Proposed Extension 19 



pupils from accident on the streets. After the lecture is over, the 

 teacher must take her pupils, at rush hours, back to the school and 

 there dismiss them, and it is often eight o'clock in the evening 

 before she reaches home for dinner. 



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 educa- 

 tional work which would exert a wider influence and give more 

 practical results 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 comply with these requests because our lec- 

 ture 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 

 prepared 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 nega- 

 tives of the Bickmore slides, our collection is probably the finest in 

 this country. Sufficient progress has now been made in the cata- 

 loguing 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 individ- 

 ual 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 ma- 

 terial, 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 l 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 dis- 

 trict could then draw upon this material as required. The material 

 in these cases should be changed periodically, perhaps three or four 

 times a year, corresponding 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 illustrating the relations of certain animals to environment. 



