DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND 

 ETHNOLOGY. 



[Under the charge of Prof. A. S. Bickmore.] 



In accordance with the contract between the State Department 

 of Public Instruction and the Museum, for providing free instruc- 

 tion to the teachers of the common schools and to the Normal 

 Schools of the State, I have prepared and delivered twenty- 

 lectures in this city, and have visited and lectured at each of the 

 Normal Schools. 



The large attendance upon the lectures describing the coun- 

 tries I had visited last summer induced me to go again to Europe, 

 at my own personal expense, and travel throughout Egypt, 

 Palestine, Turkey, Greece and Italy ; and in order to gain per- 

 sonal experience for future lectures, I journeyed throughout 

 Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Southern Norway and 

 Scotland, and arrived in New York after an absence of six 

 months. 



As the small lecture room at the Museum is only calculated to 

 seat two hundred and seventy-five persons, and only one hundred 

 more can be crowded into it, the Trustees hired Chickering Hall 

 for the autumn course of lectures upon the following countries, 

 viz : Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Scotland, India, 

 China, Japan and the Pacific Islands. This hall, after reserving 

 space for the apparatus, contained eleven hundred and ninety-six 

 seats. The largest number present was 1,430, and the average 

 attendance 1,329, so that 133 persons on an average had to stand 

 or sit on the steps of the aisles at every lecture. 



This is the only series of ten lectures in the whole course of 

 eighty, extending over four years, that could have been delivered 

 outside the walls of the Museum, for the reason that this instruc- 

 tion to teachers, to be by them repeated to their pupils, must be 

 illustrated not only by photographic views of specimens, but 

 must be immediately followed by a careful examination of the 

 costly collections on exhibition in our halls. 



The growth of the attendance upon the instruction given by 

 this department is shown by the following statement of the 

 number present at the opening lectures of the Autumn Courses 

 for the past four years, viz : 



October 18, 1884, 221 



10, 1885, . 324 



16, 1886, 358 



8, 1887, 1,285 



The largest number present previous to the beginning of the 

 course just finished was 504, and the sudden increase from this 

 figure to an average attendance of 1,329 is a gratifying proof of 



