of the history of bot-
any, medicine, and pharmacology, and of the history, con-
ditions, and customs of the period in which they were
written. The latter is particularly true of the Theatrum
Botanicum. It is the curious out-of-the-way pieces of in-
formation that interest us most, and which, together with
the "quaintness" of his English, help to give us something
of the flavor of Parkinson's time.

It is surprising how much legend and folklore survive in
Parkinson's work. He extols the virtues of the unicorn's
horn and describes the animal as living "farre remote from
these parts, and in huge vast Wildernesses among other
most fierce and wilde beasts." He discusses the "vegetable
lamb," one of the most curious myths of the Middle Ages,
and one gathers that he believed the travellers' tales about
it: "This strange living plant as it is reported by divers good
authors . . . groweth among the Tartares about Samarcanda
and the parts thereabouts, rising from a seede somewhat
bigger and rounder than a Melon seede, with a stalke about
five palmes high, without any leafe thereon, but onely bear-
ing a certaine fruit on the toppe, in forme resembling a small
lambe, whose coate or rinde is woolly like unto a Lambes
skinne, the pulpe or meate underneath which is like the
flesh of a Crevise or Lobster, having as it is sayd blood also
in it; it hath the forme of an head, hanging downe, and feed-
ing on the grasse round about it, untill it hath consumed it

Page 4 DECEMBER

Pd/M vet Nux ladita c$tosfaeu.
The Indian Cekar Nut tree.

Parkinson is very fulsome in the praise of the coconut tree: "There
cannot be found in the world, a tree that hath so many necessary com-
modities for mens uses . . ." In addition to increasing potency it is
listed as valuable in easing sore throat and hoarseness.

and then dyeth, or else will perish if the grasse round about
it bee cut away of purpose : it hath foure legges also hanging
downe; the Wolves much affect to feede on them." It is
assumed that this myth grew out of descriptions of the cotton
plant by Herodotus, Pliny, and other ancient authors.

Parkinson pours scorn on a good many contemporary
beliefs, but accepts others unquestioningly, especially those
concerning amulets. He tells us that the custom of placing
a piece of mistletoe around the necks of children "against
W'itchcraft and the illusion of Sathan" is worthless but that
a wreath of periwinkle "worne about the legs defendeth
them [that wear it] from the crampe." Despite his belief
that the use of herbs against witchcraft was foolish, he is, as
Eleanour Sinclair Rohde points out in her book The Old
English Herbals (London, 1922), "the only herbalist who
gives us a potion which 'resisteth such charmes or the like
witchery that is used in such drinkes that are given to pro-
duce love.' "

The Theatrum Botanicum also has a large number of
beauty hints. The golden flowers of mullein "boyled in lye,
dyeth the haires of the head yellow, and maketh them faire
and smooth"; a decoction of bramble leaves, on the other
hand, will darken hair. French women, he tells us, account
the distilled water of pimpernell "mervailous good to dense
the skinne from any roughnesses, deformity or discoloring
thereof, and to make it smooth neate and cleere." The
ashes of southernwood, mixed with old salad oil, "helpeth
those that have their haire fallen, or their heads bald, to
cause the haires to grow againe, either upon the head or
beard." The powder of the seede of elder, "first prepared
in vinegar, and then taken in wine, halfe a dramme at a
time, for certaine dayes together, is a meanes to abate and
consume the fat flesh of a corpulent body, andkeepeitleane."

Among many other useful things Parkinson tells us that
the female fern was used by the women of Warwickshire "in
steed of Sope" and that it was always gathered about Mid-
summer "into good big balls, which when they will use them
they burne them in the fire, until it becomes blewish, which
being then layd by, will dissolve into powder, of it selfe, like
imto Lime: foure of these balles being dissolved in warme
water is sufficient to wash a whole bucke full of cloathes."
Purslane is given as a remedy for "blastings by lightening,
or planets, and for burnings by Gunpowder." Willow-
herb, being burned, "driveth away flies and gnats, and other
such like small creatures, which use in diverse places, that
are neere to Fennes, Marshes, or water sides, to infest them
that dwell there, in the night season to sting and bite them."
The bruised root of crowfoote "applied to the finger, by
causing more paine therein, than is felt by the touthach
[toothache], it taketh away the paine!"

In a more pungent vein he notes that the fruit of the
bead tree "being drilled . . . and drawne on stringes, serve
people beyond Sea to number their prayers on, least they
forget themselves and give God too many." He gives us a
"good jest for a bold unwelcome guest," a "smellfeast" :
nightshade should be infused in a little wine for six or seven
hours and served to the guest, who then "shall not be able
to eate any meate for that mcale, nor untill they drinke
some vinegar, which will presently dispell that quality, and
cause them fall to their viands, with as good a stomacke,
as they had before."

These are but a few selections culled from this "stately
Fabrique, collected and coniposed with excessive paines . . .
[this] curious pourtrait, and description of th'Earths flowred
mantle, the Botanique Pandects, and the Herbarists Oracle,
a rich Magazin of soveraigne Medicines, physicall experi-
ments, and other rarities," as John Bainbridge writes in a
commendatory letter. There are so many interesting and
curious things that it is difficult to choose.

Parkinson concluded his preface to the Theatrum Bo-
tanicum with these words: "Goe forth now therefore thou
issue artificial! of mine, and supply the defect of a Naturall,
to beare up thy Fathers name and memory to succeeding
ages . . ." Three hundred years later we can still say, in
the words of one of the sets of verses prefixed to the volume,
"No night of Age shall cloude bright Park-in-sunne."

DECEMBER Page 5

Winter Journey:

Ancient Sea Monsters

From the movies and the late late TV shows we all know
what a monster is. It is a hideous creature, often in human-
oid form, whose primary occupation seems to be scaring
pretty girls. But if we look up the word "monster" in a
dictionary, we find that it merely refers to any organism,
plant or animal, which is very different in size or other
structural feature from the typical members of its kind. The
Museum's Winter Journey examines some ancient sea mon-
sters in the dictionary sense.

From our displays of prehistoric marine animals we find
many which were of monstrous proportions for their kind.
Among the Protozoa, which are generally microscopic, a
sfjecies measuring a few inches long would be a giant. So
would a two-foot sponge, or a 15-inch brachiopod, or a
70-foot crinoid. Many of these monsters were attractive,
even beautiful, in shape. And they lived long before there
were any pretty girls to frighten anyway.

Persons expecting something along the lines of the tradi-
tional monster will not be entirely disappointed. A skin
diver coming face to face with a 15-foot-long Dunkleosteus
might well jump right out of his gear. Sea-serpents con-
tinue to be reported from time to time. Have the Plesio-
saurs, with their long, snake-like necks, survived from the
age of dinosaurs to haunt us? Are they the basis for such
reports as the Loch Ness monster? Although properly skep-
tical, the finding of living coelacanths in 1938 has made
scientists cautious about completely dismissing such reports.

Both scientists and science-fiction writers (the two are
often combined in one person) have long explored the pos-
sibilities of the dimensional extremes of life. Most people
tend to forget that man is close to the extreme in size of most
kinds of animals. The names of all larger animals could be
written on a single sheet of paper. The names of the smaller
forms would occvipy several volumes. There are mechan-
ical limits to how large an animal can get. I am six feet
tall. A doubling of my height does not stretch the bounds of
credibility at first glance. But merely doubling my height
would increase my weight eight times. My normal 135
pounds would jump to 1,080 pounds, while the area of my
bones, which support my body, would be increased only
four times. I would be in no condition to do any running
or jumping. Even ordinary walking would place me in con-
stant jeopardy of breaking my legs.

Dunkleosteus terrelli was a "sea monster" by any defini-
tion of the term. A Placoderm (armored fish), this predator
grew to 15 feet and lived in the Devonian Period, about
365 million years ago.

For organisms living under a reduced gravitational force,
some of these limitations are removed. It is no accident
that the largest creatures that have ever lived are aquatic.
The blue whale, which may attain a weight of 120 tons or
more, is the largest animal that has ever lived on earth, but
is strictly confined to water. The bulkiest dinosaur, Brachi-
osaurus, tipped the scales at only some 60 tons, and it prob-
ably spent most of its time in fresh-water lakes. For those
who delight in speculative reflection, ponder the question
of the significance of the fact that man spends the first nine
months of his life in an aquatic environment.

"Ancient Sea Monsters" is Journey number 56 in a
series begun in 1955. With the successful completion of
each series of four Journeys, boys and girls are awarded a
certificate and title: Museum Traveller (four journeys);
Museum Adventurer (eight journeys); Museum Explorer
(12 journeys). After 16 journeys have been completed the
Explorer becomes a Beagler, ready to undertake a special
journey which carries him throughout the Museum to study
some of the natural history materials observed by Charles
Darwin on his famous "Voyage of the Beagle." Successful
Beaglers are awarded a certificate making them members of
the elite Discoverers Club.

There is no charge for taking any of the Museum Jour-
neys. Copies of the Journey question sheet and further in-
formation on the program may be obtained at the Museum
entrances. The Winter Journey runs from December 1 to
February 28.

— Ernest Roscoe, Raymond Foundation

Page 6 DECEMBER

Holiday Science Lectures in 7th Year

"How We Inherit" will be discussed by James F. Crow,
Professor of Genetics and Chairman of the Department of
Genetics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, at the
seventh consecutive Holiday Science Lectures program held
at the Museum.

Sponsored by Field Museum and the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science and financed by the
National Science Foundation, the program provides oppor-
tunities for outstanding high school science students to hear
lectures in depth by eminent scientists. Modeled after the
renowned Christmas Lectures of the Royal Institution of
Great Britain, the AAAS Holiday Science Lectures are de-
signed to give students an informative, authoritative and
stimulating account of the progress, problems and methods
in an active area of research.

Dr. Crow will present four lectures: "How Chromosomes
Behave" and "How the Gene Is Made" on December 26
and "How the Gene Works" and "How Evolution Occurs"
on December 27. Each lecture will be followed by a ques-
tion and answer period.

Prior to his association with the University of Wisconsin,
where he joined the faculty in 1948, Dr. Crow was an in-

Students attending a previous Holiday Lecture at the Museum

structor in Zoology and later Assistant Professor of Zoology
and Preventive Medicine at Dartmouth College. He was
elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in
1961 and is a past president of the Genetics Society of Amer-
ica and the American Society for Human Generics.

Holiday Science Lectures are held in six major U. S.
cities during the Christmas holiday period.

Scientific Prize Honors Former Curator

D. Dwight Davis

A late Field Museum Curator has been honored by the
American Society of Zoologists through its establishment of
an annual prize in his name. The D. Dwight Davis Prize
in Vertebrate Morphology will be given for the outstanding

paper presented by a graduate student at the annual meet-
ing of the Society.

Field Museum's curator of anatomy for 35 years until his
death in 1965, Davis "re-established comparative anatomy,"
says Dr. Karel F. Liem, Associate Curator of Vertebrate
Anatomy at the Museum. "His approach to vertebrate
morphology stimulated the thinking of probably all Amer-
ican morphologists. This prize has been extablished to
stimulate graduate students, by recognizing their original
work and contribution to the field of vertebrate morphology."

Davis, who ranks among the foremost comparative ana-
tomists of the 20th century, is best known for his monu-
mental work entitled, "The Giant Panda," published by
Field Museum Press in 1964. Su Lin, the giant panda,
was acquired by Chicago's Brookfield Zoo in 1937. When
Su Lin died a year later, his body was given to Field Mu-
seum where it was prepared for exhibition and has been a
popular exhibit ever since. Davis' study on the structure,
relationships, and evolution of the giant panda was a mile-
stone in providing a new direction to the investigation of
vertebrate animals.

Any graduate student who has not been awarded his
doctorate degree will be eligible for the Davis Prize, which
will be approximately equal to the interest collected by
the award fund during a calendar year. Dr. Carl Cans,
Professor of Biology at the State University of New York
at Buffalo, fund chairman, is receiving contributions from
those who wish to honor Davis' memory in this way.

DECEMBER Page 7

A "clown," belonging to the servant

class of characters in the drama.

The servants provide support, cheer

and good advice to the heroes.

^

i

i speciaL zmm

Gods, demi-gods, heroes, giants and demons, characters
drawn from the long and complicated Hindu epics, the
Kamayana and the Mahabharata, were the earliest representations
in the Javanese puppet theatre. Contents of these early
dramas were drawn entirely from these epics and remain popular
today. The puppet theatre in Java dates back to the eighth
century at least and the art form itself is a very ancient tradition
in the Far East.

Two types of Javanese puppets are represented in the special
temporary exhibit on display in Hall 9 Gallery through
January 27. The Wayang purwa, the earliest type, are flat
shadow puppets carved from leather, with varying degrees of
openwork which permits the passage of light. They are
controlled by means of wooden sticks attached to the arms and
held above the head of the operator, called Dalang, who sat
between a lamp and a screen. The audience itself was
divided by the screen. The men, sitting on the side with the
Dalang could enjoy the full beauty of the puppets along with the
delicate and elaborate openwork emphasized by the shadows
while the women, on the other side of the screen, had to
be content with the shadow alone.

The shadow puppets evolved into the three-dimensional
wooden puppets called Wayang golek. These were manipulated
by means of a rod passed through the center of the body
and into the head, and by sticks fastened to the hands.
In contrast to the sharp exaggerated profiles of the Wayang
purwa, these puppets demonstrated a tendency toward normal
human appearance, a development which coincided
chronologically with the departure from the representation of
ancestor worship to the performance of more secularized plays.

The puppet faces in both the shadow and three-dimensional
types were traditionally painted with masks to represent
specific characters and were dressed in traditional headgear
and costumes, clothing styles which were later copied by
live actors in the Javanese theatre.

The Javanese puppets shown here were among the first
artifacts acquired by the Museum, in the fall of 1893.

Japanese

Live Javanese theatre was
closely modeled on the
puppet theatre. At left, a
prince's hat, similar to the
head of the prince puppet
below.

Above, a king and at right, a prince and
princess. The puppets on exhibit were used
in a play derived from the Hindu epic, "Ma-
habharata," in which two rival groups of
cousins fight for the control of the Elephant
kingdom. The good guys, the sons of
Pandoe, defeat the bad guys, the sons of
Dhretarashtra. Puppet shows often lasted
all night.

fPzippeTs

fr 1
fe Tanning Villas

of Field Museum

For the last 38 years the Museum has always had at
least one tanning Villa. A solarium for the staff? A health
club for members? Not at all. The Museum's tanning
Villas have been Dominick and Mario, a father-son team
who, together and separately, have tanned thousands of
hides from all over the world.

Dominick Villa received his early training as a tanner
in a commercial shop in New York where he was given
skunks on which to learn. He later worked on a piece-
work basis, rapidly shaving piles of beaver skins a day.
Villa came to the Museum in 1930 and prepared many of
the hides used in the Museum's famous habitat groups.
Of all the unusual skins the senior Villa prepared, one
particularly stands out in his memory — the harpoon-punc-
tured skin of a whale-shark. The pungent aroma of the
whale-shark moved Stanley Field to request personally that
Villa move the huge skin from the fourth floor taxidermy
shop down to the basement until his work on it was com-
pleted. This skin is mounted and on exhibit in Hall O.

In 1956 Mario Villa joined the Museum staff as his
father's assistant and they worked together until Dominick's
retirement in 1961.

Although most of the skins Mario prepares are dried and
shipped into the Museum from field associates, occasion-
ally the entire carcass of a zoo animal may be delivered to
the shop. After the dead animal in skinned, Mario puts
the skin into a crock of brine where it remains for two or
three days to remove the "slime." Those skins that arrive
dried are put into soak water, a mixture of carbolic acid and
water, for a few hours or a few days, depending upon the
size of the skin. This soaking renders the skin limp and
pliable. From this point on, both the dried and fresh skins
follow the same procedure.

The tanner, Mario, sits before a large blade with a
sharply-honed edge and passes the skin over it to remove
the membrane. This process is known as "fleshing." The
larger hides are laid across a shaving beam and shaved with
a large two-handled knife called a currier's shaving knife.
Both the shaving and fleshing require a "touch" or "feel"
that comes only with experience. Too much pressure can
tear the skin or release the hairs on the opposite side, re-
sulting in a bald spot. Too little pressure, of course, will
fail to get the job done. Each different kind of animal
skin — fox, cheetah, or rhino — requires a different amount
of pressure that the tanner must determine by "feel."

If the skin is greasy after it is fleshed, it is washed in
soap flakes and rinsed thoroughly. Next, the skin is pickled
for at least three days to make it more receptive to the
tanning solution. When the three days have passed the

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skin is shifted from the pickling crock to the tanning crock
where it remains for at least a week. While in the tanning
solution, the skin must be stirred several times a day to
insure that the solution reaches all parts of the hide properly.

When the skin is removed from the tanning solution it
is no longer a raw skin. It is then drained and oiled with
neat's foot oil on the flesh side and a few days are allowed
to let the oil "dry in." In the past tanners coated the hide
with butter, lard or vegetable oil and the Handbook of Mu-
seum Technique states that the "Red Indians used the
brain of the killed animal"' to lubricate the skin.

At this point in the procedure approximately eight days
have passed, depending upon the skin, and the end is not
yet in sight. The skin is now dampened on the flesh side
with a sponge soaked in carbolic water, which prevents
mold, and placed in a sweat box to permit the dampness
to penetrate it thoroughly.

On removal from the sweat box, the skin is staked, a
process that opens the pores by stretching and pulling.
Small skins may be pulled back and forth over the fleshing
knife, but big skins are tied to a board with a small loop
and vigorously pulled and stretched by hand.

The Handbook of Museum Technique instructs that at this
point the tanner should "Place the hide in a barrel or basin
and tread for two hours or more with bare feet, turning the
hide over and over. This works the vegetable oil or butter
into the hide and softens it with the warmth of the feet.
Kick it around and tread it thoroughly to work the oil
well into the hide."^ Years ago, Dominick V'illa did stomp
the skins with his feet, but the ubiquitous machine has
made this unnecessary. If it is necessary to further soften
the skins, Mario places them in the kicker, a strange looking
wooden machine that literally kicks the skins until they
reach the desired softness.

Mario Villa inspects a hide stretched out to dry after completion of

the tanning process. Crock in foreground is type used for several

soaking processes that skins undergo.

This weird-looking device has wooden "feet" that literally kick soft-
ness into skins.

Unusual and impressive challenge for tanner Dominick Villa was this skin of a ivhale-shark, now part of a Museum exhibit.

Dominick retired in 1961, after 30 years at the Museum.

DECEMBER Page 11

Mario puts the finishing touch on a skin, wetting and sharing it a
second time to increase the softness and pliability of the hide.

A cheetah skin is pulled from the cage, where it was tumbled with
sawdiist to completely dry and clean it after the tanning process.

While the skins are shghtly damp, they are put into the
sawdust drum, located right next to the kicker, and tumbled
about for a couple of hours. Finally, they move to the
•cage — an eight-foot high, screen-enclosed wheel in which
the sawdust is "caged out" or the fur. These three ma-
•chines, the kicker, the drum and the cage, are all housed
in a rather small, dimly lit room that looks like the local
branch office of the Inquisition, replete with the latest thing
in torture racks.

Fine-haired skins must be combed out and brushed when
they come out of the cage. The original identification tag
is attached to the skin and it is now ready to join thousands
•of others in the Museum's enormous study collection.

If a skin is to be mounted by the taxidermist, it undergoes
an abbreviated procedure known as "dressing."

Although Mario is quite modest about it, there is con-
siderable difference between his tasks as a tanner at the
Museum and those of a tanner in a furrier's shop. A fur-
rier's tanner usually does no work on the head and legs of
.an animal skin, whereas Mario must carefully remove the

Hides are classified and stored on racks in one of the Museum's two

"skin rooms," each about UO feet long and containing thousands of

of skins. Tiger and leopard skins are included in this mew of one

part of a skin room.

the cartilage from the ears, slit the eyelids and include the
head and leg skin in the tanning process. If he should
shave the skin too closely, the animal's whiskers will drop
off. If he mutilates the head in any way, the scientific
value of the skin declines. Mario must also remove the
leg bones, keeping intact the claws or hoofs of the animal.
Also, a furrier's tanner may only work with a few different
kinds of pelts, for example, fox or beaver. This tanner
then follows very nearly the same procedure daily — the
shaving technique is the same, the amount of time the skin
is in the crocks is the same, etc. Mario works on every-
thing from a squirrel to a rhino and must be familiar with
the tanning requirements of each.

The Museum's zoological study collection is known and
respected around the world, as are the habitat groups on
exhibit. The skill of the Villas, father and son, has con-
tributed significantly to the value of both.

' Aiyappan, A. and Satyamurti, S. T., eds. Handbook of Mu-
seum Technique. 1960. Gov't, of Madras, p. 56.

' Idem.

Page 12 DECEMBER

Next Stop:

BRAZIL

A special advantage for participants in Field Museum's
Natural History Tours is the program of background lec-
tures in the natural history of the tour area. The two Brazil-
bound groups, leaving in January and February, will meet
for a series of four evening meetings in January.

Only seven places remain open in 25-member Tour B,
January 22 - February 16, and Tour A, February 14-
March 11, a 35-member group, has been completely booked
up for several months.

Field Museum Chief Curator of Zoology, Dr. Austin L.
Rand, who will accompany Group A as Tour Zoologist, and
Loren P. Woods, Curator of Fishes, will discuss Brazil's ex-
citingly varied birds, mammals and fishes on January 10.

The gems of Brazil will be shown and described by Dr.
Edward J. Olsen, Curator of Mineralogy, on January 17.

Above: Countryside around Pelropolis, where the lour mil visit
private garden-estates, is characterized by sugarloaf-form mountains
and a year-round spring climate. Right: Roadside stop near Santa
Teresa in the state of Espirito Santo features Cecropia tree and wax
begonias growing mild along the bank of a waterfall. Tour members
ujiU stop here on the way to a personally conducted tour of the estate
of famed zoologist Augusta Ruschi. (Photos by Phil Clark.)

Carnival gaily will close the Brazilian travels of Tour B and open
those of Tour A in Bahia the weekend of February 1J^~16. The
two groups will meet together for a Carnival ball on February 15.

On the same evening Dr. Rupert L. W'enzel, Curator of
Insects, will show specimens of some of that country's color-
ful insects.

A tour member, Robert C. Victor, Staff Astronomer of
Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, will
familiarize tour members with the skies of the southern
hemisphere, speaking on "Under the Southern Cross," on
January 20.

Also on January 20, Phil Clark, Public Relations Coun-
sel of Field Museum and Brazil Tour Leader and plant spe-
cialist for both groups, will show slides of Brazil and its plants
and discuss the country's contemporary political situation.

Tour zoologist for Group B will be a Brazilian, Dr. Helio
Ferraz de Almeida Camargo, a bird specialist from the Sao
Paulo Departmento de Zoologia.

DECEMBER Page 13

The Museum Hall

©tj^n ...

The evolution in the appearance of museum
halls seems unutterably slow, yet when changes
are made they are frequently quite dramatic.

In its infancy. Field Museum (then Field Co-
lumbian Museum) had to rely on some artifical
animal displays which lacked realism both in them-
selves and their exhibition. This was true of most
museums before the development of modern tech-
niques made possible the life-like exhibits now
available.

By the time the Museum moved to its present
location in 1 921 , it had the superb animal displays
by Carl Akeley and an impressive classic main
hall in which to display a variety of its most pop-
ular and importa^nt exhibits.

Since 1 921 , some additions and changes have
been made in the hall, such as the addition of the
rampant dinosaur in the 1950's, but the general
layout of Stanley Field Hall remained unchanged.

Field Columbian Museum hall in Jackson Park in 189U featured reproduction
of a mammoth, cross-section of a redwood tree and a mastodon skeleton. By
today's standards the arrangement of exhibits was stilted and unimaginative
but it was typical for its time.

Above: This mammoth was one of several animal "mock-ups"
on display when the Museum first opened. Notice affixed to the
creature's trunk warns visitors to keep "Hands Off." Right:
Stanley Field Hall appeared like this prior to recent renovation.
The rampant dinosaur was added in the early 1950's but there
have been few changes in the hall since the present building was
opened in 1 921 .

Page 14 DECEMBER

/^»,'o '_

/a».»»X » • • 'A* .V ■*••"♦▼/ - » - . *».».♦/. --. - »^,*.«.

- »*'*«'

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• /■»?.•»%■ ^

Now

Visitors to the Museum in the late summer and
early fall of 1968 found a seeming state of chaos
with well-established exhibits being uprooted and
new construction underway. The result of all
this activity is apparent in the new look of Stanley
Field Hall today. Favorite "trademaric exhibits"
remain and an added vitality has been given with
the addition of two fountains and clusters of live
trees. Small exhibit cases and temporary displays
have been moved elsewhere in the Museum.

The final impression? A more spacious, more
restful and more interesting gateway to the Mu-
seum.

Above, left: Fountains and trees provide a hack-
drop for a favorite Museum exhibit, the rampant
dinosaur. It has been relocated and has a new
base. Left: In operation only a few weeks the
new fountains have already become favorite Mu-
seum resting and meeting places.

Lively fountains greet visitors at both Museum
entrances since the completion of Stanley Field
Hall's makeover. Modern seating along walls
has replaced the dark wooden benches and all
small display cases and temporary exhibits
have been removed. Purpose of the new ar-
rangement was to eliminate a cluttered impres-
sion and add vitality to the hall's classic archi-
tecture.

DECEMBER Page 15

Museum Membership Shows Steady Growth

Field Museum nieinbcrship has more
than doubled in the 1960's and passed
the 15,000 mark in November.

Steady growth in membership has
been the trend since 1954, when the
Museum had 5,280 members. With an
annual average increase of about 200
members, membership was 6,555 by 1 959.

During the 1960's, the number of new
memberships each year increased to a
net average of about 500 with a sharp

increase of 2,000 in each of the last
three years.

With the increase in membership has
come an accelerated program of special
exhibits, lectures and other events in
which members have participated. Mem-
bers are the life blood of Field Museum
and no aspect of the 1960's is more im-
portant to the Museum's future than
the increased interest and number of
its Members.

15,000

12,500

10,000

7.500

5,000

10

til

», w, .-»!,« ,. . , ,-.,x»j.„, ■^ »« December hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday

CALENDAR OF EVENTS ''7f ^f^y'f^'"- [' 'p-^-:^ ^'^'-'^^

ana inunday and Uecember 26-januaryi .x

The Museum will be closed on Christmas Day.

December 1 "Earth, Life and Man" Lecture Series "The Amazon Valley

Forest," by Donald R. Simpson, Assistant Curator, Peruvian Botany, will

close the fall group of 75th Anniversary Lecture Series by Museum Curators.

1 p.m.. Lecture Hall. Admission is free.

December 1 Audubon Society Series "Four Seasons" This film journey into
British Columbia will be narrated by Wilfred E. Gray. 2:30 p.m., James
Simpson Theatre.

December 26 and 27 Holiday Science Lectures See Page 7.

Through December Winter Journey: "Ancient Sea Monsters" Newest in
the Raymond Foimdation's Journey Program series for children introduces
boys and girls to the prehistoric giants of the ancient seas. Any child who can
read and write may participate in the free do-it-yourself Journey Program.
Journey sheets are available at Museum entrances.

Through January 27 Javanese Puppets Hall 9 Gallery. See pages 8 and 9.

Half a Billion Years of Illinois History Do-it-yourself tour in observance of
the State's Sesquicentennial celebration ends on December 3. Capsule journey
through times takes visitors through the worlds of anthropology, botany,
geology and zoology. A free brochure guides visitors to pertinent exhibits.

Chicago Shell Club, December 8, 2 p.m.
Nature Camera Club of Chicago, December 10, 7:45 p.m.
MEETINGS: Chicago Mountaineering Club, December 12, 8 p.m.
Illinois Orchid Society, December 15, 2 p.m.
Great Lakes Chapter of Sierra Club, December 17, 7:30 p.m.

FIELD MUSEUM
OF NATURAL HISTORY

Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, Illinois 60605

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour
Harry O. Bercher
Bowen Blair

William McCormick Blair
William R. Dickinson, Jr.
Thomas E. Donnelley II
Marshall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Paul W. Goodrich
Clifford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull, Jr.
Henry P. Isham
Hughston M. McBain
Remick McDowell
J. Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
James L. Palmer
John T. Pirie, Jr.
John Shedd Reed
John S. Runnells
John G. Searle
John M. Simpson
Gerald A. Sivage
Edward Byron Smith
William G. Swartchild, Jr.
Louis Ware
E. Leland Webber
J. Howard Wood

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Joseph N. Field
William V. Kahler

OFFICERS

James L. Palmer, President
Harry O. Bercher, Vice-President
Bowen Blair, Vice-President
John M. Simpson, Vice-President
Edward Byron Smith,

Treasurer and Assistant Secretary
E. Leland Webber, Secretary

DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM

E. Leland Webber

CHIEF CURATORS

Donald Collier,

Department oj Anthropology
Louis 0. Williams,

Department of Botany
Rainer ^angerl.

Department oJ Geology
Austin L. Rand,

Department oJ Zoology

BULLETIN

Edward G. Nash, Managing Editor

DECEMBER Page 16

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS