66 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



part of the world the advance of agriculture and commerce and the 

 spread of fire arms is rendering more scarce the objects of natural history 

 of all kinds, including the works of the primitive races of men. It is 

 deemed vitally important to push the explorations of the Museum in all 

 parts of the world, while it is still possible to secure these fast vanishing 

 works of nature and of primitive man. During the year 1908 and at the 

 present time the Museum's explorations extend to the Mackenzie River 

 and the shores of Beaufort Sea, to Alaska, Vancouver, Alberta and 

 Saskatchewan, the west coast of Hudson Bay and western Labrador; 

 in the United States parties have been spread in Wyoming, Montana, 

 Idaho, North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and Florida, also in Central 

 America, and in the south to Nicaragua, the West Indies and Bahama 

 Islands; in Asia special agents are working in Kashmir, China and 

 Corea; among the islands of the Pacific the Museum is working in the 

 Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, the South Shet- 

 land Islands and Kerguelen Island. 



Popular education has been given a stronger impulse than ever 

 before. The Museum was open free to the public every day of the year 

 and on 179 evenings. The gross attendance last year was 1,043,562, in 

 large part due to the exceptional interest in the International Tuber- 

 culosis Exhibition. The attendance at public afternoon and evening 

 lectures reached a total of 82,718. The number of children visiting the 

 Museum in lecture classes was 10,325. The number of children who 

 were especially guided through the Tuberculosis Exhibition and who 

 listened to lectures on simple means of prevention of this disease was 

 41,627. These children came from all the high schools of (Treater New 

 York and from many distant towns and cities. In the schools of the 

 city 575,801 children were reached by the system of the circulating nature 

 study collections. 



During the coming year the principal new exhibitions which will be 

 developed are, in particular, the Children's Museum, the Museum for 

 the Blind, the Philippine Exhibition and the Congo Exhibition presented 

 by King I>eopold of Belgium. The last is the most complete collection 

 outside of that which is to be seen in the Congo iNIuseum near Brussels. 

 As a result of the Tuberculosis Exhibition immediate steps will be taken 

 to make a special exhibition of the life and habits of the smaller organ- 

 isms in relation to health and disease. 



