L26 PURPOSES OP MUSEl MS 



While the American Museum of Natural History cannot claim to 

 nave originated the idea of displaying animals amid their natural but- 

 roundings, ii 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 ( rroups") the well-known habitat groups. Il<»w 

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

 Robins with the great Florida ( rroup and the Hopi ( rroup. 



In the Museum were also developed the method- of preparing and 

 mounting the skeleton- 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 

 Carried Out ( > vorv Spring and Fall for the Members, to which admission 

 Lecture * s *° ^ e na< ^ ^Y 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: 





1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



Number of Collections in 



Use 



Number of Schools in 



671 



704 



712 



629 



668 



Greater New York 



Supplied 47:; 139 446 419 385 



Number of Pupils Study- 

 ing Collections 1,238,581 1,118,322 1,075,076 790,346 8( 



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. 



