APRIL 5, 1912] 
emy’s influence as a source of inspiration 
and encouragement. 
The celebration of the one hundredth 
anniversary of the institution which had 
produced such a marked effect on the prog- 
ress of science in America finished with the 
singing of ‘‘Auld Lang Syne,”’ the depart- 
ing guests sympathizing with those who 
were unable to participate in the hearty 
and genial conclusion of a program which 
was unanimously declared to be a complete 
success. 
THE MISUSE OF LANTERN ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS BY MUSEUM LECTURERS* 
Tux illustrated lecture has long been a very 
prominent feature of the educational and 
scientific work of the public museums of this 
city. It has long been a feature of the meet- 
ings of clubs and societies of all kinds, not so 
much for instruction as for popular entertain- 
ment. 
So general is the use of lantern illustra- 
tions at all sorts of gatherings, that it has be- 
come commonplace. It is necessary for the 
legion of lecturers who employ them to pro- 
cure better, and yet better pictures, to make 
their performances attractive. We appear to 
be in the midst of a great rivalry as to who 
can make the finest pictorial display, and any- 
body, apparently, may occupy the platform. 
At a recent meeting of ornithologists in 
Philadelphia, I sat for many hours watching 
a continuous performance of stereopticon lec- 
turers. Some of them did their parts remark- 
ably well, but the three-days meeting was 
manifestly, although unconsciously, a lantern- 
slide competition. During the intermissions, 
the audience, composed chiefly of professional 
ornithologists, talked almost entirely of the 
admirable pictures that had been shown, ma- 
king animated comparisons of the success 
achieved by this or that photographer. 
There have come among us hosts of skilful 
photographers or enthusiastic travelers, back 
1Part of a paper read at a meeting of curators 
of the public museums of New York, December 
19, 1911. 
SCIENCE 
529 
from hasty trips to Zufii or East Africa, 
ready to exhibit the best of pictures, to any 
kind of an audience that they can get, and 
to talk more or less amusingly while doing so. 
Many of these so-called lecturers are suc- 
cessful enough, and audiences are forthcom- 
ing anywhere from the Museum of Natural 
History to the Suburban Entertainment Club. 
Even Peary’s colored cook is doing a rattling 
lecture business with his master’s slides. 
Good pictures are dangerous in the wrong 
hands. Imagine a dull and dreary talker, still 
talking in public if he were deprived of lan- 
tern slides. 
The use of lantern slides should be on a 
safer basis. They should not only be reduced 
in number, but be partially replaced with 
something more intellectual. 
There could be no objection to lantern pic- 
tures as an inexpensive form of entertain- 
ment, if it were understood to be chiefly for 
entertainment, but when a fine collection of 
pictures of the Grand Cafion, accompanied by 
the talk of a mere traveler, is announced as a 
lecture on geology, it is a sign that we are 
losing our powers of discrimination. 
When some superb pictures of Indian habi- 
tations on the table-lands of the southwest 
are described by a mere photographer engaged 
in making money out of the lantern slides, 
shall the authorities of the great museum allow 
the performance to be advertised as a lecture 
on ethnology? The City Bureau of Free Lec- 
tures employs a legion of lantern slide lec- 
turers on travel, some of whom doubtless 
have never visited the lands they describe in 
glowing terms. There are art lecturers in 
this city showing colored photographs of the 
great paintings of Europe, who have never 
seen the originals. I am not undertaking to 
condemn the work of the free lecture bureau. 
It doubtless affords thousands of people en- 
tertainment that is wholesome and not with- 
out instruction. 
Some of the lecturers make a specialty of 
describing the wonders of the Art Museum, 
or the Aquarium, and I personally shouldn’t 
care to lose that much free advertising for 
my own institution. No doubt the pictures 
