The article presents and discuss The Natural History of Folklore, a forgotten study published in 1891 by the curator Otis Mason. First, we offer an outline of his intellectual activity and define his craftwork based classification, as well as the political perspective of Mason's folkloric science. Then, the article introduces a debate about museographic exhibitions and ethnological classification, which partially explains how Mason's science was forgotten by academic anthropology. Finally, we recover the national and scientific base of The Natural History of Folklore to test one of Mason's curatorial classifications: the Fuego lore area.