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.

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    -78- I am glad, however, of this opportunity to say that I have never had other than the utmost confrdence in the good faith and integrity of those members of your Academy who have been engaged in the study of the relics in question. I deeply regret that the discussion of a sci- entific problem should have become embarrassed by considerations of a personal nature. I assure you that you could not fall into a graver error than to suppose that any “endeavor to fasten the stigma of fraud upon the Academy” could have the sympathy or “seeming support of the Smithsonian Institution.” I am, sir. Yours very respectfully, Spencer F. Baird, Secreta?y. Davenport, Iowa, October 23, 1885. Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Secretary Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ington, D. C.,— Dear Sir: In the view I have taken of the connection between the so-called “Bureau of Ethnology” and the Smithsonian Institution, I feel confident I have fallen into no error, but, when confronted with the positive denial in your communication of September i6th last, I de- layed replying until I could find leisure to make a careful reexamina- tion of the records. I now find that in the year 1879 Congress passed a law consolidating the separate Surveys under one management; that previous to that date ethnological investigation had been conducted principally in con- nection with the Rocky Mountain explorations; that under this law all collections thus made were turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, and that by provision of subsequent acts these explorations were to be continued under its supervision. Thus, the act of March 3d, 1879, provided: “That all the archives, records, and material relating to the Indians of North America, collected by the Geographical and Geologi- cal Survey of the Rocky Mountain region, sha/t be turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, that the work may be completed and prepared for p2d)lication under its direction! The various appropriation acts subsequently ])assed by Congress contained provisions substantially like the following, taken from the act of August 7th, 1882: “For North American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution: For the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the North Amer- ican Indians, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithso?iian In- stitutioJi, including salaries and compensation of all necessary em- ployes, thirty-five thousand dollars.” And in the Smithsonian Report for the same year (1882) your own views concerning this department are thus clearly stated: “As in i)revious years, I propose to include in the present report, in addition to matters pertaining strictly to the Institution, a brief account of the operations of the National Museum, a?id of the Bureau of Eth- nology, which may be considered as part of the Smithsonian Institution!