SECRETARY'S REPORT 201 



tions, convention groups, and women's organizations. These special 

 services were also given to school groups from all over the country. 



The program of training volunteer docents continued and instruc- 

 tion was given to approximately 100 volunteers. By special arrange- 

 ment with the school systems of the District of Columbia and the 

 surrounding counties of Maryland and Virginia these volunteers con- 

 ducted tours for 1,724 cLasses with a total of 51,920 children, an in- 

 crease of 5,336 children over last years total. 



The staff of the Educational Office delivered 10 lectures in the 

 auditorium on Sunday afternoons, and 30 lectures were given by 

 guest lecturers. Andre Grabar delivered the Tenth Annual Series 

 of the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, beginning April 16, 

 1961, and continuing for six consecutive Sundays. His subject was 

 "Christian Iconography and the Christian Religion in Antiquity." 



The slide library of the Educational Office has a total of 41,989 

 slides in its permanent and lending collections. During the year 1,368 

 slides were added to the collections; 285 persons borrowed a total of 

 11,613 slides from the collections. 



Members of the staff participated in activities outside the Gallery. 

 Dr. Stites gave a total of 54 lectures in various cities throughout the 

 country and in Washington, D.C., and wrote four magazine articles. 

 Dr. Margaret Bouton, associate curator, gave a night course in the 

 history of art at the American University, and Marcel Franciscono, 

 docent, gave a night course in the history of art at George Washing- 

 ton University. The staff members prepared material for use by the 

 volunteer docents and kept up the program of editing this material 

 regularly. This material is also lent to slide borrowers and is sold 

 with slide sets and photographs through the Publications Fund. 



A printed calendar of events was prepared and distributed monthly 

 to a mailing list of 7,553 names. Twenty-one new 13-minute radio 

 talks were prepared and recorded by members of the staff for use 

 during intermission of the broadcasts of the Gallery's Smiday evening 



concerts. 



EXTENSION SERVICE 



The Extension Service was separated from the Educational Office 

 and placed under the supervision of Dr. Grose Evans, curator of the 

 Index of American Design. This service circulates to the public the 

 traveling exhibits. Gallery films, and slide lecture sets. There are 17 

 traveling exhibits in circulation, lent free of charge except for trans- 

 portation charges. The exhibits were circulated 95 times and seen 

 by approximately 46,000 viewere. There are three Gallery films in 

 circulation ; these have been lent 45 times during the year and seen by 

 12,200 persons. A total of 622 slide sets with texts on a variety of 

 objects in the collection were lent 1,563 times and seen by 93,780 

 viewers. 



