760 



VISUAL INSTRUCTION. 



Plattsburg, Port Chester, Port Jervis, Saratoga 

 Springs, Seneca Falls, Sing Sing, Tonawanda, 

 Waterford, and White Plains. About 26,000 

 stereopticon slides are furnished by the museum 

 each year to these cities and towns in the State 

 of New York, and with each set of views is sent 

 a copy of Prof. Bickmore's lecture on that 

 subject. 



Slides for Other States. Arrangements are 

 now perfected whereby the museum will send the 

 slides and lectures to the State superintendents of 

 other States and to Canada, at a nominal charge 

 to cover tlic cost of manufacture and delivery, 

 under these restrictions, as stated in the circular 

 letter: 



" We are not dealers in slides, but we are de- 

 sirous of promoting free public education 

 throughout our land by means of illustrated 

 teaching; and the State Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction of the State of New York, under 

 whose auspices our entire system is carried on, 

 has given us authority to supply, as a matter of 

 interstate courtesy, the superintendent of public 

 instruction of each other commonwealth with 

 one series, and no more, of our slides at cost, after 

 we have finished the work which is required of 

 us by the statutes of our own State. We do not 

 keep a stock of slides on hand, but fill each order 

 separately; hence considerable time must elapse 

 before a shipment can be made, and we can only 



THE JE8UP COLLECTION OP NORTH AMERICAN WOODS. 



undertake the preparation of such illustrations 

 between May 1 and Sept. 1. Each lecture is sold 

 complete, and not a selection of slides therefrom." 



The New York State Superintendent's restric- 

 tions on the use of this visual instruction ma- 

 terial are: " In no case shall the use of said ap- 

 paratus he permitted at any lecture where an ad- 

 ini>sioii fee shall be charged, or which shall be 

 given in connection with any other entertainment 

 of any nature, or for the benefit of any private 

 school, church. Sunday school, hospital, or apy 

 purpose not connected with the free common 

 schools of the State. No copies in any form may 

 be made from our manuscripts or slides." 



The Purpose in New York State. It is 

 known that in the year I'lOl a Pan-American Ex- 

 position will be held at Buffalo, N. Y. That this 

 exhibition of the material and intellectual prog- 

 of the North and South Americas may be 

 duly appreciated, Prof. Hickmorc. in 1900, pre- 

 pared a series of three lectures on the scenery 

 and natural resources of South America. These 



lectures will be repeated many times at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and in all 

 the educational centers of the State of New York. 

 In this way the people will become familiar with 

 coming events, and will be educated up to a point 

 where they may derive the greatest benefit from 

 the exposition. 



For the Kinderg-arten. One of the most 

 beautiful lectures ever " prepared by Prof. Bick- 

 more is for the kindergarten. It consists of 24 

 views of natural objects seen in the country 

 as boys riding on horseback, children of a dis- 

 trict school at recess, driving the cows, gathering 

 apples, etc.; 24 pictures of buildings and street 

 scenes in the city; and 24 views of the seashore 

 lighthouse, sailing vessel, waves, etc. Each view 

 is explained by a children's song, or in such words 

 as are familiar to children. This lecture has 

 demonstrated that visual instruction is as valu- 

 able for children as for their parents. 



A Gold Medal. At the Exposition of Paris 

 in 1900 an exhibit was made by Prof. Bickmore, 

 representing conjointly the American Museum of 

 Natural History and the Department of Public 

 Instruction of the State of New York, of the 

 slides and general methods of visual instruction 

 as carried on in New York State, and showing 

 the wide system of free public education. The 

 International Jury of Fifteen, eleven of whom 

 were Frenchmen, unanimously awarded to the 

 lecture department of the 

 museum a gold medal, the 

 museum having outstripped 

 all competitors in the excel- 

 lence of its exhibit of colored 

 slides and in the perfection 

 of its system of educational 

 work. While in Paris, Prof. 

 Bickmore, at the request of 

 the Ecole Internationale, gave 

 three illustrated lectures on 

 the United States and their 

 dependencies at its annual 

 meeting. So highly was his 

 work appreciated that he was 

 invited to attend the next 

 annual meeting of the Ecole 

 Internationale in 1901. to be 

 held at the International Ex- 

 position in Glasgow, Scot- 

 land, and give a series of 

 lectures, and then repeat 

 them in the principal cities 

 from Glasgow to London, 

 that the British public might 



become acquainted with the latest phase of visual 

 instruction in the New World. Mr. W. !'. Stead, 

 of the Review of Reviews, London, commended 

 the American Museum's system of visual instruc- 

 tion, and showed the demand for it in England 

 and throughout the English-speaking colonie-. 

 The system will soon be introduced into Madras, 

 southern India, whence it will probably spread 

 through the peninsula. 



In the City of New York. For the season of 

 1899-1900 the school authorities of the city of 

 New York appropriated $100,000 to be expended 

 under the supervision of Dr. Henry M. Leipxiger 

 for free public lectures for the people. Two thou- 

 sand lectures were given at various educational 

 centers in the boroughs of Manhattan and the 

 I'.ronx. These lecture centers are all fitted out 

 with lanterns and screens and all the necessary 

 apparatus for visual instruction. A count of the 

 people present at each lecture shows that f>f>0.000 

 persons availed themselves of the privilege of this 

 system of education; and the lectures included 



