To search the SMA website click here. In October, , J. It being impossible to fill his place at short notice, the work was necessary very heavily handicapped for near a year, as it was not until August, , that the Curator was able to appoint a new assistant. The incoming assistant, H. Gray, had been employed for some ten years by General Pitt-Rivers, and had received an invaluable Archaeological and Museum training under that most careful and systematic of observers.
In spite of this a considerable amount of useful work has been accomplished, and much of the lost time has already been made good. By a grant of Convocation, about sixty feet of wall-cases for the exhibition of specimens were purchased, and the cases erected in the galleries at the end of , enabling certain important series to be properly displayed and cared for the first time.
It is much to be desired that other such wall-cases may be erected, in order that many specimens of great value may be preserved from perishing, and that the series may be rendered more readily accessible for scientific use, and be displayed in a satisfactory manner. A few other exhibition cases have been purchased, and two six-drawer cabinets ordered for the galleries.
Two of the new wall-cases have been fitted with false backs, with doors, so that the backs of the cases are available for storing reserve and research material in immediate connexion with the exhibited material of like kind, a matter of considerable importance and convenience. It would be of great advantage if this scheme could be carried out throughout the Museum.
The series of cross-bows, blow-guns, quivers, and the major portion of the bows have been treated in detail, and the specimens individually ticketed, and, where necessary, identified so far as possible, with a view to their rearrangement in the wall-cases. The series of Composite-Bows is probably the most complete and representative in the world.
