Report of the President 43 



Statistics of Numbers Reached by the Museum 

 Extension System 



1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 



Board of Education 



Lectures 43,386 28,402 43,549 40,067 52,855 48,119 5 2 ,76i 



Lectures to School 



Children and Classes 



visiting the Museum 



for study 39,179 36,236 24,894 39,379 49,872 56,899 65,785 



Meetings of Scientific 



Societies and other 



Meetings and Lec- 

 tures 15,587 27,369 15,712 18,649 28,384 33,357 32,939 



Total 98,152 92,007 84,155 98,095 131,111 138,375 i5 I )485 



Attendance in Exhi- 

 bition Halls 945430 747,134 528,907 626,046 715,852 728,288 657,458 



Total Attendance for 

 all Purposes 1,043,582 839,141 613,152 724,141 846,963 866,663 808,943 



Numbers reached by 

 Circulating Collec- 

 tions 575,801 922,512 839,089 1,253,435 1,275,890 1,378,599 1,273.853 



Grand Total. .. . 1,619,383 1,761,653 1,452,241 1,977,576 2,122,853 2,245,262 2,082,796 



The work of the last three years in repairing and painting 



has placed the greater part of the interior of the Museum in 



ry r t-. •, «• good condition. That the work in many 



Care of Building & , , J 



cases was greatly needed was only too 



apparent, some of the halls and rooms not having been 

 touched since their completion eight or ten years ago. The 

 painting of the West Corridor has added greatly to the appear- 

 ance of the Audubon collections therein installed, and it is 

 hoped during the coming year to improve and paint the East 

 Corridor. Many fail to realize the effect on visitors of the 

 general aspect and material condition of exhibition halls. 

 These, as well as the exhibits, should be cared for and made 

 attractive. The intrinsic value of a series of specimens hung 

 up in a barn would be just as fgreat as if they were arranged 

 in proper cases in an attractive hall, but their effect and edu- 

 cational value to the visitor would not be one-tenth as great. 



An illustration of this, may be had from our own halls where 

 the improvement in the installation ofZthe Indian collections 

 has caused increased attention on the part of the visitors, led 

 to more careful reading of the labels and elicited frequent 

 words of approval regarding the appearance of the collections. 



A large, one might almost say the larger part of the 

 value of exhibits is not in quantity but in quality and methods 

 of display. Mere quantity tends to discourage rather than 



