Educational dioramas depicting natural habitats of birds, 

 animals and reptiles supplement museum exhibits of marme life. 

 There is a large lecture hall equipped for the presentation of educa- 

 tional motion pictures, musical concerts, the recording and repro- 

 duction of sound and public address. This section includes offices, a 

 motion picture library of the Hancock expeditions, film cutting 

 and editing rooms, photographic and X-ray dark rooms and other 

 technical facilities. 



A part of the institution is devoted wholly to cultural projects 

 linked with a visual education extension service. Provision has been 

 made for a shrine of classical music. From the former Hancock 

 home at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue four rooms 

 were moved intact to the campus and restored as a nucleus of art. 

 Patterned after the famed Villa Medici in Florence, an historic 

 structure of the Itahan Renaissance, the home was a landmark in 

 Los Angeles for more than a quarter of a century. It was the crea- 

 tion of Madam Ida Hancock-Ross, whose fine cultural background 

 found expression in channels of good music and constructive phi- 

 lanthropy during the last decade of her full life. 



Traveling much abroad, she searched Europe for authentic art 

 treasures which were added in modest good taste to the furnishings 

 of the home. From the finest collections in Italy she selected a series 

 of marble busts of the great composers. With paintings, tapestries, 

 fine wood carvings and a pipe organ these objects of art contributed 

 to the fifteenth century feeling of the music room. She made of it a 

 veritable shrine of music. As a memorial to her devotion to the 

 great classics, the suite of rooms has been restored as a part of the 

 Foundation building to serve again as a rendezvous of artists. Like- 

 wise the Allan Hancock Ensemble becomes an added cultural asset 

 of the university. 



Modern art also plays a striking part in the design of the new 

 Foundation building. Sculptural decorations in realistic relief mod- 

 eling have been rendered by Merrell Gage, celebrated sculptor and 

 professor of fine arts at the University of Southern California. 

 Subjects are scientifically important zoological and botanical speci- 

 mens. An immense prehistoric animal group forms a panel on the 

 north wing. Fifty-nine smaller panels decorate parapet walls, the 

 main entrance and the auditorium. 54 



