EXHIBITS AT THE MUSEUfl 



Silk Culture — A Retrospect 



The silkworm exhibit described in the last issue of the Bulletin 

 was open to the pubUc for just one month and during that time 

 drew an attendance of nearly four thousand visitors. Of these 

 over twelve hundred were children from the schools of the city, 

 accompanied by their teachers. As a general thing these classes 

 came by appointment and the Curator of Public Instruction spoke 

 before each, explaining the exhibit and telling something of the 

 story of the silkworm. Each class carried back to its school half 

 a dozen or so of the silk caterpillars. Later many cocoons spun by 

 them were brought to the Museum for inspection or unreeling. 

 One school sent a beautiful little skein of silk which one of its boys 

 had unreeled with no more efficient machinery than the back of a 

 chair and his own hands. Through the cooperation of Mr. A. 

 Burnet Rhett, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, special ap- 

 pointments were made for each of the seventh and sixth grade 

 classes of the pubHc schools during the last hour of the school 

 day. The children were to write compositions upon what they 

 learned at the exhibit. Several teachers added a competitive in- 

 terest by promising to send the best of the compositions to the 

 Museum. So great was the enthusiasm shown by the children 

 that most classes spent an hour and a half at the exhibit although 

 half an hour only was required. Further interest was shown by 

 the fact that the attendance of the sixth grade classes was ar- 

 ranged by Mr. Rhett at the request of teachers and children. 

 Compulsory attendance was originally planned for the seventh 

 grade only. 



One public school, the Mitchell, had each grade represented, 

 and one of the higher schools of the city, the Porter Military 

 Academy, came in a body. The total number of teachers visiting 

 the exhibit with classes was forty-seven. Frequently children 

 unaccompanied by a teacher said wistfully that they wished their 



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