The school service of the American Museum of Natural History

Original footage: 1927

William H. Carr and Irving Dutcher, photographers; AMNH and New York City Dept. of Education, producers.

A cooperative effort between the AMNH and the New York City Department of Education resulted in this film, a piece of museum history probably made to celebrate the completion of the School Service Building. At some point after the photographers (William H. Carr, assistant curator in the Department of Education and Public Health, and Irving Dutcher) filmed the museum scenes, several New York City street scenes were added, presumably to emphasize the value of educational programs in keeping children off the streets. As the film opens, children march into the main museum entrance under the arch on the 77th Street side. Inside, AMNH Director George Herbert Sherwood speaks to a group of children in front of the bust of Albert S. Bickmore, the museum's first Director. Of particular relevance to the history of the museum are views of AMNH personnel and halls in 1927. Curator of visual instruction George Clyde Fisher addresses an audience in the auditorium, Grace Fisher Ramsey (associate curator in the Department of Education and Public Health) teaches blind children about Eskimos, film editor Miss Holland engages in her craft, and Carr gives a lesson using a live turtle and snake. The halls and exhibits seen in the film are the old bird hall that was located where the Hall of Man in Africa presently is, wolf and bison groups in large glass cases, the old beaver habitat group, the School Nature League, and the circulating nature study collection featuring small mounted specimens in habitat cases.