418 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1903. 



In March, April, October, and Novenil)er, lectures are jriven on 

 Saturdays, usually by foreign men of science, but also by the nuis(Mun 

 employees, for the most part illustrated by projections, for which pur- 

 pose, in 18!>!»-L900, 2,022 lantern slides wimv provided in the nuiseum 

 collections. Some of the emplo3'ees of the museum, as the curators 

 for botaii}", geology, and zoology, are at the same time teachers in the 

 L'^ni versify of Chicago. 



The publications, undertaken on a large scale, were begun in 189-4. 

 There are six series, the volumes being issued in parts or pamphlets: 

 The annual reports, and series on anthropology, botany, geology, 

 zoology, and ornithology. Up to the end of September, 1900, 8 vol- 

 umes, comprising 50 single treatises, were almost completed, the 

 greater part being zoological material. The museum also published 

 in 1899 a quarto work of about 400 pages on the birds of eastern North 

 America, by Charles B. Cory, with man}' hundreds of illustrations, 



plates." It was open only to pupils of the secondary schools and the two sections 

 (fourteenth and thirteenth grades) of the uppermost class of the Pittsburg grammar 

 schools. The prizes were especially assigned for each class; 1 each for the fourth, 

 third, second, and first year of the secondary schools and 1 each for the fourteenth 

 and thirteenth grades of the grammar schools. (I refer to my remarks upon the 

 American schools in the chapter on The University of Chicago. ) There were awarded 

 in 1899 thirty-eight prizes, ranging in value from $^ to |25, having a total value of 

 about $250. The subject was "What I learned from five objects in the Carnegie 

 Museum." The essay nmst not exceed 1,200 words, and Sj weeks' tune was allowed 

 for writing it. The pupils were advised to obtain information about the museum from 

 their parents and friends; they could also use books, and the teachers were specially 

 directed to further the matter, but it was a point of honcjr that in the composition of 

 the essay itself no help should be received. There were 401 essays handed in, of which 

 245 were by girls, who also, with but one exception, won the first prizes. The prize 

 winners were from 12 to 21 years of age. The Indian groups were selected 173 times; 

 the flamingos 120 times, the mummies 121 times, the camel group 86 times, the 

 mastodon 64 times, etc. In all 220 different objects or groups of objects were treated. 

 The boys inclined to choose themes which treated of war, sport, or business activity; 

 the girls, those having historical signiticance and birds. In the above-cited publi- 

 cation the names of the competitors were pu1)lished as well as the essay which won 

 the first prize. This was by a young girl 18 years old, and was entitled "Fragments of 

 Creation." 8he had treated of the following five subjects: The human skull, arm, 

 and hand in the animal series, the gar pike, the Rosetta stone, and the meteorites. 

 The introduction and conclusion as well as the transitions between the different parts 

 were conceived in a religious spirit. In 1900 there were obtained for a similar prize 

 competition 843 essays. (See W. J. Holland, The Carnegie Museum, in the Popu- 

 lar Science Moufhh/, LIX, 1901, p. 19.) Pittsburg had, in 1899, among 321,616 

 inhabitants, 46,2()6 school children, of which 1,823 were in the three secondary 

 schools. As these essays came chiefly from the secondary schools their proportion 

 to the 1,823 pupils was something enormous. In the three secondary schools tliere 

 were 23 male teachers and 41 female teachers. In the 79 elementary schools there 

 were 27 male teachers and 878 female teachers. The schools cost the city in 1899 

 $875,000. ( Report concerning the public schools for 1897 to 1 900, Pittsl)urg, 1900^ 123 

 pages, with tables. ) [These prize-essay contests were also continued in 1901 and 1902 

 with great success. ] 



