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Cover of First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
 to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1879-1880, Government Printing Office 1881

About this book

The First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology is a governmental document issued by the Smithsonian Institution in 1881, presenting the director J. W. Powell’s account of the bureau’s activities during 1879‑1880. It opens with a formal letter to Secretary Spencer F. Baird, outlining the purpose of the report and acknowledging the contributions of assistants and collaborating scientists. The work is organized into a detailed table of contents that lists a director’s introductory essay, a bibliography of North American philology, and a series of specialized studies, ranging from linguistic research among the Klamath and Iroquois to examinations of mortuary customs, sign language, and land cessions. The introductory material also explains the typographical conventions used throughout, such as the representation of special characters and the handling of italics and boldface, and notes that the ten accompanying papers have been reformatted for consistency.

Written in the formal, exhaustive style of late‑19th‑century scientific reporting, the text reflects the era’s meticulous cataloguing of ethnographic data and its reliance on extensive field notes, illustrations, and scholarly correspondence. Readers with an interest in the history of anthropology, early American Indian studies, or the development of federal research institutions will appreciate its dense factual presentation and the breadth of primary material it preserves. The language is scholarly yet accessible, making it valuable for historians, linguists, and anyone seeking a comprehensive snapshot of early U.S. ethnological inquiry.

Characters in this book

  • J. W. PowellMiddle‑aged Caucasian man in 1870s formal suit, waistcoat, pocket watch, dignified expression
  • Spencer F. BairdElderly gentleman with silver hair, frock coat, cravat, scholarly demeanor, 19th‑century portrait style

The opening · free to read

Some compromises were made to accommodate font availability:

The ordinary “cents” sign ¢ was used in place of the correct form ȼ, and bracketed [¢] represents the capital letter Ȼ. Turned c is represented by ɔ (technically an open o). Bracketed [K] and [T] represent upside-down (turned) capital K and T. Inverted V (described in text) is represented by the Greek letter Λ.

If your computer has a more appropriate character, feel free to replace letters globally.

Syllable stress is represented by an acute accent either on the main vówel or after the syl´lable; inconsistencies are unchanged. Except for special characters noted above, and obvious insertions such as [Illustration] and [Footnote], brackets are in the original. Note that in the Sign Language article, hand positions identified by letter (A, B ... W, Y) are descriptive; they do not represent a “finger alphabet”.

Italics are shown with lines. Boldface (rare) is shown with +marks+; in some articles the same notation is used for +small capitals+.

The First Annual Report includes ten “Accompanying Papers”, all available from Project Gutenberg as individual e-texts. Except for Yarrow’s “Mortuary Customs”, updated shortly before the present text, the separate articles were released between late 2005 and late 2007. For this combined e-text they have been re-formatted for consistency. Some articles have been further modified to include specialized characters shown above, and a few more typographical errors have been corrected.

For consistency with later Annual Reports, a full List of Illustrations has been added after the Table of Contents, and each article has been given its own Table of Contents. In the original, the Contents were printed only at the beginning of the volume, and Illustrations were listed only with their respective articles.

Errors and inconsistencies are listed separately at the end of each article and after the combined Index. Differences in punctuation or hyphenization between the Table of Contents, Index, or List of Illustrations, and the item itself, are not noted.]

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