Report of the Circulating Collections Loaned by the American 



Museum of Natural History to the Public Schools of 



New York City, December 1, 1903, to July 1, 1904 



By GEORGE H SHERWOOD 



Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology 



THE work of providing the public schools with collections to assist in 

 nature study, which was begun in December, 1903, has been con- 

 tinued through the school year. In this period of six months, over 

 one hundred collections have been in circulation, and have been used in 

 one hundred schools in Greater New York. They have been delivered to 

 schools in the boroughs of Manhattan, the Eronx, Brooklyn and Richmond. 

 For general information we have kept a record of the itinerary of each 

 collection, and the number of pupils that have studied it in each school. 

 These numbers are furnished by the principals over their signature. The 

 records show that our collections were studied by the following number 

 of pupils: — 



PUPILS 



D- , ( Spring 42,227 ) . 



Birds -, ^^,, ^ r \ 96,594 



I Fall .... 54,367 i ' '•'^^ 



Insects 34.071 



Molluslcs 10,870 



Minerals 10,09^ 



Crabs .... . 7,428 



Starfish 6,523 



Sponges . . 2,393 



Total 167,973 



Thus, in the six months that our collections have been in circulation 

 they have been studied by 167,973 pupils. Their usefulness is attested by 

 the many letters of thanks and appreciation which we have received from 

 teachers and pupils, with the earnest request that the Museum continue 

 this work the coming year. 



The way in which the collections have been utilized in the schools is 

 shown by the following extracts from teachers' letters: — 



In one school: "The birds were used for nature lessons, and in con- 

 nection with oral language, writing dictation, color and drawing lessons." 



From another school comes this report: 'T should say that on the 

 average, 1,000 children have observed and examined the specimens. Miss 

 O'Brien has been giving a short lecture before the school on the different 

 specimens and started with the Crustacea. Her talk is given weekly, and 

 the specimens are put right into the children's hands, and are passed so 

 each child can see for itself. She talks to eleven assembled classes, making 

 an average of about 500 or 600 children. The teachers then have short 

 compositions written in their class-rooms upon Miss O'Brien's talk, and in 



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