VISUAL INSTRUCTION. 



759 



which Mr. Morris K. Jesup is president of the 

 Board of Trustees, and which is located at Sev- 

 enty-seventh Street and Central Park West, where 

 this method of public instruction has attained its 

 highest perfection under the direction of Albert S. 

 Bickmore, A. M., Ph. D. In 1882 Prof. Bickmore 

 began his work in visual education by means of il- 

 lustrated lectures in a single room at the 'museum, 

 before an audience of 28 persons, mostly school- 

 teachers. In 1884 his subjects illustrated were 

 the skeleton, muscular system, arteries and veins, 

 nervous system, digestion, respiration, hygiene, 

 granites and sandstones, limestones and marbles, 

 evergreen trees (pine, spruce, cedar), deciduous 

 trees (oak, elm, and maple). In 1885 two rooms 

 were necessary to accommodate the growing 

 classes. Then Chickering Hall, at Eighteenth 

 Street and Fifth Avenue, was filled, and shortly 

 afterward a hall at the museum, accommodating 

 about 1,000 persons, was fitted up with all the 

 appliances necessary for the presentation of illus- 

 trated lectures in a form as nearly perfect as could 

 be conceived of at that time. The desire of the 

 teachers and general students to get the benefit 

 of this visual instruction became so great that for 

 several years each new lecture has been repeated 

 four times to entirely different audiences. 



Within the last year there has been completed 

 and dedicated at the museum a new hall, the 

 most complete in the world devoted entirely to 

 visual instruction. It will accommodate 1,366 

 persons with chairs. It is so arranged as to 

 double screens, galleries, and auditorium that 

 each listener may have a direct view of both pic- 

 tures on the screens at the same time. 



The museum gives its instruction under the 

 auspices of the Department of Public Instruc- 

 tion of the State of New York. The pro- 

 visions for 1900, passed in 1895 and 1899 were: 

 An act to provide that additional facilities 

 for free instruction in natural hitsory, geogra- 

 phy, and kindred subjects, by means of pic- 

 torial representation and lectures, may be fur- 

 nished to the free common schools of each city 

 and village of the State 

 that has, or may have, 

 a superintendent of free 

 common schools. In sec- 

 tion 1 the State Super- 

 intendent of Public In- 

 struction was author- 

 ized to furnish the facil- 

 ities called for by this 

 act. The local school 

 authorities are allowed 

 to " cause the aforesaid 

 illustrated lectures to 

 be repeated to their arti- 

 sans, mechanics, and 

 other citizens on the 

 legal holidays and at 

 other times. Any in- 

 stitution instructing a 

 teachers' training class, 

 or any union free school, 

 may have the free use 

 of the apparatus upon 



payment to the Superintendent of Schools, 

 loaning the same, the necessary expenses in- 

 curred in such vise, or injury to said prop- 

 erty.'' In section 2 an annual report of each 

 school superintendent to the Department of Public 

 Instruction is made necessary, containing a full 

 statement of the extent to which the prescribed 

 instruction has been given, with the usefulness of 

 the same. In section 3 the sum of $38.000 was 

 appropriated for the support and maintenance of 



said instruction for the year beginning Oct. 1, 



1900. In section 4 the State Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction was authorized to permit the 

 sale of the slides for illustrative teaching to such 

 educational institutions of the State as give free 

 instruction to their pupils. The slides are sold at 

 the cost of manufacture. 



Subjects Treated. Under similar previous 

 statutes, up to the close of 1900, 354 lectures had 

 been given, covering 187 different subjects, the 

 slides having been furnished to the State normal 

 schools, to the conductors of teachers' institutes, 

 to the office of the Department of Public Instruc- 

 tion at Albany, and to the several cities and 

 towns. These lectures concerned the following 

 subjects: Human anatomy and physiology; 

 building and ornamental stones; physical geog- 

 raphy; birds, fishes, reptiles; geography and eth- 

 nology; astronomy, the sun, moon, and tides; 

 gold, silver, and iron; planets, the earth; geology, 

 botany, forestry; Columbian Exposition; tea, cof- 

 fee, and sugar; useful minerals; coal and oil; 

 foods. From the above-mentioned lectures a com- 

 mittee, representing the Council of School Super- 

 intendents of the State of New York, have made 

 their selection. The subjects chosen for 1899-1900 

 were: Luzon and Manila, the Visayas and Sulus, 

 the Hawaiian Islands, and Alaska; and for 1900- 



1901, Exposition of Paris in 1900, Paris and South 

 America. 



Prof. Bickmore often travels thousands of 

 miles at his own expense to secure the mate- 

 rials for one lecture. He is usually accom- 

 panied by an expert photographer, who takes 

 many pictures of every important place and ob- 

 ject of interest. The best negatives are then se- 

 lected, and 72 slides are prepared for one lec- 

 ture; 85 sets of these slides are then made, and 

 a full set is sent to the following educational 

 centers: Albany, Amsterdam, Auburn, Bingham- 

 ton, Buffalo, Cohoes, Corning, Cortland, Dunkirk, 

 Elmira, Geneva, Gloversville, Hornellsville, Hud- 

 son, Ithaca, Jamestown, Johnstown, Kingston, 

 Little Falls, Lockport, Middletown, Mount Ver- 



HALL OF PALAEONTOLOGY. 



I 



non. Newburgh, New Rochelle. to each of the 

 boroughs of New York city. Niagara Falls, North 

 Tonawanda, Ogdensburg. Olean, Oswego, Pough- 

 keepsie, Rensselaer, Rochester. Rome, Schenec- 

 tady, Syracuse, Troy, Utica. Watcrtown. Water- 

 vliet, and Yonkers. besides the villages of Albion, 

 Batavia. Canandaigua, Catskill. Glens Falls, 

 Haverstraw. ITerkimer. Hoosick Falls. Ilion, Lan- 

 singburg, Malone, Mechanicsville. Medina, Nor- 

 wich, Nyack,Oneonta,Owego, Peekskill, Penn Yan, 





