Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/52

48 The Catharine L. Howard Memorial Library, which is placed in a room at the left of the entrance hall, is a valuable aid in the work of the institution and is an efficient factor in encouraging study and research. It contains about six hundred standard reference volumes in the different branches of natural history. Geology is represented by the latest editions of Geikie, Dana, Lyell, Sedgwick, Le Conte, Lapparent and Credner, monographs on local geology, Dana's 'System of Mineralogy,' Williams' 'Crystallography' and Zittel's 'Paleontology.' Students of botany will find among other books the 'Natural History of Plants,' by Kerner and Oliver; Britton, Gray and Sargent. Zoologists will find Scudder on butterflies, 'Das Tierreich,' 'Cambridge Royal Natural History,' Woodward on the mollusca and authorities of like standing in all lines of the study of animal forms. The library is furnished after the fashion of a private room and provided with facilities for quiet reading. All books are accessible to readers, but none may be taken away.

By reason of the simplicity of the museum building, the excellence of the cases and careful installation of the collections at the outset, the work of administration has been conducted at very slight expense and with a small staff of attendants, and much time has been given to the active educational work of the museum. Constant effort is made to enlist volunteer assistants in the various lines of activity and to awaken popular interest in the different phases of natural history. The open hours are from two to six o'clock during the summer season and from one to five o'clock in the winter, but the collections are practically accessible at any hour of the day. Various devices are employed to make the room attractive and cheerful. The main hall is decorated by tropical plants, as palm, sago and century plants, in themselves an interesting study.

An especial effort has been made to bring the museum into close and helpful relations with the public schools. Out of duplicate material, collections illustrative of geology, mineralogy and lithology have been prepared and placed in various schools in the city and in near-by towns, where they have done good service in the branches of nature study undertaken by the teachers. Within the past year arrangements have been made with the school authorities whereby pupils arc brought to the museum in charge of instructors and in groups of such size that the greatest advantage may be gained. It is an interesting sight to see eager children gathered around a case or about a table of specimens, intent on the explanations and busy with pencil and note-book. While the scheme of museum visitation has not yet been thoroughly systematized, there is a steady growth in attendance, interest and results. During the year 1901-02, sixty-six classes, accompanied by teachers, visited the collections, with a total attendance of eight hundred and sixty-three.