Public Education 51 



REPORTS OF THE CURATORS 



PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE MUSEUM 

 AND IN THE SCHOOLS* 



George H. Sherwood, Curator 



The public educational work of the Museum may be sepa- 

 rated into three major divisions : 



Museum Extension to the Schools 

 Natural History Teaching in the Museum 

 The Photographic Work of the Museum 



The extent of this practical educational work can be most 

 effectively shown by citing the statistical summary of the work 

 of the Department of Public Education for the year 1917. 



The Circulating Nature Study Collections, 712 in all, have 

 been in use in 446 schools, in which 1,075,076 children have had 

 an opportunity to study them. 



The lending of lantern slides, undertaken through special 

 arrangement with the Department of Education of New York 

 City, has had an astonishing development. The number of 

 loans to public schools has increased from 491 to 935, while the 

 number of slides circulated has risen from 38,912 in 1916 to 

 63,111 in 1917. 



To pupils of the public schools, 103 lectures have been given 

 by members of the staff, at which a total of 79,323 children 

 were present. Of this number 40,798 came to the Museum, 

 while in the case of the remaining 38,525, the lectures were 

 taken to them in the schools. 



The instruction for the blind included 31 lessons to blind 

 children from the public schools with a total attendance of 345. 



The special collections for libraries were exhibited in 9 

 branches of the New York Public Library and were studied by 

 29,380 people. 



Under the Department of Public Education (see also pages 19, 25 and 185). 



