year, will give you an idea of the very rapidly in- 
creasing influence of the Museum and of nature study 
in the schools. The teachers whom I have observed 
here practically conducting their class work in our 
Museum halls are intelligent in their methods and 
very enthusiastic in the guidance of children of all 
ages. Step by step a great system of codperation 
has been built up between the regular course work in 
the schools and the visual instruction in the Museum, 
until the City of New York now affords the most 
brilliant example in the world of extension to the 
school system of all the resources of a great museum. 
The Board of Education of Chicago has recently 
visited the Museum with a view to the introduction 
in that city of some of our methods. Mr. Norman 
W. Harris, of Chicago, has given $250,000 to carry 
this plan into effect. 
The Imperial German Commission, which visited 
this city last spring, informed me that the nature 
study system of codperation between the Museum and 
the schools was, it believed, the most complete in 
existence, considering the very large scale of the work 
carried on. 
The text-books which have recently been pre- 
pared by nature study teachers in the city have taken 
full advantage also of the resources of both the 
American and Brooklyn Museums. They are models 
of their kind. 
The greatest pleasure which I derive from my 
arduous life in the administration of the Museum is 
watching the vast and increasing number of school 
children, with and without their teachers, who visit 
the institution for inspiration and whose serious study 
and observation of the various objects are very 
noticeable. The influence upon the life of these 
pupils is incalculable. The lessons also regarding 
health and the fundamental principles of biology, 
which are taught in such volumes as Peabody’s 
Elementary LBiology—Animal and Human, recently 
issued by him at the Morris High School, are 
invaluable. 
The Trustees of the American Museum invite the 
coéperation of the Board of Education and will wel- 
come any improvement in the present system which 
may be found practical. 
