Vol. VI] EVERMANN— DIRECTOR'S REPORT FOR 1916 235 



office upstairs. These we propose to loan to the pubHc schools should they 

 desire them. 



It is hoped that the necessary funds for these exhibits may be supplied 

 by private donations, so that the net regular income of the Academy may 

 be reserved chiefly for scientific research. The large groups cost from 

 $3,000 to $4,000 ; the small groups about $500 each ; and the portable educa- 

 tional groups about $100 to $250 each. 



It is hoped that this opportunity to do something worth while may appeal 

 to those who are interested in education and who have the means to help 

 along in such excellent work. What a splendid thing it would be for San 

 Francisco and the state if, among those present here today, there might be 

 some so impressed with the opportunity to help in this good work that they 

 would provide the means to enable the Academy to add a dozen or more 

 groups to the excellent series so well begun. We have the expert taxider- 

 mists and preparators to do the work ; we need only the funds to meet the 

 expense. 



In conclusion, may I be permitted to mention one other need of the 

 museum, to which I have called attention on another occasion. 



It is my ambition that there shall be in this museum a Children's Room 

 — a room in which will be displayed natural history objects such as are 

 particularly attractive to little children. There would be in this room 

 brightly and curiously colored birds and butterflies, moths and beetles and 

 other insects; curious animals of other groups; attractive minerals, grow- 

 ing plants, and aquariums with interesting and instructive animal and plant 

 life; colored transparencies of beautiful native flowers, all selected and 

 arranged with reference to the telling of an interesting story, of teaching 

 a definite lesson. 



And there will be in this children's room a children's reading room in 

 which will be found a library of all the interesting and reliable nature 

 books and helps to nature study. 



And there will be in charge of this children's room a well-educated, 

 kindly, sympathetic man or woman who knows animals and plants ; who 

 knows the specimens in the museum and the live things in the park about 

 it ; and who, above all, knows and loves children ; a man or woman who 

 can wisely direct the observation and the reading of the children so that 

 they may correlate their reading with what they have seen in the museum 

 or in the open, and thus increase rather than stifle their interest in, and 

 love for, animate things, as our public schools almost invariably do. It will 

 be arranged so that children of the difi^erent grades will come to this room 

 at different hours, and receive the instruction and help and encouragement 

 adapted to their respective needs. 



And all this will be done and done soon, I confidently believe. It will 

 be done because it so evidently appeals to us all as being the right thing 

 to do, the right sort of education and training to give our children. It will 

 be done, because the beauty and worth of it all, for the little children's 

 sake, will appeal to some one who has prospered in this world ; some one 

 with a kindly heart, who loves children, and who wants to help them to 

 become the men and women they should become ; and some day that man 



