io6 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



still unaware of the existence of the museum, and many others 

 have not taken the trouble to visit it. Every opportunity should 

 therefore be welcomed of expanding our activities beyond the 

 four walls of the museum if the latter is to continue a vital factor 

 in the educational life of the community. 



The school lectures delivered at the museum have been supple- 

 mented by additional ones at the high school and at some of the 

 more remote grammar schools ; but attendance at these lectures 

 has been largely confined to children under twelve, and the prob- 

 lem of winning the interest of older children, especially of the 

 older boys, has long demanded serious consideration. A course 

 of unusual excellence was arranged last fall exclusively for high 

 school students, and several curators from the New York and 

 Brooklyn museums generously offered their services ; but the 

 attendance was so small that the course had to be abandoned after 

 the third lecture, and it was just at this time that the museum 

 troop of scouts was organized. It seemed reasonable to assume 

 that as the minimum age for a scout is twelve years, and as most 

 of these boys were therefore in the high school, the troop would 

 form the center of attraction for which we had been seeking. The 

 problem was therefore in the first instance to make the museum 

 useful to the scouts, and if this could be accomplished they could 

 scarcely fail to help the museum. 



There is a large stable on our grounds, which was remodelled 

 last year by means of a city appropriation obtained for that pur- 

 pose, so as to provide a carpentry shop and storage room on the 

 first floor with a large loft above. Permission was obtained from 

 the trustees of the Association for the troop to use this loft as 

 headquarters for play, and to hold their regular bimonthly meet- 

 ings in the assembly hall of the museum. They were also allowed 

 to use the carpentry shop and tools under certain restrictions, and 

 it was not long before they had built themselves lockers and some 

 crude but serviceable gymnasium apparatus. As a natural result 

 of these inducements, the scoutmaster was soon besieged with ap- 

 plications for admission. It was not our policy, and still less is it 



