Nature Education in ipip 23 



The Washington Irving High School fulfils most completely our ideal 

 of a Local Lecture Center because of its relations with the Elemen- 

 tary Schools. On the appointed days, classes from several of the 

 neighboring elementary schools gather in the auditorium of the 

 High School to listen to the lectures. 



For five years we have been giving lectures in these two centers. 

 The annual attendance is close to 40,000 pupils. Our experience in 

 these schools and the many appeals from other teachers to have the 

 lectures given in their schools, convince us that the most effective 

 expansion of the Museum's educational work would be the establish- 

 ment of other local lecture centers. Such expansion cannot be under- 

 taken without a larger staff and further appropriations. 



III. STATUS OF THE MUSEUM'S FREE NATURE 

 EDUCATION IN 19 19 



At the beginning of the year 1919 the Department was faced 

 with complete suspension of its work with the schools, because these 

 services are entirely outside of the Museum's con- 

 PROSPECTrvE tract obligations with the City. Hence when 

 retrench- drastic retrenchment was forced upon the Trustees 



ment by the reduction of the City's appropriation for 



maintenance, the cessation of these activities 

 seemed to be the logical result. However, complete suspension of the 

 relations with the schools which had been developed in the past six- 

 teen years would have been so great a catastrophe that the Trustees 

 were prevailed upon to authorize a limited or half-time educational 

 program. Even under these conditions, the Circulating Nature Study 

 Collections could be furnished to Manhattan schools only, and we 

 were obliged to suspend the service to the schools of Brooklyn, Bronx, 

 Queens, and Richmond. The lectures for school children at the 

 Museum were reduced to half the usual number, while those given in 

 the Local Lecture Centers and other schools were eliminated entirely. 



President Osborn fully appreciated how serious such a curtail- 

 ment of service would be for the pupils, the teachers, and the Museum, 

 but felt that he could not ask the Trustees for 

 support from further financial support for it. Accordingly he 

 board of laid the full facts before President Somers and 



education other members of the Board of Education at a 



luncheon given at the Museum on February 18, 

 1919, at which the Board of Education was represented by President 

 Somers, Mrs. Ruth F. Russell, and Superintendent Gustave Strauben- 

 miiller; the Museum by President Osborn, Director Lucas, Curator 



