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 cooperation 

 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 cooperation 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 Biology — Animal and Human, recently 

 issued by him at the Morris High School, are 

 invaluable. 



The Trustees of the American Museum invite the 

 cooperation of the Board of Education and will wel- 

 come any improvement in the present system which 

 may be found practical. 



