Pacific Melanesia Collection-The Museum's ethnographic materials from Melanesia comprise one of the world's finest collections of Pacific materials. The collection of approximately 36,000 objects, includes tools, weapons, works of art, and clothing - most originating from the first two decades of this century. Most of lowland and coastal New Guinea is represented, as are the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides (now called Vanuatu) and New Caledonia. The Field Museum's Melanesian curator, Albert Buell Lewis amassed one half of the total Melanesian holdings of the Museum, comprising some 15,000 artifacts, between 1901-1913. The remainder is derived from other sources of the time, including ship captains, German dealers and German anthropologists. Micronesia Collection-The ethnological and archaeological collections in The Field Museum number 11,270 objects. Alexander Spoehr, Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology, carried out anthropological work immediately after World War II and collected both ethnological and archaeological materials for the Museum's collections. Fred Reinman, a Pacific archaeologist and the Museum's Oceanic Curator, also conducted field work and collected in these regions. While some of the Micronesian holdings come from the A.B. Lewis and the A.W.F. Fuller collections, the remainder come from curators Spoehr and Reinman. While the collection is varied, it is comparatively good, and the archaeological collections from Spoehr and Reinman are noteworthy. Polynesia Collection-The collection of Polynesian ethnological and archaeological objects number approximately 5,190, and covers most of the island groups comprising Polynesia, i.e., New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, Samoa, Tonga, Marquesas, Cooks, etc. A significant portion of this collection originated in the A.W.F. Fuller collection. The Polynesia collection includes some outstanding individual objects, such as the Hawaiian "mate" to the Bloxam figure, on loan to the Bishop Museum, and the Hawaiian feathered war god, "Kukailimokur." The Hawaiian tapa is particularly noteworthy. The Maori collection is outstanding, and includes the council house, Ruatepupuke II, one of only three council houses outside of New Zealand. Many of the Maori weapons and implements are also of fine quality and of scholarly importance. Other Anthropology Collections: Africa | Asia | Australia | Europe | Middle and South America | North America | Pacific | Textiles-Asia and Africa