GRIFFIN] NATURE-STUDY IN A MUSEUM 57 



"This building is to be erected for you. I want you to under- 

 stand that from this time on it is to be yours, and that you are to 

 carefully guard its interests ; and I want each one of you to say 

 to himself, 'This is my building, and I have an interest in it'." 

 The spirit which Col. Fairbanks showed in these words still 

 abides in the Museum, and is manifest in the various phases of 

 educational work which are carried on by the institution, and 

 which it is the object of this paper simply and briefly to relate. 



One week of each school month, the large, attractive class- 

 room of the building is the center of activity. Classes come from 

 the public schools of the town — all grades from the third through 

 the ninth — with their teachers, and receive lessons given by the 

 director of the Museum. Lessons these are, not lectures. The 

 pupils have as active a part as they would in any school exercise, 

 asking and answering questions, and thinking out the problems 

 which flower or bird may suggest. These lessons are part of a 

 general plan of nature-study, arranged by the director, and 

 carried out in the schools. The Museum lesson furnishes the 

 key-note of the month's study, which is arranged with a view to 

 the agricultural and industrial life of the community. 



As far as possible the pupils bring the materials for their 

 study, and these are supplemented by Museum specimens. 

 For instance, the subject of a lesson may be the Christmas Fern. 

 Each pupil has a frond secured by himself, while about the walls 

 of the room hang a dozen or more specimens from the herbarium, 

 and the variations in these cause much interest, as they are 

 noticed by the pupils after their own specimens have been 

 studied. Also, the Polypody (rare in this locality) is shown by 

 way of comparison, and a last exhibit is the Museum fernery 

 where both ferns are growing luxuriantly. Perhaps the best 

 result of such a lesson is the interest which the boys and girls 

 take in the growing plants, for they come into the Museum 

 frequently to visit the fernery and see how the plants are thriving. 

 Also, they start ferneries in their own homes, collecting the plants 

 and coming to the director to compare notes, ask the cause of 

 failure, or report success. 



A class may be studying crickets and grasshoppers, and nearly 

 every member has his specimens. These have been kept in 

 glass jars, on the pupils' desks, for some time before they figure 

 in the Museum lessons. Children supply the insects with food. 



