II. RECOMMENDATIONS ON ORGANIZATION 1. In view of the fact that the purpose of national parks is to be found in their inspirational and educational values, there should be an advisory body of five to seven of the ablest men conversant with national parks, appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, on nomination by the Director of National Parks, to serve without salary, whose duty it shall be to advise the Director of National Parks on matters pertinent to educational policy and developments in national parks. 2. There should be a division of education coordinate with other divisions of the National Park Service directed by a man with the best of scientific and educational qualifications who shall administer the educational program in the parks. III. PROCEDURE OF THE COMMITTEE IN THE STUDY OF ITS PROBLEM In examination of the problem of education in its relation to operation of national parks it has seemed wisest to give careful study to each of the special questions expressed through the peculiar opportunities in the parks. It also appeared important that examination be made of the educational possibilities of the parks individually. As illustration of the method of approach to one aspect of this problem, the committee presents herewith a brief document, entitled "Memorandum Regarding Necessity for Further Research on Problems Involved in the Educational Program of National Parks." As illustration of the method of approach in study of an individual park, there is presented a document, entitled Recommendations Regarding Development of an Educational Program at Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park." In consideration of the general plan of educational work in national parks, the committee has given attent on to the opportunities in practically all of the parks, and has accumulated a large volume of data. These reports will be presented when further studies make it possible to digest and simplify the proposals. In study of the best means for organization of an educational program, the committee has considered the opportunities under two heads: (a) Service to the visiting public desiring to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities of the parks; (b) Service to educators and investigators attempting to obtain new information, or to increase their general or special knowledge of the phenomena represented in the parks. There has been intensive study of the principal phases of work now under way and proposed for the national parks, such as, nature guide service, visual instruction, museums, and publications designed to serve as aids to visitors and investigators. Further report upon all of the matters mentioned will be transmitted as early as it becomes possible to work through to a satisfactory solution the problems under consideration. In submitting this report to the Secretary, the committee wrote as follows: The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: The committee appointed in 1928 by the Secretary of the Interior for study of educational problems of national parks has visited the greater number of the parks and has taken up an intensive study of their educational problems. Inasmuch as it has been indicated that a period of two years may be used for this work, and many difficult questions are involved, it has seemed wise to take such time as may be needed for preparation of a thoroughly fundamental discussion of the subject. It is, however, agreed by the committee that a first report on certain general questions should be made at this time, it being understood that the recommendations here presented will be followed by detailed statements relating to specific subjects and to the special problems of individual parks. The report transmitted includes the following materials: "1. A statement of general principles agreed upon by the committee for guidance in study of the educational problem of national parks. "2. A group of specific recommendations relating to organization of educational work in national parks, together with an outline of program for such work. "3. Recommendations by the committee relative to method of initiation and development of an educational program for Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park, this being a park in which educational work has not been developed. The recommendations presented relative to this park may be considered both as covering a general type of organization and as having reference specifically to the needs of Mount Lassen Park." The committee trusts that the statement presented herewith may serve a useful purpose in consideration of basic problems relating to national park organization. As rapidly as may be possible, the committee will forward the results of its further specific studies on individual parks, and on the various subjects which will naturally develop through an educational program in national parks. Respectfully submitted. HAROLD C. BRYANT. Shortly after the receipt of this report the Secretary of the Interior, acting on the recommendations contained therein, appointed an informal advisory board to assist the Director of the National Park Service on matters pertinent to educational policy and developments in the national parks. Doctor Merriam, who is president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, accepted the chairmanship of this board. Associated with him are Dr. H. C. Bumpus, of the American Association of Museums; Dr. Vernon Kellogg, secretary of the National Research Council; Dr. Wallace W. Atwood, president of Clark University; Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of the American Museum of Natural History; Dr. Isaiah Bowman, president of the American Geographic Society; and Dr. Frank R. Oastler of New York, who has specialized in national park work for several years. All but three of these men were among the original members of the informal committee making the educational survey, and two of these, Doctors Atwood and Wissler, were added to the committee during the past year. Studies were made in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Mesa Verde, and Acadia National Parks and in a number of the national monuments during the past summer by members of the educational committee. It is planned by Doctor Merriman that the final report of the committee, which is functioning on a 2-year basis, may be made to the Secretary during the coming winter. EDUCATIONAL DIVISION IN WASHINGTON ORGANIZATION PLANNED Upon the recommendation of the advisory board, and with your approval, plans have been under consideration during the past few months for the establishment of an educational division in the headquarters office of the National Park Service at Washington properly to coordinate the various educational phases of park work. In order that such a division may be established and function as promptly as possible, an item covering the initial year's expenses has been included in the estimates of appropriations needed for the 1931 fiscal year. As now planned the division when formed will consist of two educational experts and the necessary stenographic and clerical help. EDUCATIONAL PLANS DEVELOPED Comprehensive plans for the development of general educational work in the national parks, stating the general principles of administration of the educational division as a whole, were carefully worked out and approved during the past year. This general plan is supplemented by individual plans outlining the educational activities for the various national parks. Several naturalists from the individual parks were detailed to the educational headquarters at Berkeley, Calif., during the winter to assist in the preparation of administrative plans for the current operation of the educational activities in their individual parks and to secure scientific data needed for the use of their local staffs. This proved to be an excellent method of training the educational personnel in their special fields of activity. MUSEUM DEVELOPMENT The American Association of Museums, which has taken such a keen interest in museum development in the national parks, continued to advise and assist in this work during the past year. The greatest museum activity was in Yellowstone National Park, where under a grant of $118,000 secured a year ago by the Museum Association from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, a definite policy of museum expansion was in progress. The museum of hydrothermal phenomena, begun last year at Old Faithful, was completed and put into operation. During the past season this was successful beyond all expectations, and it is proving to be one of the major educational features of the park. Illustrated lectures were given nightly in the court of the museum, the attendance sometimes reaching as high as 1,500 at one lecture. Construction of a smaller branch museum at Norris Geyser Basin is now in progress. This, like the one at Old Faithful, will be chiefly one of hydrothermal phenomena, but its exhibits will in no way duplicate those of Old Faithful, due to the differences in types of formations, hot springs, and geysers found in the two localities. Another branch museum now under construction is located at Madison Junction, at the con-fluence of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers. In this museum, located near the site of the camp fire of the Washburn-Langford-Doaneexpedition of 1870, at which the fate of the Yellowstone was discussed and the national park idea first advanced, will be an exhibit telling the story of this camp-fire discussion and its far-reaching results. Both the Madison Junction and Norris Geyser Basin museums will be conducted as trail-side museums. Trail-side ex-hibits, lookouts, and other branch museums are being planned for other points throughout the park, each to be a unit of the general. museum and educational development. The museum at Yosemite National Park, established in 1924 through the cooperation and generosity of the American Associa-tion of Museums and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, functioned excellently during the past season and served an estimated total of 439,852 people, by far the largest number that has yet used the museum. The Glacier Point Lookout also proved very popular during the season, as did the new branch museum installed at the Mariposa Grove of big trees. An interesting museum was also made available to visitors to Lassen Volcanic National Park last summer, through the donation to the Government of a museum and 40 acres of land on which it stands by B. F. Loomis, of California. The museum, for which plans were approved by the landscape architectural division, is devoted to exhibits of the volcanic history of the area, including a photographic account of the latest eruptions of Lassen Peak. In a separate building, constructed on the same plan as the central museum, is an exhibition seismograph under glass, which is of great public interest. The seismograph instruments were installed by the Geological Survey of the Department of the Interior and are designed to measure earthquake shocks and tremors around the Lassen Peak regions. The interesting museum at Mesa Verde National Park, made possible entirely through gifts from friends of the park, was immensely popular last season. Acquisitions to the museum during the year as a result of archeological investigations in the old cliff-dweller ruins are mentioned under the heading "Archeology." Small museums were maintained at several of the other national parks, as well as at six of the monuments in the southwestern group. In these latter reservations the museum exhibits are not, as a rule, labeled. Instead the custodian or the guide shows visitors through both the ruins and the museum, explaining the various exhibits. LIBRARIES IN THE NATIONAL PARKS There is need for the establishment of libraries in the national parks for use by members of the educational staffs and also for the reference use of visitors interested in particular phases of natural history. The value of such libraries has been amply demonstrated by the use of the one maintained in connection with the Yosemite museum. During the past year many books were added to that library, and the small library in Yellowstone National Park was much enlarged. Considerable progress was made at educational headquarters toward the compilation of a bibliography of books on all the national parks. LECTURES IN THE NATIONAL PARKS Especially interesting were the lectures given in the national parks during the season at the hotels, lodges, and community buildings, and around the camp fires. Although covering scientific and technical subjects, these lectures were given in popular form so as to appeal to all listeners, whether scientifically trained or not. an example of the type of men who are offering their services to assist in this work, last summer three popular scientific lectures on "The Past, Present, and Future of the Giant Sequoia were given at Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park by Dr. Ralph W. Chaney, internationally known paleobotanist, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Many teachers of note throughout the country are serving on the educational staff. More than half a million people heard the various lectures throughout the parks during the season. FIELD TRIPS CONDUCTED BY RANGER NATURALISTS As in the past, field trips, varying in length from an hour or so to several days, were offered visitors to the major parks by the ranger naturalist forces. So popular have these walks become, however, that the educational staff, despite some increase in personnel, has been entirely too small properly to handle the large number of people demanding this service. One ranger naturalist or guide can personally reach 20 to 25 persons on a field trip to great advantage, but when, as occasionally happens, several hundred people go on a single field trip it is impossible to give the desired attention to individuals along the trail. Therefore, one of the vitally important improvements for next year is an increase in the rangernaturalist personnel. SELF-GUIDING AND NATURE TRAILS In an effort to supplement to a certain extent the personally-conducted trips, a number of self-guiding and nature trails have been laid out during the past three or four years. While they have proved very attractive to visitors, they have failed to achieve their purpose of relieving the congestion on the personally-conducted trips, for after using the self-guiding trails interest in educational matters becomes stimulated and visitors are more keen than ever to attend the rangers' trips. A number of new nature trails were developed during the past year by the chief park naturalist and volunteer assistants. WILD-FLOWER GARDENS In order that visitors unable, through lack of time or physical strength, to visit all parts of the park may see and enjoy as many varieties as possible of the exquisite wild flowers that abound in outof-the-way places, wild-flower gardens have been constructed in several of the national parks. One such garden established during the past summer is at Giant Forest in Sequoia Park. Here, in a garden adjacent to the museum and administration building, about 70 species of wild flowers were transplanted and labeled. Some of these were carried many miles from the High Sierra country and others were brought up from lower elevations. All of them, of course, are native to the park. Other gardens have been established in Yosemite and Crater Lake National Parks. Especially interesting is the wild-flower garden around the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. The first garden planted at the Ahwahnee was destroyed by deer, so with the permission of the Park Service a deer fence was constructed around the garden and it was replanted with native wild flowers. The Yosemite Park & Curry Co. has spent thousands of dollars on this garden, which is now about the only place in the valley where the native flowers may be seen in any profusion. UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES CONDUCT FIELD CLASSES IN PARKS Each year a number of prominent universities, both eastern and western, send field parties into the national parks to study natural history and allied sciences at first hand. The National Park Service welcomes all such classes and is keenly interested in promoting this educational use of the parks. |