Museum Extension Work with Boy Scouts^ 



Charles Louis Pollard 



During a conversation held one day with a boy visitor to our 

 museum the work of the Boy Scouts of America came under dis- 

 cussion, and the suggestion was made, half jokingly, that it might 

 be a good plan to organize a troop in connection with the museum, 

 with the curator-in-chief as scoutmaster. The idea was received 

 with such unexpected enthusiasm that several boys presented 

 themselves for admission as tenderfeet even before the scout- 

 master had received his commission. Finally, on November 25, 

 1912, the 138th New York troop, known locally as the First St. 

 George, or more familiarly as the " museum troop " was duly 

 organized, with a membership of six scouts. 



In the course of his educational work the writer had long been 

 interested in the progress of the scout organization and was in 

 thorough sympathy with its aims and principles, although not well 

 acquainted with the details of its administration. A careful study 

 of the official handbook published by the Boy Scouts of America, 

 however, indicated that a scoutmaster's requirements might be 

 considered as within the capabilities of a museum curator. It 

 also revealed the fact that scout work held unforeseen possibilities 

 in the line of museum extension. 



The Staten Island public museum has hitherto confined its ex- 

 tension work to school lecture courses. We have lacked the 

 means and the facilities for developing the travelling collections 

 that have proved so instructive elsewhere; nor has there been 

 sufficient demand for class instruction to warrant the establish- 

 ment of a system of docentry. The population of our island is 

 the smallest of New York's five boroughs ; yet it is scattered over 

 a territory much larger than Manhattan. Many of our people are 



1 Presented at the meeting of the Association, April 19, 1913. 



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