been subjected. This work is rendered difficult by the fact that the pipes and leaders are built into the floor and walls and are difficult of access. The Registrar has continued the work of recording and cataloguing the accessions of past years, received before the Accessions and Shipments department was established, and the lists of donors and objects from 1869 to date are now complete. There have been during this year, 3,012 incoming shipments, including 6,693 packages, and 600 outgoing shipments comprising 1,282 packages. Needs of the Museum The need of space is repeated for the benefit of those who do not visit the Museum. Those who do, know how aisles are growing narrower and narrower, unrelated exhibits elbowing one another for room, and in some instances specimens swaddled like mummies in protecting cloths decorate (?) the tops of cases. A striking example of this is to be seen in the Hall of Dinosaurs where creatures separated by six millions of years in time are separated by scant six feet of space. The problem is the reverse of that of the Iron Shroud-the walls are not contracting but the collections are continually expanding. The results are the same-deadly constriction. A crying need of the Museum is a complete set of window shades. Many of those in use are in tatters and all are in a dilapidated condition. To say that there are 783 windows which call for 1,635 shades will give an idea of the extent of our needs. The amount required to replace these is from $7,500 to $9,000. As a matter of duty, attention is again called to the desirability of a high fence around the Museum, beginning on the north in a line with 79th Street, to protect the grounds so that they may form a proper setting for the Museum. Playgrounds are necessary for children-but playgrounds and parks cannot exist together, and the grounds in front of the Museum should form a beautiful setting for the building instead of presenting a mass of barren spots and broken shrubs. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE MUSEUM AND IN THE SCHOOLS * Extent of GEORGE H. SHERWOOD, Curator The extent of the Museum's services to schools through the Department of Public Education in 1920 is the greatest in the history of the Department. Not only has this educational work been more extensive, but more intensive than ever before. The old, well established activities (Circulating Nature Study Collections, Lecture Courses, Slide Distribution, Education for the Blind, etc.) have been maintained at full capacity and new lines of contact with the educational system of the City have been developed (Service to the Training Schools, Coöperation with the Bureau of Visual Instruction, New Food Exhibit, and Service to the Art Teachers). The following comparative summary of the statistics for 1919 and 1920 tells the story more graphically than words: Under the Department of Public Education (see also pages 209 to 210). Factors in There are several important factors which have made this truly remarkable record possible. The foremost is the keen, personal interest which each member of the Department has taken in the work and the splendid spirit of coöperation resulting therefrom. A second factor is the generous attitude of the newly organized Bureau of Visual Instruction of the Board of Education, under the direction of Dr. Ernest L. Crandall, and the friendly coöperation extended by Dr. Crandall through his associate, Miss Rita Hochheimer. Dr. Crandall has devoted the energies of his department mainly to increasing the visual instruction apparatus in the schools, leaving to the Museum the supplying of the slides and other illustrative material. A third factor of great fundamental importance is the growth of appreciation on the part of the teachers of the real value of these methods of visual instruction. Nature A greater number of nature study collections have been in circulation than ever before, and they have been studied by 1,176,055 pupils during the year. The extensive use of this material speaks well for its practical teaching value, since nature study is no longer a required subject in the curriculum and its presentation is dependent upon the interest and initiative of the individual teacher. The loan material is composed of two types of collections: The first consists of birds, insects, lower invertebrates, woods, minerals, etc., of which there are many duplicate sets available; the second consists of material assembled for some specific purpose, i.e., classes in design, historical pageants, etc. Comparison of the statistics for 1920 with those for the preceding four years shows an interesting growth: |