Bureau of Ethnology Established at SI

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Summary

United States Congress appropriates $20,000 for the publication of contributions to North American Ethnology, provided that "all the archives, records, and materials relating to the Indians of North America, collected by the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, shall be turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, that the work may be completed and prepared for publication under its direction." The Secretary of the Interior, on February 28, requested that this appropriation be placed under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, instead of the Department of Interior. The Bureau of Ethnology, with Major John Wesley Powell as its head, is established to perform this work.

Subject

  • Powell, John Wesley 1834-1902
  • Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology
  • Geological and Geographical Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region
  • United States Dept. of the Interior
  • United States Congress

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Notes

  • Guide to Smithsonian Archives. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983. Archives and Special Collections of the Smithsonian Institution Number 4, pp. 87-89.
  • Oehser, Paul H. The Smithsonian Institution. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970, p. 114.
  • Goode, George Brown, ed. The Smithsonian Institution, 1846-1896, The History of Its First Half Century. Washington, D.C.: De Vinne Press, 1897, pp. 470-472, 839.
  • Rhees, William Jones. The Smithsonian Institution: Documents Relative to Its Origin and History: 1835-1899, Vol. 1, 1835-1887. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901, p. 818.
  • Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1879, p. 39.

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

March 3, 1879

Topic

  • Scientific expeditions
  • Ethnology
  • Anthropology
  • Expenditures, Public
  • Interagency Transfers
  • Museums
  • New Bureaus
  • Major Events in Smithsonian History
  • Museum publications

Place

North America

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