60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



During the 1962-63 school year 22,393 children were conducted 

 on 783 tours, representing an increase of 8 percent over the previous 

 year's participation. Since the beginning of the tour program in 

 1955, more than 100,000 schoolchildren have been guided tlirough 

 Smithsonian museum halls by the Junior League docents. 



Tours were conducted in the halls of everyday life in America, 

 Indians of the Americas, the world of mammals, and textiles, for 

 grades 3 through 6 ; and in the halls of gems and minerals, and power 

 machinery, for grades 5 through junior high school. Tours in the 

 everyday life in early America hall stopped at the end of November so 

 that the exhibit could be moved to the new Museum of History and 

 Technology. The Junior League has guided approximately 22,500 

 schoolchildren through this hall since it opened in 1957. To replace 

 the early America tour, a new tour through the hall of the world of 

 mammals was offered beginning January 14, 1963. Four tours each 

 day, 5 days a week, were offered every half hour from 10 through 11 :30 

 a.m. in the halls of everyday life in early America, Indians of the 

 Americas, and the world of mammals. Tours in the halls of gems and 

 minerals, textiles, and power machinery were conducted on Monday 

 through Friday at 10 and 11 a.m. 



Tours were conducted from October 1, 1962, through May 28, 1963, 

 with the exception of the month of April 1963, when, as usual, tours 

 were suspended because of the exceedingly heavy visitor traffic in all 

 museum halls during the Easter and cherryblossom seasons. The 

 great number of visitors to the Smithsonian museums during the early 

 spring so overcrowd the exhibition halls that the school tours cannot 

 be conducted satisfactorily. 



In addition to Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Loos, the members of the 

 League's docent committee were : 



Mrs. A. Stuart Baldwin, Mrs. Thad H. Brown, Jr., Mrs. Challen E. Caskie, Mrs. 

 Thomas R. Gate, Mrs. Dean B. Cowie, Mrs, Henry M. deButts, Mrs. Lee M. Folger, 

 Mrs. Rockwood Foster, Mrs. Clark Gearhart, Mrs. George Gerber, Mrs. Gilbert 

 Grosvenor, Mrs. Robert H. Harwood, Mrs. Walter M. Johnson, Jr., Mrs. Charles 

 J. Kelly, Jr., Mrs. Lansing Lamont, Mrs. J. H. Lasley, Mrs. Peter Macdonald, 

 Mrs. John Manfuso, Jr., Mrs. Samuel D. Marsh, Mrs. Earnest May, Mrs. Alex- 

 ander McClure, Mrs. Robert McCormick, Mrs. Arnold B. McKinnon, Mrs. H. 

 Roemer McPhee, Jr., Mrs. William Minshall, Jr., Mrs. L. Edgar Prina, Mrs. Arthur 

 W. Robinson, Mrs. Donald M. Rogers, Mrs. Robert E. Rogers, Mrs. W. James 

 Sears, Mrs. Walter Slowinski, Mrs. Joseph Smith, Jr., Mrs. James H. Stallings, 

 Jr., Mrs. E. Tilman Stirling, Mrs. William R. Stratton, Mrs. Richard Wallis, and 

 Mrs. Mark A. White. 



The Institution deeply appreciates the able and devoted efforts of 

 these volunteers, whose services to the schools of the Washington area 

 encourage effective use of the Smithsonian museum exhibits by teach- 

 ers and students alike. 



