1961-1962 - American Museum of Natural History

The exhibits comprise the Museum's face; they have been
rightly called a "three-dimensional text-book." They must be
of top quality if the organization is to be recognized as a noteworthy
educational force.
President White has mentioned plans for some of the future
halls that we are building, all of which are being designed to
achieve the highest educational result; and, at the present time,
visitors of every age are using existing halls to gain a diversity
of knowledge and experience. Youngsters ponder over treasure
hunts keyed to the exhibit halls, a new activity conducted by
the Department of Education. School groups correlate the subject
matter of the exhibits with their studies in biological and
social sciences. And the individual adult uses this "people's
university" to further his interest in minerals and textiles,
hummingbirds and elephants, prehistoric creatures and men in
space, or any of the countless exhibits through which the
Museum is interpreting nature and science.
In the field of publications, the scientific staff is doing an
outstanding job in producing the numerous reports that appear
in the Museum's Bulletin, Novitates, Anthropological Papers,
Curator, Contributions of the American Museum-Hayden
Planetarium, and in other scientific journals. And each day
brings new efforts in the field of popular publication that increase
significantly the communication of scientific knowledge
to the student, the teacher, and the general public.
These are some of the means by which the American Museum
of Natural History fulfills its responsibilities. Today, more
than ever, the world is the Museum's laboratory and the Museum
is the interpreter of that world.
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