SECRETARY'S REPORT 207 



Attendance for the general tours, tours of the week, and picture of 

 the week talks totaled 41,314. This represents an increase of 2,475 

 oyer last year's attendance. The attendance at the Sunday afternoon 

 auditorium lectures totaled 10,668. 



Special tours, lectures, and conferences were arranged and a total 

 of 16,006 were served in this manner. This is an increase over last 

 year of 1,918 persons. These included groups of visitors from Gov- 

 ernment agencies, club and study groups, foreign students, religious 

 organizations, 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 special 

 instruction was given to approximately 100 volunteers from the Junior 

 League of Washington and the American Association of University 

 Women. By special arrangement with the public and parochial 

 schools of the District of Columbia and surrounding counties of Mary- 

 land and Virginia, these volunteers conducted tours for 59,989 chil- 

 dren, an increase of 8,069 children over last year's total. 



Forty-one lectures were delivered in the auditorium on Sunday 

 afternoons. Five of these were delivered by staff members, and 30 by 

 guest lecturers. Kathleen Eaine delivered the Eleventh Annual Se- 

 ries of the Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts on six consec- 

 utive Sundays beginning on March 4 on the subject "Wisdom of the 

 Ages: A Study of the Traditional Sources of William Blake." 



The slide library of the educational department has a total of 44,274 

 slides in its permanent and lending collections. During the year 2,244 

 slides were added to the collections. In all, 250 persons borrowed a 

 total of 11,229 slides from the collections. It is estimated these slides 

 were seen by 20,780 viewers. 



Members of the staff participated in outside activities delivering 

 lectures, teaching courses, and attending classes in foreign universities. 

 Also members of the staff prepared scripts for the Lectour recordings 

 and for radio talks and wrote the material used in the school tour pro- 

 gram and the slide lending program. 



A printed calendar of events was prepared and distributed montlily 

 to a mailing list of about 9,300 names. Tliis is an increase over last 

 year of 1,747 names. 



EXTENSION SERVICES 



The extension service continued under the direction of the curator 

 of the Index of American Design, Dr. Grose Evans. This service 

 circulates to the public the traveling exhibits. Gallery films, and slide 

 lecture sets. There are 26 traveling exhibits in circulation, lent free of 

 charge except for transportation charges. These were circulated in 

 156 bookings and were seen by an estimated 78,000 viewers. Three 



