TEACHERS’ DAY 
QUOTATION FROM THE TALK OF GEORGE H. SHERWOOD, CURATOR OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
The Teachers’ Day exercises were attended and appreciated in a way gratifying to the 
Museum, which on its part made every effort to set forth in detail both the institution’s 
desire and its wealth of equipment for cobperation with the City in educational work along 
lines of natural science.— Editor. 

NE of the purposes of the Founders of this Museum was to establish 
an institution which would encourage and develop a study of 
natural science. I believe that they had in mind an intimate 
relation between the Museum and the public schools, and our Trustees have 
faithfully carried out this idea of the Founders. The work of the Depart- 
ment of Education in this connection falls under two heads: first, what we 
are prepared to do for the teachers in the building, and second, what we 
are prepared to do in the schools. 
Considering first the work in the building.— We give every fall and 
spring to school children a series of lectures prepared with the idea of 
supplementing the work in your class rooms. Topics are chosen for the 
most part by the teachers and are fully illustrated. Most of you, I know, 
are sending your pupils to these. In addition to this, largely through the 
generosity of Dr. A. S. Bickmore, who was founder and first curator of 
our Department of Education, we have a large series of lantern slides, 
between thirty and forty thousand. Any teacher may come to our build- 
ing, select slides, make an appointment, bring her class to the building 
and there give a lecture on the subject she has chosen. The Museum 
furnishes lecture room, slides and operator and if the teacher does not care 
to do the talking will provide also a person to do the talking. 
We have started in a small way a room for the children. In this room 
are modelling tools and drawing instruments and animals of interest to the 
children. The purpose is recreative, but a competent instructor is always 
there to direct the play and recreation. And more recently we have opened 
a room for the blind. In that room are objects which can be handled and 
which, through the codperation of the Library for the Blind, have been 
labelled in raised type. 

Second, the work done in the schools.—I refer to the circulating collec- 
tions sent out to the public schools. When the Department of Education 
of New York City placed in your hands its first syllabus of nature study, it 
made no provision to supply you with material. As a result we had numer- 
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