Report of the President 47 



II. REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENTS 



PUBLIC EDUCATION 

 Department of Public Education 



George H. Sherwood, Curator 



The activities of the Department of Public Education may 

 be separated into two major divisions : 



Museum Extension to the Schools, 



The Photographic Work of the Museum. 



In both these divisions there is a vast amount of time-con- 

 suming routine work which necessarily must be duplicated 

 annually. The summary of the work for the year 1916, how- 

 ever, reveals substantial progress in all lines, enabling the 

 Museum to maintain its present position as a factor in public 

 education. 



In its relations with the public schools, the department has 

 broadened its activities by coming in contact with a larger num- 

 ber of teachers, by the improvement of its methods of instruct- 

 ing children, and by cooperation with teachers' training schools 

 and with universities. There are certain features of the work 

 which stand out as indicative of this expansion. Among these, 

 special mention may be made of the participation in the enter- 

 tainment of the National Education Association, which met in 

 New York City in July; the publication of the first part of a 

 Teachers' Handbook to the Exhibitions and Collections in The 

 American Museum of Natural History ; the preparation of an 

 exhibit illustrating the Museum's educational activities, and the 

 part taken in the Teachers' Institute which was organized prior 

 to the opening of the schools in September. 



The broad scope of the Museum's educational work is fur- 

 ther illustrated by the following summary of the statistics for 

 1916: 



