126 



PURPOSES OF MUSEUMS 



While the American Museum of Natural History cannot claim to 

 have originated the idea of displaying animals amid their natural sur- 

 roundings, it was the first large museum in this country to adopt this 

 method which it has since carried out on a large scale in (see Reprint 

 "The Story of Museum Groups") the well-known habitat groups. How 

 it has been developed the visitor may judge by comparing the group of 

 Robins with the great Florida Group and the Hopi Group. 



In the Museum were also developed the methods of preparing and 

 mounting the skeletons of extinct animals that have resulted in such 

 mounts as Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, and the series showing 

 the development of the horse, so that they might be something more 

 than an assemblage of uninteresting bones. 



The Museum not only maintains exhibits "for the edification of the 

 public," but supplements the educational work performed by these 

 How These and their accompanying labels by lectures and publications 

 Purposes Are of a popular nature. A course of evening lectures is given 

 every Spring and Fall for the Members, to which admission 

 is to be had by ticket; also courses of Science Stories are 

 given on Saturday mornings for the children of members. 

 Another series of lectures, free to the public, is given in con- 

 junction with the Board of Education on Tuesday and Saturday 

 evenings. Still another series, under the direction of the Museum's 

 Department of Public Education, is given for the children in the 

 Public Schools, and there are special lectures for the blind provided for 

 by the Jonathan Thorne Memorial Fund. The educational work of the 

 Museum is carried still farther by means of its circulating collections 

 for illustrating nature study which are sent free to the schools of Greater 

 New York. The extent to which these collections are used is shown 

 by the following statistics for the last five years: 



Carried Out 



Lectures 





1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



Number of Collections in 

 Use 



671 704 712 



473 439 446 

 1,238,581 1,118,322 1,075,076 



629 



419 



790,346 



668 



Number of Schools in 

 Greater New York 

 Supplied 



Number of Pupils Study- 



385 

 860,992 









In 1916 the work of the Museum was extended by the establishment 

 of local lecture centers, or courses of lectures given by members of the 

 Museum staff in certain of the public schools. 



