messenger and are there exhibited for from one to two months. Their purpose is to stimulate an interest in books on geography, history and nature study and to increase coöperation between the Libraries, the Public Schools and the Museum. The exhibits are seen not only by the casual observer, but are also studied by classes from nearby schools, and often serve as illustrative material for the librarians' "Story Hour."

There are seventeen of these collections in regular circulation. They have been furnished to fifteen libraries, in which more than 104,567 have seen them.

Exhibition
Hall

Instruction

The instruction in the exhibition halls is the equivalent of indoor field work and laboratory instruction. As often as was requested, members of the Department Staff met classes from the city or suburban schools, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, men's and women's clubs, and individuals, and conducted them through the exhibition halls, calling attention to the principal exhibits and their meaning. The total number annually served in this way is considerable, and the work helps to spread the educational influence of the Museum.

The regular staff members have been ably assisted in the work throughout the year by Miss Annie E. Lucas, who as a volunteer assistant has been very helpful in conducting wounded service men through the Museum.

General education has been advanced by the large amount of photographic work done. Our two photographers have been fully occupied in making illustrations for Photographic Natural History, in supplying prints to the Publicity Committee, in making photographs for the scientific publications, and in preparing large numbers of slides for lectures and for sales.

Service

In October, Miss Ann E. Thomas, who had been a member of the Staff since 1914, resigned to accept a position with the Bureau of Industrial Research. Miss Ruth E. Crosby, a graduate of Wellesley, was appointed to this vacancy and has been placed in charge of the work for the blind and the library loans and also assists in

Changes in
Staff

the lecture and docent work. Early in the year Miss Virginia B. McGivney resigned as Slide Librarian and in November Miss Grace E. Fisher was appointed in her stead.

Outside Activities of Staff

The calls upon staff members for service outside of Museum work are frequent, and it is impossible to answer them all. Dr. Fisher, however, has contributed generously of his time and experience. During his vacation he conducted, under the auspices of the National Association of Audubon Societies, the course in Bird Study at the University of Florida. Besides lecturing before a number of private schools, clubs and educational organizations, he addressed the Teachers' College Alumni Association at Columbia; the New Jersey Science Teachers' Association at Trenton, and the General Science Club of New England at Boston, on "The Use of Motion Pictures in Teaching Biology." He also participated in meetings of the Woodcraft League and has recently been elected to the Council of Guidance of the League.

The Curator and Associate Curator have undertaken, jointly, the preparation of the nature study section of the Girl Scouts Manual which is to be published early in 1920. The major part of this work has been done by Dr. Fisher.

In the list of accessions we have made formal acknowledgments of the gifts received during the year, and at the same Acknowl- time we desire to express our appreciation of the edgments practical assistance which we have received from many sources. Motion picture films have been loaned by the State Conservation Commission, through Mr. Clinton G. Abbott; by the General Electric Company, through Mr. C. F. Bateholts; by Mr. Lee Keedick; by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and by Prizma, Inc. Photographic material was generously furnished by Brown Brothers and by H. Martens & Co., and a map for copy by H. J. Yurman, Furrier. This friendly coöperation has been very helpful in advancing the educational work of the institution.

GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY AND PAST LIFE ON THE

Exhibition
Hall

EARTH*

EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, Curator

Under the immediate direction of Associate Curator Reeds, excellent progress has been made in the new arrangement of the exhibition hall. As far as available material goes, the biological alcoves of plants, brachiopods, pelecypods, gastropods, cephalopods, trilobites and echinoderms were added to those previously in place, while on the stratigraphical side of the hall much material was installed in all the period exhibits. Dr. Reeds has had the hypothetical land masses and other data placed on the eight paleogeographical models and they now await painting to complete them. These models will form an attractive and highly instructive feature of the hall, giving visitors a clear visual concept of the meaning of earth history. When the main work on the hall stopped in mid-year, through exhaustion of funds for the special staff engaged on it, Mr. Foyles was assigned to systematizing the arrangement of the mounts in the hall.

In February the completed model of the Bright Angel section of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was installed with its painted pictorial background, and the exhibit has received much complimentary notice from scientific and other visitors, indicating the interest that will be aroused and the instruction to be derived from the whole series of relief models planned for the hall.

There has been placed on exhibition, in a case on the ground floor in the seismograph alcove, a selection from a remarkable lot of lead ore specimens from the Laclede Mine, Tar River, Oklahoma. These are part of a large series of such material which was secured at the mine, for the purpose of reproducing

Under the Department of Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology (see also pages 202 and 203).