16 WORKROOMS 



The popular publications include the Journal, Leaflets, Guides and 

 Handbooks, and are intended for the information of the general public. 

 The Journal, begun in L900, is the means o! promptly informing tin- Museum 

 Members of the work of the institution, giving the results of the many 

 expeditions, telling of the collections made, or more important information 

 gathered. It also describes at length interesting or noteworthy installa- 

 tions, and notes the accessions to the various departments, changes in the 

 personnel of the Museum, and elections to Membership. The Illustrated 

 Guide Lea/lets deal with exhibits of particular interest or importance, such 

 as the Habitat Groups of Birds, the Evolution of the Horse, Meteorites, 

 the Indians of Manhattan, calling attention to important objects on exhibi- 

 tion and giving information in regard to them. The Handbooks, the first 

 of which, on the Indians of the Plains, was issued in L912, deal with subjects 

 or topics rather than objects. Thus the Plains Indians Handbook, by 

 Dr. Wissler, is not merely a guide to the exhibition hall, but tells of the 

 life and customs of these Indians, their language, political organization, 

 religious beliefs and ceremonies. 



The distribution of these popular publications is a part of the educa- 

 tional work of the Museum, as are the exhibits and lectures, and so far 

 they have been necessarily sold below the cost of publication, as is done 

 by other Museums. (See list at end of this Guide.) 



An important part of the Museum, not seen by the public, is the work- 



_ , . shops, located in the basement and provided with machinerv 



Workshops . \ . , _5 . , . * 



ot the most improved pattern. Here, among other things, 



are constructed the various types of cases used in the Museum, including 



the light, metal-frame case, devised in the institution. 



Still other rooms, which, of necessity, are not open to the public, are the 

 laboratories, wherein is carried on the varied work of preparing exhibits, 

 work which calls for the services of a very considerable number of artists 

 and artisans. 



Here are cast, modeled, or mounted the figures for the many groups 

 from Man to Myxine, here leaves are made to grow and flowers to bloom 

 as accessories for beasts,* birds and fishes, to say nothing of reptiles and 

 amphibians, and here, with painstaking care, are slowly created in glass 

 and wax the magnified copies of invertebrates. 



From all this it may be gathered that a museum is a very busy place, 

 much more so than the casual visitor is apt to imagine. In fact, a very 

 good museum man has said that a museum is much like an iceberg, seven- 

 eighths of it under water and invisible. We will now proceed to the visible 

 eighth. 



*See Guide Leaflet No. 34. 



