THE N. W. HARRIS PUBLIC SCHOOL EXTENSION 



The Department of the N. W. Harris Public School Extension 

 functions for the educational benefit of Chicago school-children by 

 lending to schools Museum exhibits that can be used in classrooms. 

 The exhibits, which cover a wide range of subjects selected from the 

 areas of scientific work of the Museum, are constructed in the work- 

 rooms of the department and are installed in glass-fronted wooden 

 cases fitted with pull-out explanatory labels. 



Two trucks operated by the department deliver the exhibits in 

 accordance with a system of regular rotation during the months 

 when school is in session. Two exhibits are delivered on loan to 

 each school in September. On the following tenth school-day the 

 exhibits are picked up and two others are left in their place, and 

 exchanges are then made at intervals of ten school-days until mid- 

 June. The schedule provides delivery of a total of 34 different 

 exhibits to each school during the year, and there is no charge for 

 the service. All public schools of Chicago are eligible, as are private 

 and parochial schools that make application. Whenever possible 

 the department also accepts for routine service applications from 

 public-service institutions that show need for the exhibits. 



Practices and procedures established over the years continued in 

 operation. Pick-up of the portable exhibits at the end of the school- 

 year was completed on June 15 and deliveries for the next school-year 

 were begun on September 10. On December 31, 1,032 exhibits were 

 in loan-circulation in the city, and the total of exhibit-loans for the 

 calendar year was 17,580. In carrying out the department's ex- 

 hibit-loan obligations, the two trucks were in operation 167 days 

 of the year and traveled some 11,000 miles. The schools and 

 institutions on the circulation list at the end of December numbered 

 516, of which 501 were schools (97 per cent). Of these 501 schools, 

 401 were public (80 per cent of school circulation), 90 were parochial 

 (18 per cent of school circulation), and 10 were private (2 per cent 

 of school circulation). Fifteen boys' clubs, YMCA's, and settle- 

 ment houses made up the remaining 3 per cent of the total list. 



Damage to exhibits this year was moderately heavy. Twenty- 

 eight exhibits that were recalled from schools because of breakage 

 could be repaired and returned to circulation, and necessary repairs 

 were made on an additional 504. One portable exhibit, the prairie 

 chicken, was destroyed by vandals, and another, an industrial 

 study of dyewoods, was stolen. Exhibit material only was stolen 

 from two other portable cases — a pair of nesting goldfinches and 

 a miniature model of the Cretaceous dinosaur Trachodon. 



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