effort and use of modern lamps and fixtures as fast as funds permitted, is better than ever. The demands for light have been unusually great the past year, and the total current supplied was 397,586 K.W., 77,000 more than in 1918, and this has been produced at the low figure of 2.55 cents per K.W. hour. Needs The needs of the Museum are in character much as they have been for the past few years, but intensified. The need of space in particular is greater than ever and is felt in every department: this want could be met more promptly and at the least cost by the erection of the Southeast Court Building. This would furnish relief for some time in providing storage, work room and exhibition room while another section was being constructed, and the gallery would also provide much needed space for temporary exhibitions. A considerable amount of material is already available for exhibition including groups of Walrus, Sea Elephants, Seals and Penguins, while the withdrawal of these from their present locations would permit much needed readjustments. This is particularly true in the Hall of North American Mammals. A few years ago this was North American in name only and contained many African mammals, but since that time these have been removed, five groups of large mammals have been added, five of small mammals and a number of single specimens, and three groups are now in hand. The addition of these will create still further congestion, but if the groups of boreal and oceanic mammals could be removed, there would be ample room for the mammals of North America. A crying need, noted in the Report for 1918, is for a panel board to care for electric wires for lighting cases and groups, so that there may be a definite segregation between these and those for general lighting purposes. When the building was planned, such demands for lights were unknown and naturally not provided for, but as group after group has been installed, it has become more and more difficult to find a source of light until all available means have been exhausted. Another need is new elevators to replace those in use for the past twenty-five years, which, while safe under normal conditions, continually demand minor repairs, are very slow, and are extremely hard on the operator. Cooperation with other Institutions This Museum has frequent calls for information in regard to principles of administration, especially the relations of the Museum to the schools and the workings of its Department of Public Education, and for such matters as methods of preparation, and and Societies these have been particularly numerous during the past year. Representatives have come. from such widely separated points as Moscow, Hiroshima, and Canterbury, New Zealand, while the State Museum, Albany, the Boston Society of Natural History and Mt. Holyoke Seminary have had members of their force as volunteer workers in the Department of Preparation to acquire a practical knowledge of making molds, casts and accessories. Dr. R. H. Colley and his associate, Mr. Baldwin, spent much time at the Museum gathering data regarding salaries of Staff and Preparators and methods of accounting, for the Senate Commission, and, as usual, every facility was given them. In this connection should be mentioned a point not usually taken into consideration-that the more generally useful is a man or an institution, the wider his, or its sphere of influence, the less can that man or institution do individually, the smaller will appear the immediate or visible results. The policy of the American Museum of Natural History has always been most liberal in affording information in all branches of its work, administrative, scientific or mechanical, and the administration feels that the time lost to itself is more than compensated by its service to the public. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE MUSEUM AND IN THE SCHOOLS* Prospective Retrenchment GEORGE H. SHERWOOD, Curator At the beginning of the year the Department was faced with complete suspension of its work with the schools, because these services are entirely outside of the Museum's contract obligations with the City. Hence when drastic retrenchment was forced upon the Trustees 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 sixteen 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 curtailment of service would be for the pupils, the teachers and the Museum, but felt that he could not ask Support from the Trustees for further financial support for Board of Education it. Accordingly he laid the full facts before President Somers and 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 rep Under the Department of Public Education (see also pages 201 and 202). resented by President Somers, Mrs. Ruth F. Russell, and Superintendent Gustave Straubenmüller; the Museum by President Osborn, Director Lucas, Curator Sherwood and Doctor Fisher; and Professor Duggan was invited as the representative of the College of the City of New York. After the luncheon, an inspection was made of the Department of Public Education and the facilities it had for serving the schools. President Somers expressed the opinion that the Board of Education ought not to allow this work to stop and desired a statement of the additional cost of full-time service. By a careful readjustment of duties of the Staff, it was found that full service would cost only an additional $4,100, although the cost of the Department's entire work would be approximately $20,000. Later the Board of Education agreed to provide the $4,100 needed, and full service to schools was resumed on March first. This included the Circulating Nature Study Collections, Lectures at the Museum, Lectures in Local Lecture Centers, Lending of Lantern Slides, Education for the Blind, Coöperation with Public Libraries, and Exhibition Hall Instruction for Classes. There has been no material change in the character of this work. These teaching collections have been furnished to teachers according to their requests. Not only Circulating Nature Study have the regular nature study sets of birds, inCollections sects, woods, minerals, etc., been supplied, but frequently special selection of material has been made for some particular need of a school. For example, Indian garments and other objects have been lent for use in giving pageants. As usual, the collections have been delivered by Museum messengers and the schools of the distant Boroughs have been especially well supplied. During the year, twenty cases with glass fronts and sides have been constructed, in which are to be placed small habitat groups, or other exhibits illustrating biological principles more completely than is practicable with specimens which can be handled. These will be added to the circulating series. The complete statistics of the Circulating Collections in Public Schools for the year are given below: Lectures for In accordance with the agreement with the Board of Education, full courses of lectures were given during the spring and fall, both at the Museum and in the Local Lecture Centers. Several lectures were also Children given at certain schools, while during Regents' Week, in January and in June, large numbers of high school students from Morris High, Evander Childs, and Washington Irving High School attended special lectures at the Museum, which were followed by laboratory work in the exhibition halls. The lectures dealt principally with geographical, historical or industrial topics, and were especially adapted to the groups addressed. Several members of the Museum Staff have kindly participated in the delivery of these lectures, their special familiarity with the subjects thus increasing the interest of the pupils. The lectures given at the Museum number 57 and the attendance was 23,587, while 33 lectures were given in the schools in which 25,575 children were reached. Thus, all together 90 lectures have been given during the year, at which the total attendance was 49,162 pupils. In addition to the lecture work for the schools, the usual courses of lectures to Members on Thursday evenings and the Science Stories for Children of Members on Saturday mornings have been arranged. |