126 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



March 19, 1915, brought a total attendance of 1,703, or an average of 89 for 

 each lecture. On several occasions the seating capacity of the room was 

 inadequate and many children had to be turned avi^ay. A pleasing incident 

 occurred in connection with the final lecture scheduled, on which occasion 

 the children, on their own initiative, prepared and signed a petition for 

 another, which was subsequently arranged for and given to an audience 

 of 92. When it is borne in mind that the attendance at these lectures is 

 entirely voluntary on the part of the children, and that only those of the 

 fourth grade and upward are admitted, the results are encouraging and 

 significant. These results, however, could not have been achieved but for 

 the cordial cooperation of the following friends of our museum who gen- 

 erously gave their services : Miss Mary D. Lee, assistant curator in the 

 Children's Museum of the Brooklyn Institute, who exchanged lectures with 

 our curator, Mr. Cleaves ; Mr. Robert C. Murphy, curator in the Central 

 Museum of the Brooklyn Institute; Mr. Joseph L. B. McMahon, Mr. 

 Dwight Franklin, and Mr. Alanson Skinner. 



Complete statistics of lectures, subjects and attendance are given in the 

 appendix. 



A further extension work, if possible, should be made to include brief 

 nature talks for younger children and such assistance as might be ren- 

 dered in connection with the regular high school course in biology. 



Museum Extension Activities 



In addition to the work prosecuted within the Museum building, the 

 members of the museum staff have been active in many ways directly and 

 indirectly concerned with the development of the museum. The director, 

 largely through the cooperation and assistance of Dr. N. L. and Mr. R. H. 

 Britton, was able to prosecute important field work on and in the vicinity 

 of Staten Island from time to time, and to collect many interesting speci- 

 mens for the museum. A day or half a day now and then was also spent, 

 with Mr. Cleaves, in photographing local features of scientific and historic 

 interest. The director also attended the Philadelphia meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Botanical So- 

 ciety of America, the Geological Society of America and the Paleontolog- 

 ical Society of America, during Convocation Week last winter, and utilized 

 a part of his vacation time at the United States National Museum, on 

 work connected with the United States Geological Survey, which will 

 result in bringing in much needed material to our museum collections 

 whenever we may be in a position to receive it. It was also the privilege 

 of the director to lecture, on February 26, 1914, before the Buffalo Society 

 of Natural Science, on the subject " Eleven Hundred Miles by Canoe down 

 the Yukon River," and on March 6, before the Deems Literary Society of 

 Westcrlcigh, Staten Island, on the subject "A Trip through the Dismal 

 Swamp of Virginia." Whenever time permitted research work was prose- 

 cuted at the New York Botanical Garden, and occasional visits were made 



