NUMBER OF COLLECTIONS. The number of individual collections in the museum is 1,750; 7,000 individual and duplicate collections constitute the traveling museum. The number of lantern slides is 4,000, of stereoscopes 8,000, and of colored charts and photographs, 2,000. ANNUAL INCREASE IN ORDERS. How the popularity of the museum and the library has grown, and to what extent their use in the schools has increased, are shown by the following schedule: EXTENT TO WHICH DIFFERENT GROUPS OF MATERIAL ARE USED. The following extracts from the museum report state to what extent the different groups of material have been used and which groups are in greater demand than others. Nature of material. Food products... Character of collections ordered, 1912–1913. Material for clothing and shelter. Mounted birds...... Mounted insects and butterflies. Reptiles, amphibia, and sea life. Mounted mammals... Minerals..... Pictorial illustrations, charts, and views. Material illustrating life of various countries.. Apparatus for physical experiments Lantern lessons.... Miscellaneous material.. Total number of collections ordered. Library Classification of books issued, 1912–13. Reference books, nature study, history, and geography.. Times ordered by schools. 7,078 8,840 10, 388 1,503 2,637 2,984 2,787 12, 213 2.409 2, 313 4,083 64 57, 299 3,907 1,715 THE WORKING STAFF OF THE MUSEUM. The working staff of the institution consists of the assistant superintendent in charge, a curator, two assistants, a librarian, a repairer, a checker, two packers, a chauffeur, and a janitor. The museum is open daily, except Sundays, from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Visitors are always welcome. Frequently teachers take their classes to the institution after school or on Saturdays, not to give instruction, but to reward them for good work and to make them acquainted with what the museum offers. A large number of teachers from all parts of the country and some from abroad visit the museum every year. The total number of visitors in 1912-13 was 3,885. Cost of maintenance, 1912–13. Salaries... Expenditures for museum: Delivery service.. Duplicate material...... Permanent equipment. Perishable equipment. Kinloch telephone... Fumigation..... Postage.. Car fare for lantern slides. Photographic account... Gas and electric light and power. Fire extinguishers....... Drayage, carpenter's and painter's salary (moving to new building) Total appropriation.. The annual expense per pupil is 94 cents. HOW CAN A SCHOOL MUSEUM BE ESTABLISHED? In cities in which there is a public museum opportunities for systematic use of its material should be given the schools. The city museum should establish a school section; it should gather from its stores such material as can and should be used in the schools, and make it possible for the teachers to get it when they need it. This would benefit the museums as much as the schools. The number of people who visit the great storehouses of knowledge in the large cities is deplorably small. The boys and girls who are trained in the schools to use museum material will, when they have become men and women, visit the museum often and will make the most intelligent use of the opportunities they offer. Aided by one of Chicago's public-spirited citizens, Mr. N. W. Harris, the Field Museum of Natural History of Chicago is, at present, planning a systematic cooperation with the city public schools. The Harris Public School Extension of this institution will supply the schools with illustrative material taken from the great museum. But even in places where there is no public museum, the establishment of a school museum is not as difficult a matter as it is generally supposed to be. A great deal of the material in daily use in the St. Louis schools can be had from commercial firms in the city and in other places, much of it for the asking. The United States Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Fisheries, as well as privately owned mines and quarries, will give assistance. Pictures gathered from magazines and railroad and steamship advertisements may be arranged and classified. With material procured in this way as a nucleus and with purchases of other material in this country and abroad, a serviceable school museum can soon be developed. Friends of the school will readily contribute whatever they may have that might be used in the institution. The St. Louis museum has been the grateful recipient of a large number of most valuable donations, a few of which may be mentioned here. The Freie Gemeinde, of St. Louis, presented to the institution a very large collection of valuable minerals. Mr. J. A. Valentine Schmidt turned over to the museum 12 large glass cases of insects, a supply of specimens from which the museum can make up collections for years to come. Miss Mary Franklin gave the museum an extensive collection of articles illustrating Mexican life and history. The Fremont School presented 100 mounted birds and the Garfield School a small museum of articles of various kinds which had been gathered by one of the former principals of the school. Another principal sent a large collection of material gathered in the Philippines. The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway gave the museum its comprehensive exhibit of grains and fruits grown in the Western States. A most valuable collection of 900 large photographs representing oriental life and scenery was presented to the institution by Mr. James W. Bell. OPINIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE ST. LOUIS SCHOOLS. The writer feels that in order to give the reader an adequate idea. of the value of a new feature of school work, he should not only present his own opinion, but should add the opinions of men and women who do the work in the schools and who have the best opportunity to test the value of this new method of treating certain subjects in the curriculum. A number of principals of the schools and members of the Teachers' College faculty were asked to state what they thought of the museum as an adjunct to our schools. The following are extracts from their letters: The success which we have in our work in physical geography with fifth-grade children is due, very largely, to the valuable museum material available for illustration. It is true that some of the difficulties experienced by teachers of physical geography are overcome in our schools by the extensive use of the field trip. The excursion to the park, river, and quarry does much to make this work easier, but mere mention of some of the topics for instruction will show that the excursion, valuable as it is, will not suffice. A glance at the course of study reveals such topics as explanation of day and night, measurement of latitude and longitude, the earth's shape, the compass, atmospheric moisture, cloud formation, the seasons, winds, etc. The Educational Museum provides 25 valuable sets of apparatus which we use and find particularly well adapted to the illustration of these and kindred topics outlined in the course in physical geography. |