Report of the President. 27 



deepening the interest of the teachers and pupils of the New 

 York schools in the collections of the Museum and the wide 

 range of subjects which they represent. With the opening of 

 the public schools in the fall of the past year the Museum was 

 prepared to loan the small sets of natural history specimens 

 mentioned in the Annual Report for the year 1903. Soon 

 after registration was completed applications from the teach- 

 ers began to come in for the use of the collections. Few of 

 the schools which had formerly used the collections applied, 

 and later it was learned that, through some misunderstanding, 

 it was thought that the Museum would send the collections 

 without application. An announcement, giving the conditions 

 on which the collections would be loaned, was prepared and 

 sent to all the Manhattan schools. There was an immediate 

 demand for the collections, and by the end of December one 

 hundred and twenty sets were in use in the city. During the 

 fall these have been studied by 40,000 children. To meet the 

 needs of the schools twenty sets of common woods have been 

 prepared. The birds prove to be the most popular with the 

 children, the insects coming next, then the minerals and 

 woods. In fact, the requests for birds and insects are so 

 numerous that it will be necessary to procure additional sets 

 as soon as possible. The circulating collections have now 

 been in use for a year and during that time have been studied 

 by more than 250,000 children. 



During October, November and December members of the 

 scientific staff gave a series of informal lectures for school- 

 children. The course was arranged at the request of the 

 New York City Teachers' Association, and the subjects were 

 selected by the Committee on Children's Interests of the 

 Association, with the purpose of supplementing the regular 

 school work as outlined in the syllabus issued by the Board of 

 Education. The hour selected — Monday, Wednesday and 

 Friday afternoons at four o'clock — permitted pupils to attend in 

 classes accompanied by their teachers. There were twelve 

 lectures, each of which was delivered three times. A circular 

 was prepared, announcing the lectures and the conditions on 

 which seats would be reserved. These circulars, together 



