HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



MUSEUM EXTENSION 



The Museum has already entered upon a method of Museum 

 Extension which reaches the entire school system of the City through 

 the circulation of small traveling museums. Within its walls there 

 has been established a CHILDREN'S ROOM, which promises to 

 become a more important feature as time goes on. Children's Rooms 

 have been successively established in the Brooklyn Museum of Arts 

 and Sciences, and the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. The 

 American Museum has also made a beginning in reaching the blind 

 through a MUSEUM FOR THE BLIND, the first of its kind to 

 our knowledge. 



The final recommendation of this report is that the Trustees should 

 be willing to consider the advisability of establishing an 



EAST SIDE BRANCH MUSEUM 



placed in the most congested district of the City, in the center of a 

 population eager for education and keenly appreciative both of the 

 Branch Library and of the Free Lecture Systems. The attendance at 

 the Aquarium, which is within easy reach of the congested East Side 

 district, amounting to three and a half millions a year, gives some idea 

 of the number of people, both old and young, who could be reached 

 and educated through a branch. Such an institution should be the 

 gift of some special benefactor and philanthropist. It should be amply 

 endowed, so as not to be a tax on the parent institution. It should 

 enjoy a maintenance fund from the City which would provide merely 

 for its upkeep and administration, but not for its collections. The 

 parent Museum could contribute to such a branch, without sacrifice, 

 many admirable educational exhibits. Such a branch would be a great 

 force in the public education of the newcomers of all lands who are 

 crowding into the East Side of the City. Similar undertakings in 

 London have met with extraordinary success and popular approval. 



[176] 



