American Museum of Natural History Department of Public Instruction outreach and communication

1881 – The Department of Public Instruction began its work. Its first curator, Professor Albert S. Bickmore, “…conceived and planned a system to make the Museum a factor of large usefulness by taking an active part in the education of the pupils of our public schools.”

1906 – George H. Sherwood is appointed Curator of the Department of Public Education. Nature Study collections are created and loaned to public schools. Lecture series begin for school children, teachers and the public. .

1906 – The Museum appoints an Instructor who works with school classes visiting the museum and supervises the newly created Children’s Room.

1911 – 870 public school teachers are invited to the Museum for the first Teachers Day, part of a drive to expand this department.

1912 – The educational methods of the Museum receive attention from educators in the United States and abroad.

SOURCES

American Museum of Natural History, Annual Reports, 1906-1908, 1911, 1912 (QH70.U52N39).

American Museum of Natural History, Special Collections, Vertical Files, Sherwood, George H.

Osborn, Henry Fairfield. The American Museum and Education. (QH70.U52 N4578 1925).

Osborn, Henry Fairfield. The American Museum of Natural History : its origin, its history, the growth of its departments to December 31, 1909. (QH70.U52N458 1911a).

GEORGE H. SHERWOOD

1876-1937

George H. Sherwood joined the American Museum of Natural History in 1901 as Assistant Curator of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology. In 1906, he became Curator of the Department of Public Education, a post he held until 1924 when he became Acting Director and the Director of the Museum. In 1935, he resigned as Director due to poor health and returned to the Department of Public Education as Curator-in-Chief.

Of all his work in the Museum, he was most interested in education, particularly public education. By 1934, there had been more than 30 million museum contacts with schoolchildren.

During his time as Curator of the Department of Education, the department expanded to include classes in Museum Instruction for teachers; lectures for the public and members of the museum; lectures for children (“The Development of New York City,” “Hiawatha’s People.”); and lantern slides and nature collections that were loaned to public schools via “electric delivery wagons.”