Report of the President 



GENERAL PROGRESS 



The chief internal work of the year 1914, under Director 

 Lucas, has been the refinement in decoration, methods of ex- 

 hibition and labeling in many of the large exhibition halls, 

 especially the Peruvian Hall, the Indians of the Southwest, 

 the Indians of the Woodlands, the Forestry and Darwin Halls. 

 The additions to the collections, while less spectacular than in 

 some previous years, reveal a normal growth and represent 

 very careful selection. Exploration and publication, the two 

 indices of the research activity of the Museum, compare 

 favorably with any previous year, while the progress of the 

 educational work is reflected both in the improvement and 

 labeling of the exhibits, and in the broad plans developed 

 for Museum extension to the public schools. 



The rapid extension of our system of public education 



affords the best evidence of the fact that in administering the 



_ , ,. institution the Trustees are guided rather by the 



Public 



• „ . spirit than the letter of the Contract with the 



Education J. TTT . , , . , r , _ 



City. With this number of the Report is issued 



a special map showing the extent to which the Museum 

 cooperated with the public schools in the year 1914. The 

 circulation of the nature study collections to 451 of the public 

 schools, the giving of special lectures to school children, to 

 supplement their class-room work in geography, history and 

 natural science, and the provision for instruction to the blind 

 are all educational features of the Museum's work which are 

 not specified in our Contract with the City and which have 

 been carried, on for the past ten years without specific appro- 

 priations by either the City or State. 



In order to reach certain densely populated portions of the 

 city where the people are without the means of sending their 



_ , _, children to the Museum, a plan was for- 



Proposed Museum , , , * • „, , , 



_ . , mulated by Curator Sherwood for the 



Extension to the . . . ,,'.,« 



_ , ,. „ , , further extension of our public school 



Public Schools _ u . * 



work. Ine plan included three fea- 

 tures: first, the establishment of a series of Local Lecture 



