V. Proposed Extension of Educational Work 

 in 1914 and 1915 



Through the Museum's recent educational work the institu- 

 tion has been brought into close relations with the educational 

 system of the City, and through its invaluable collections from 

 all parts of the world, its carefully installed exhibits and its corps 

 of trained scientists, the Museum exerts a wide and growing in- 

 fluence in the community. 



With the exception of the system of circulating nature 

 study collections, all the present methods of Museum instruction 

 necessitate the presence of teachers and pupils at the Museum. 

 While it is desirable that children should visit the Museum as 

 often as possible, the difficulties and dangers of travel and cost 

 of transportation prohibit many thousands of pupils from 

 coming to the Museum. A laborer who earns only $2.00 per 

 day can ill afford to pay twenty cents for car fare to send his son 

 or daughter to the Museum, especially when this child is per- 

 haps only one of five or six others who ought to have the same 

 opportunities. It was with the desire to take the Museum 

 treasures to these less favored children and to extend the influ- 

 ence of the Museum, that the Curator addressed the following 

 letter to President Osborn : 



April 15, 1914 



My dear President Osborn : 



For the past ten years, the Department of Public 

 Education of the Museum has been devoting special 

 attention to the establishment of close relations with the 

 public schools and the educational system of the City. The 

 principal features of this work have been the cabinets of 

 natural history specimens, which have been circulated 

 through the schools, and the various courses of lectures for 

 school children delivered at the Museum. The methods 

 adopted have met with such success that the teachers now 

 regard our circulating collections and our lectures as im- 

 portant adjuncts, if not indispensable aids in their work. 



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