18 The American Museum of Natural History 



In view of the severe strain on the teacher, the dangers incident 

 to the transportation of children through the city streets and, most 

 important of all, the fact that many parents cannot afford the neces- 

 sary car fare, we believe that there is no extension of our educational 

 work which would exert a wider influence and give more practical re- 

 sults than the establishment of a series of Lecture Centers. The 

 plan that we have in mind contemplates the selection of a centrally 

 located school in each district in which would be given, by members 

 of the Museum's staff, lectures similar to those now given for school 

 children in our auditorium. This is a plan which scores of teachers 

 have been urging for several years, but we have not been able to com- 

 ply with these requests because our lecture force is small and our funds 

 insufficient. With our present staff, however, it might be feasible to 

 open half a dozen centers, but in order to supply the demand it will 

 ultimately mean the training of a special corps of lecturers for this 

 work. 



Many requests are also received from teachers for the loan of 

 lantern slides to illustrate subjects which they desire to present to 

 their pupils. We have not been in a position to grant these requests, 

 because our slides were not properly catalogued and we were not pre- 

 pared to undertake the Loan System. Chiefly through the gift of 

 Professor and Mrs. Bickmore, the Museum possesses a splendid 

 series of lantern slides. Our collection numbers more than 20,000 

 slides, and since the Albany fire destroyed the original negatives of 

 the Bickmore slides, our collection is probably the finest in this 

 country. Sufficient progress has now been made in the cataloguing 

 of our slide collections to enable us to undertake, in a limited way, 

 the sending out of slides to the schools. It is especially desirable that 

 the Museum should take up this work, since the State Department 

 of Education at Albany is not in a position to supply the requests of 

 the New York City teachers. 



The effectiveness of nature study in the public schools of the 

 City today is largely dependent upon the enthusiasm of the individual 

 teacher and the accessibility of nature study material. Our present 

 circulating collections are doing important work, inasmuch as they 

 place in the hands of the teachers definite nature study material, but 

 more effective results might be obtained if the teacher could have 

 available a more extensive teaching collection. For this reason it 

 would seem desirable to establish a Branch Teaching Museum in 

 a number of centrally located schools. This could be accomplished 

 if a case, say 8' x 7' x 1^', was placed in each of the selected schools, 

 and we installed a larger and more comprehensive teaching collection 

 of natural history objects than is possible to send out in our regular 

 circulating collections. The teachers of the district could then draw 

 upon this material as required. The material in these cases should 

 be changed periodically, perhaps three or four times a year, corre- 

 sponding to changes in the course of study. The branch teaching 

 museum should contain not only representative specimens of the 

 animals that are being studied, but small portable groups illustra- 

 ting the relations of certain animals to environment. Development 

 along this line will involve considerable expense, for the cases should 

 be uniform and the specimens in first-class condition. The problems 

 of transportation and transfer could be handled by our present force. 

 I feel that it would not be wise, however, to undertake the establish- 

 ing of such branch museums as outlined above until the whole prob- 



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