TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



To the Trustees of the America?! Museum of Natural History of 

 the City of New York : 



I have the pleasure to submit herewith my Annual Report for 

 the year ending December 31, 1896. 



Department of Public Instruction. — In the last report 

 mention was made of the important growth of the lecture system 

 of the Museum. Pleasing as was the progress made in 1895, ^ 

 gives me sincere pleasure to note a great increase of public inter- 

 est during 1896. Prof. Albert S. Bickmore, the Curator in 

 charge, gave the usual courses of lectures on Saturdays to the 

 teachers of the public schools of this city and Brooklyn, and 

 visited the normal schools throughout the State, in compliance 

 with the provisions of the contract with the State Superintendent 

 of Public Instruction. The large audiences in attendance at the 

 lectures Saturday mornings necessitated repeating each lecture, 

 forming two courses, known as Sections A and B. Professor 

 Bickmore also gave the usual number of free lectures to the public 

 on New Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, Thanksgiving Day 

 and Christmas, and a Spring and Autumn course of four lectures 

 each to the members of the Museum. Under the terms of Chap- 

 ter 362 of the Laws of 1895, the Curator, by the joint agreement 

 of the Trustees and the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion, arranged and directed the system for providing the common 

 schools of the larger cities of the State with the apparatus and 

 lantern slides requisite for the repetition of the lectures delivered 

 at the Museum to the teachers of the public schools. Attention 

 is directed to the map appended to this report, which shows the 

 places in this State where the lectures are repeated. The 

 Museum also furnished for the use of the Curator a suitable room 

 for the instruction of school superintendents in the use of the 



