40 Report of the President 



of Coronation Gulf and Vicinity." The programs of previous 

 years had presented material and information regarding the 

 work in the Museum and its relation to the schools. The 

 particular theme of this year's program was the relation of the 

 Museum's explorations to the work of teachers, this being 

 concretely illustrated by Mr. Stefansson's discoveries in the 

 North. There were about 700 teachers present and many 

 expressed themselves as having spent a profitable and enjoy- 

 able afternoon at the Museum. 



On May 17, the Curator represented the Museum at a 

 meeting of the Committee on School Inquiry of the Board of 

 Estimate and Apportionment, of which John Purroy Mitchel, 

 President of the Board of Aldermen, is Chairman. The 

 purpose of the meeting was to discuss the coordination of the 

 various agencies in the City which were prepared to cooperate 

 with the public educational system. The Curator outlined 

 briefly the relation of the Museum to the schools. 



The department was represented at the meetings of the 

 British Museums Association, held in Dublin in July, by 

 Director Lucas, who presented a paper on the educational 

 work of the Museum. 



The educational methods of the Museum continue to 

 receive attention from educators at home and abroad. In 

 April the Imperial German Commission visited the Museum 

 for the express purpose of studying our methods, and more 

 recently Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, Superintendent of Schools of 

 Chicago, and a Committee from the Chicago Board of Educa- 

 tion made a critical examination of the work of the depart- 

 ment with a view to introducing similar methods in the 

 Chicago schools. 



Museum Extension to the Schools and Libraries. — It 

 is probable that no branch of the department's work is more 

 practical or exerts a wider influence than the circulating 

 collections. Through them, nature study material is placed 

 in the hands of the teachers in the class rooms, and many 

 thousands of pupils come in direct contact with it. The 

 collections contain material referred to in the syllabus of 

 nature study, and were originally prepared with such care that 



