Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam.

  • Charles Edwin Putnam
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    66/100 (page 64)
    64- opinion, of judgment, or of error, but they are charged by very direct implication with being perpetrators of frauds. The most favorable view that can be taken is that they are either great simpletons or ac- complished knaves. If the parties thus arraigned before the world for so grave an offense keep quiet, and suffer the imputation of dishonesty to remain, their honor and reputation is forever overclouded, an irre- parable damage done their entire work, the whole collection placed under the ban of permanent suspicion and doubt, and its value dimin- ished to the very lowest point. Under these circumstances no mere protest, hov/ever strong, will meet the case or remove the stain. I presume, from what I have read and heard, that it can be established that the finds called in question and alluded to are genuine finds, and established judicially, and that none of the parties thus so seriously implicated have been guilty of any knavery in the premises, and that none of them, to this day, have any reason to believe they have been made the victims of deceitful proceedings of any kind. If one and all, as I take to be the case, they are conscious of their own integrity and freedom from guile in any and every matter touching these finds, I do not well see how they can avoid instituting a libel suit and bringing out the evidence, and thus vindicating their own integrity, a matter of more importance than any archceological questions. I think, moreover, you owe this to others as well as yourselves. There are many who, without passing opinion on the finds in question, from the best helps they could get, have insisted strongly that whatever might be the value of the specimens to archaeology, the persons them- selves were honest, and that their acts could be depended upon. I do not see what other course is open, for the writer, not satisfied with his most damaging imputations, goes on to poison the wells, to forestall any vindication through the discovery of other objects; for, on page 157, he goes on to say that each succeeding carving of the mastodon, be it more or less accurate, instead of being accepted as cumulative evidence, will be received with ever-increasing suspicion. Monstrous! I write very plainly, because I feel that the gentleman in question has gone outside the record to attack the reputation of others in a manner which nothing but the most sure evidence in his possession of their fraudulent acts could for an instant justify. I beg to be remembered to your associates whose acquaintance I casually formed, and to Mrs. Putnam in particular. Very truly yours, Oscar W. Collet. From Dr. J. B. Holder, oJ the American Museum of Naticral History, Central l^ark. New York City. [We have been favored hv Dr. Holder with the perusal, in advance of its publication, of a valuable paper upon “Some /Esthetic Features of Prehistoric Art,” and now avail ourselves of his kind permission to include herein its opening- paragraph.] American archaeological science seems to be, in a sense, homeless, notwithstanding it is large and growing. There are, to be sure, excel- lent institutions holding with jealous care objects of great worth. The