is the pleasantest spot in all that charming city. The building was
completed and entered in 1878. It is of brick, four stories in height,
thoroughly fire-proof, simple in design, and tasteful in ornamentation.
The present structure is only a fifth of what the whole building is
designed ultimately to be. Two rooms yet remain to be opened to the
public, but their fitting will not long be delayed. Its spacious doors
open on Divinity Avenue, and there let us enter and glance at its
treasures.

The entrance-hall is a square well in the centre of the building,
accommodating the broad stairways and galleries, and affording room for
many large objects, such as carved figures of stone and the models of
the ruined houses and present pueblos of the village Indians of the
Southwest. The walls are of finished brick.

On the left a large room is devoted to the office, to the reception of
new specimens, and to the library, which is intended to include only
works pertaining to this special study. On the right opens the room
where naturally and properly begins our survey of the museum. Like the
other apartments, it occupies the whole of one side of the building, and
is about thirty-five by forty feet in dimensions. Its ceiling is
twenty-two feet in height, but a broad gallery runs around all four
sides, which adds almost as much exhibition-space as would a second
story, without spoiling the open and well-lighted effect of a lofty
room. Glass cases cover the walls above and below; upon the floor stand
combined upright and table cases, resting upon long cabinets of
interchangeable drawers, and the gallery-rail supports a line of
narrow, flat cases. In each room is a fireplace, while all are well
heated in winter and comfortably ventilated in summer, so that they are
attractive to visitors.

This first room holds what is regarded by the curator as the most
important series of objects ever brought together illustrative of that
ancient people who built the mounds and the singular stone graves of the
southern and central portions of the United States. The contents of each
mound and grave are arranged by themselves, so that as one passes from
case to case a picture of the human life of the past is presented as
nearly perfect as can be constructed out of that part of the handiwork
of the people which has escaped decay. Here can be seen and studied the
many singular results of the potter's art, simple and complex in form
and varied in style