48 Report of the President 



1920 1921 



Circulating Collections for Libraries: 



Number of Libraries Supplied 18 17 



Number of Persons Using Collections 136,432 106,831 



Educational Work for the Blind: 



Number of Talks for Blind Children 117 125 



Attendance 1,656 1,808 



Total Number Reached by Museum Extension 



(exclusive of lantern slide service) 1,403,016 1,449,608 



A healthy organism must show growth, either along new 

 lines or in the expansion of previous activities. 



As a new departure in the circulating collections of natural 



history specimens, there have been projected some twenty small 



habitat groups of birds and other animals for the 



Circulating purpose of being lent to the schools. These cases 



* have been suggested by the large habitat groups 



which have been so popular among the perma- 

 nent exhibits in the Museum. They are to show the animals 

 in their natural surroundings, utilizing accessories and a 

 painted background, the whole group to be inclosed in glass. 

 Two of these have been finished, and one has been sent to 

 the New York Training School for Teachers, where it is 

 being thoroughly tried out by the student teachers in the 

 Model School. The report of this trial will influence us 

 strongly in the preparation of duplicates of this group and 

 in planning others. 



The food exhibits, prepared in conjunction with the De- 

 partment of Public Health of the Museum, have already 



proved their value. Since the first of March, 

 E h'b't when they were put into circulation, they have 



been used in thirty-five public schools of New 

 York and studied by 20,600 children. The food models, the 

 wooden percentage blocks, the eight charts and the handbook 

 furnish a vast amount of detailed information. Because 

 the subject matter is specialized in nature, use of the exhibits 

 is confined to certain grades in the schools, and requests are 

 not as frequent for them as for more general collections. 

 Their teaching value is so complete, however, that they are 

 retained for longer periods and studied far more intensively 

 than the others. Although they were designed primarily for 

 the domestic science classes, they are also used in general 



