Semitic Museum Report

In his report on the Semitic Museum, the Curator, Professor D. G. Lyon, announces the acquisition, besides other things, of a collection of Greek papyri from the Egypt Exploration Fund; of a number of Oriental coins, collected by the late Professor J. H. Thayer; of 80 coins from Palestine and Phoenicia; and of 125 Syraic manuscripts from the library of Professor G. R. Harris of England. Those manuscripts are finely bound and range over the whole period of Syraic literature and contain examples of all the great writers. This is probably the finest collection in private hands.

The report also comments upon the gift of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff for Semitic exploration. Mr. Schiff for Semitic exploration. Mr. Schiff has given $5000, and will provide $10,000 a year for five years, for exploration in the Semitic field. A committee on exploration in the Orient has been appointed, and Dr. G. A. Resiner, for six years in charge of the Hearst expedition in Egypt, has been made director of the expedition. Palestine is the field in which its is proposed to excavate, if permission is granted by the Turkish authorities. If this permission can be obtained, the expedition will be equipped to do work more thoroughly and on a larger scale than has yet been attempted in that land.

The expenditure for the Harris collection of Syraic manuscripts, the report states, has nearly exhausted the sums held for accessions to the Museum, and it is most desirable that the treasury should be replenished. Gifts for immediate use or for endowment are needed to carry on the' work of the Museum.