Circulating Nature Siudy Collections 



placed in the hands of the teachers. This Syllabus required the 

 teacher to give instruction in a great many sub- 

 circulating jects but made no provision for supplying the 

 nature study necessary material. The individual teacher was 

 collections supposed to get her material when and where she 

 could. In their urgent need many teachers 

 appealed to the Museum for assistance. The Director of the 

 Museum realized that here was an opportunity for the Museum 

 to greatly extend its sphere of usefulness, and, following his recom- 

 mendation, the Trustees authorized the preparation of a series of 

 collections for use in the schools. These collections were prepared 

 with the object in view of placing in the hands of the teachers, so far 

 as practicable, the actual specimens referred to in the Syllabus of 

 Nature Study issued by the Board of Education. In many respects 

 they were quite similar to the collections deposited in the schools in 

 1884, but the new collections were sent out as loans, and not as 

 permanent deposits as was done with the first collections. This 

 feature alone has an important bearing on the success of the present 

 system of circulating collections. Each collection is put up in a 

 small cabinet about the size of a suit case and is accompanied by a 

 leaflet giving simple facts on the structure, habits and characteristics 

 of the particular species in the collection. These notes are necessarily 

 brief and are intended chiefly as suggestions to the teachers. A 

 brief bibliography on the subjects is noted and attention is called 

 to the local collections of birds or other animals in the Museum 

 building. 



The method by which the teacher obtains the collections has 

 been made as simple as possible. The Museum furnishes blanks upon 

 which the principals make application for the collections and at the 

 same time indicate the sequence desired. Delivery is then made by 

 the Museum messengers, who call again at the end of the loan period, 

 that is, in three or four weeks, and make the second delivery. This 

 method keeps the Museum in frequent touch with the teachers and 

 enables us to understand their needs. 



The work began with ten small cabinets of birds. The requests 

 for the collections became so numerous that it was necessary im- 

 mediately to increase the number as well as the variety of the collec- 

 tions. In the first year collections of minerals and rocks, native 

 woods, insects and several other lower animals were added to the 

 series. The collections then covered the greater part of the material 

 suggested in the Syllabus and the growth of the work merely required 

 the duplication of the collections already in circulation. The collec- 

 tions now comprise minerals, rocks, woods, sponges, corals, sea- 

 urchins, starfishes, mollusks, worms, crabs, insects, birds and small 

 mammals. The teaching value of these collections is enhanced 



