HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM'S NATURE EDUCATION 

 IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 



BY GEORGE H. SHERWOOD 



I. FIRST PERIOD: 1869-1904 



Lecture Courses for Teachers — First Teaching 

 Collections Deposited in the Schools 



maintained chiefly by appropriations from the state 



The possibility of the Museum as a factor in public education 

 was one of the motives which inspired that group of public-spirited 

 men who organized and founded The American 

 lectures Museum of Natural History. The general 



for teachers educational value of its collections and exhibits 

 was widely accepted but as the institution grew 

 it became more and more evident that if the Museum was to 

 fulfil its function it must establish closer relations with the public 

 schools and the educational system. The desirability of museum 

 extension was early recognized, and the first steps in accomplishing 

 this were taken in 1880, when the Trustees authorized Professor 

 Albert S. Bickmore, the Superintendent of the Museum, to prepare 

 for the public school teachers a special course of lectures on natural 

 history to be given at the Museum and to be illustrated with the 

 Museum's collections. In cooperation with the Board of Education, 

 arrangements were made whereby thirty teachers were detailed to 

 attend these lectures. The first lecture was given in 1881 to an 

 audience of twenty-eight persons. The first course consisted of 

 eighteen sessions, and, although the lectures were given out of school 

 hours and the attendance was voluntary, there was a gratifying 

 increase in attendance throughout the course. This work received 

 the hearty indorsement of the City Superintendent of Schools and 

 of the President of the Normal College of the City of New York, 

 and was continued in succeeding years. In 1884, the educational 

 authorities of the City and State were so impressed with the value of 

 this educational work that the State appropriated the sum of $18,000 

 for its extension. Under this grant, Professor Bickmore prepared 

 a comprehensive series of lectures to be given to the teachers of the 

 City and State. Twenty lectures were scheduled for each year. 

 The main purpose of these lectures was to give the teachers exact 



