In February-March of 1992 the Wenner-Gren Foundation engineered a conference on the Preservation of the Anthropological Record in Rancbo Santa, California. I represented the Society for American Archaeology's Committee OD the HistorY of Archaeology at the gathering. At that conference, representatives of many of the anthropological societies gave their assessment of the condition of the anthropological record in private, public, and institutional bands. The assessment by the participants was almost universally' gloomy. The conference accepted the reality of the condition and preservation of the anthropological record as being peril and embraced a sense of urgency of getting about the business of rectifying the situation. To that end, the Wenner-Gren Foundation published a collection of the conference participant's assessments of the anthropological record under the title "Preserving the Anthropological Record". This publication is available free of charge while supply lasts by writing to: Wenner­-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 220 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10001-7708.