Miriam S. Draper was born in Roxbury, Mass., and taught for a
brief period in the public schools there. She studied in Mr.
Fletcher's school at Amherst in the summer of 1893, and was
graduated from the Pratt Institute Library School in 1895. In the
next five years she filled the following temporary positions:
Cataloguer, Public Library, Ilion, N. Y.; Organizer, first branch
of the Queens Borough Library at Long Island City; Librarian of a
branch of the Pratt Institute Free Library until its
discontinuance; Cataloguer, Antioch College Library, Yellow
Springs, Ohio; one of the Classifiers in the University of
Pennsylvania Library during its reorganization. When the
Children's Museum was opened in 1900, she became its librarian,
the position she now holds.
The Children's Museum may be considered unique, because so far as
we know, there is no other museum in this country or elsewhere
that is devoted primarily to children and young people; in which
a whole building is set apart for the purpose of interesting them
in the beautiful in Nature, in the history of their country, in
the customs and costumes of other nations, and the elementary
principles of astronomy and physics, by means of carefully
mounted specimens, attractive models, naturally colored charts,
excellent apparatus, and finely illustrated books. Many of the
children come to the museum so often that they feel that it is
their very own, and take great pride as well as pleasure in
introducing their parents and relatives, so that they may enjoy
the museum and library with them. It may be called a new
departure in work with children, for although it was started ten
years ago, it was for some time in the nature of an experiment,
but has now fully exemplified its reasons for existence.
The Children's Museum is pleasantly located in a beautiful little
park, which adds greatly to its attractiveness and educational
value. While situated in a residential portion of the city, amid
the homes of well-to-do people, it is quite accessible by car
lines to other parts of the city. In fact, classes of children
accompanied by their teachers frequently come from remote
sections of Brooklyn, and from the East Side of New York. We are
within walking distance of thickly populated sections, such as
Brownsville, and large numbers of Jewish and Italian children
avail themselves of the privileges offered. It is hoped that in
time each section of the city may have its own little Children's
Museum, as a center of interest and incentive to broader
knowledge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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