220 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. X 



photographs of ornithologists from the collection of the late Ruthven 

 Deane, loaned by the Division of Fine Arts of the Library of Congress. 



THE N. W. HARRIS PUBLIC SCHOOL EXTENSION 



All of the 375 Chicago public schools which were open during 

 1934 received the services of the Department of the N. W. Harris 

 Public School Extension. This was an increase of forty- two com- 

 pared with the number served in 1933, accounted for by the opening 

 of two new buildings and the reopening of forty which had been 

 closed. To each of these schools, whose aggregate attendance 

 is approximately 500,000 pupils, two traveling exhibition cases were 

 delivered on a bi-weekly schedule throughout the school year. The 

 same service was also given to the University High School of the 

 University of Chicago, thirty-six parochial and private schools, nine 

 branches of the Chicago Public Library, seven branches of the 

 Y.M.C.A., five social settlements, and two Boys' Union League 

 Clubs, the exhibits thereby reaching probably an additional quarter 

 of a million persons. Thus the total number of institutions served 

 was 435, and in delivering and collecting the 870 cases loaned to 

 them the two Museum trucks traveled a distance of 10,744 miles. 



During the year an unusually large number of letters of apprecia- 

 tion of the Harris Extension's services was received from principals, 

 teachers, and pupils of the schools, and the heads of other institu- 

 tions to which exhibits were loaned. Several of the letters received 

 indicated that lack of funds prevents large numbers of children 

 from ever making excursions outside the city limits, and that many 

 seldom can even visit the Museum because their parents cannot 

 afford the carfare. Consequently, the Harris traveling exhibits 

 provide the only avenue to nature study available to them. Many 

 other letters stressed the superior value of the visual education 

 provided by these exhibits as compared to mere book studies. 



Illustrating the interest aroused by these exhibits are 145 booklets 

 of essays by seventh and eighth grade pupils of the Mozart School. 

 In these compositions, which were forwarded to the Museum, the 

 children reveal in their own words that they have absorbed much 

 knowledge from the Harris Extension cases. 



As in previous years, loans of cases were made on requests 

 received from several institutions not on the list for regular service. 

 Six cases of natural history and economic subjects were shown at the 

 Chicago meeting of the Institute for Juvenile Research of the State 

 Department of Public Welfare; four cases of wild flowers and birds 



