One afternoon the Guide said: “Girls, have any of you entered blue prints in your Tally Books?”
No one had, so she added: “Just as soon as Spring comes with its first flowers, I want you to start a blue print album. I think it is one of the most interesting and instructive of pursuits. I have a book that I completed during a trip through the Canadian Northwest, and I wouldn’t sell those blue prints for any price—they are so beautiful and the wild flowers so interesting.”
The Saturdays during November were spent in New York, the Guide taking the girls to the splendid public libraries; lectures illustrated with motion pictures were given by white men who had spent many years with the Indians; and the unusual series of talks given at the Museum on Central Park West and 79th Street proved most interesting. Here also the Woodcrafters saw life-sized groups of Indians in wax, the individual costumes and customs of each Tribe being faithfully depicted by the clothes, items of camping outfits, and other things. In these exhibitions the girls found many suggestions that they could apply to pottery work, bead work, and other things pertaining to Indian life.
One afternoon, while visiting the large library on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Miss Miller said: “Who knows where the first public library was founded—and when?”
No one knew, so the Guide told them.
“The first on record—there may have been private collections then as now, but it was not recorded—was founded at Athens by Hipparchus in 526 B. C.
“The second of note was founded at Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus, but it was burnt when Julius Caesar set fire to Alexandria in 47 B. C. It is said that 400,000 rare and valuable books were destroyed in that disaster.
“A second library was formed from the remains of the books in this first one, and this second was reputed to have held over 700,000 volumes, but this was captured by the Saracens who used the books for fuel instead of working to gather wood.
“In 1446 A. D. the next large library was formed and from that time on collections of important books were made and offered to the public for free use.”
Such comments by Miss Miller always made the visits to public buildings very interesting to the girls, who acquired a general knowledge of things worth knowing in this manner.