54 Report of the President 



material and information. The collections are lent for a 



month or two months, and are delivered and transferred by 



the Museum messenger. According to statistics 



Collections furnished by the librarians, these have been 



for Public studied in 1918 by 1,774 adults and 25,490 chil- 



Libraries 1 



dren. 



In further cooperation with the libraries, on January 16 



Miss Thomas gave her lecture, "In the Land of Hiawatha," 



at the Hamilton Grange Library to two hundred children. 



A series of ten talks was given in the Museum to the sight 

 conservation classes from the public schools of Greater New 

 York and of Jersey City and Newark, New 

 Educational Jersey. These were given separately for each 

 the Blind class that asked for them, and twelve classes 



availed themselves of the opportunity of a part 

 or all of them. The subjects treated embraced geography, 

 elementary astronomy, men of the old stone age, industries, 

 animals, and wild flowers. Every lesson was illustrated by 

 means of a simple apparatus or specimens which every child 

 had the opportunity of "seeing with his fingers." The classes 

 are small, most of them less than a dozen pupils, so that indi- 

 vidual teaching is practicable. 



For use in these classes, there has recently been added to 

 the equipment an apparatus called the "Uranisphere," which 

 is especially adapted for teaching elementary astronomy and 

 physical geography, — such phenomena as phases of the moon, 

 eclipses of the sun and moon, change of seasons, causes of dry 

 and rainy seasons, etc. The equipment and the running ex- 

 penses of this work are provided for by the Jonathan Thorne 

 Memorial Fund. 



There has been more photographic work than could be done 



by the two Museum photographers, and during the latter half 



of the year one of these men was in the army 



Photographic engaged in photographic work in the Signal 



Corps. 



During the year the following work was done by the Museum 



photographers : 



