With the beginning of the new ear the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology has been transferred to the Corporation of the University. Heretofore the property belonging to the Museum has been held in trust by a Board of Trustees. The Museum (as annually stated in the Catalogue) has been "a constituent part of the University; but its relations to it have been affected by peculiar provisions." These provisions are now removed by the transfer of all the property held by the Trustees. The Museum will henceforth be directed by a faculty in place of a Board of Trustees. The faculty consists of President Eliot, Professor Putnam, and Messrs. Stephen Salisbury, Charles P. Bowditch and Francis C. Lowell. Professor Putnam remains the Curator of the Museum as heretofore. By an act of the legislature, last winter, the Trustees were authorized to make this arrangement with the Corporation of Harvard College for the transfer of the property which they had held in trust since the foundation of the Museum by Mr. George Peabody in 1866.

For several years there has been a division of American Archaeology and Ethnology in the University. Professor Putnam has been chairman of this division since its organization, and instruction has been regularly given in the Museum.

It will be recalled that the property of the Museum of Comparative Zoology was formerly vested in a Board of Trustees, and it was found desirable to transfer all the property held for the benefit of the Museum to the Corporation. Following this precedent the Trustees of the Peabody Museum have transferred their trust, believing that it will be as well for the Museum and far better for the University.