least, an ideal natural history museum, perfect in original design as
well as in execution, does not exist at present. We have indeed hardly
yet come to an agreement as to the principles upon which such a building
should be constructed. But as there are countries which have still their
national museums in the future, and as those already built are
susceptible of modifications, when the right direction has been
determined on, I should be glad to take this opportunity of putting on
record what appears to me, after long reflection on the subject, the
main considerations which should not be lost sight of in such an
undertaking.
In the first place, I have endeavoured to work out in detail, in its
application to natural history, that most original and theoretically
perfect plan for a museum of exhibited objects in which there are two
main lines of interest running in different directions and intersecting
each other, which we owe to the ingenuity of General Pitt-Rivers. This
was explained in his address as President of the Anthropological Section
of the British Association at Bath in 1888, and again in a lecture given
about two years ago before the Society of Arts.[5] Upon this plan the
museum building would consist of a series of galleries in the form of
circles, one within the other, and communicating at frequent intervals.
Each circle would represent an epoch in the world’s history, commencing
in the centre and finishing at the outermost, which would be that in
which we are now living. The history of each natural group would be
traced in radiating lines, and so by passing from the centre to the
circumference, its condition of development in each period of the
world’s history could be studied. If, on the other hand, the subject for
investigation should be the general fauna or flora of any particular
epoch, it would be found in natural association by confining the
attention to the circle representing that period. By such an
arrangement, that most desirable object, the union of palæontology with
the zoology and botany of existing forms in one natural scheme, could be
perfectly carried out, as both the structural and the geological
relations of each would be preserved, and indicated by its position in
the museum. Such a building would undoubtedly offer difficulties in
practical construction; but even if these could be got over, our
extremely imperfect knowledge of the past history of animal and plant
life would make its arrangement, with all the gaps and irregularities
that would become evident, so unsatisfactory that I can scarcely hope to
see it adopted in the near future.
I have therefore brought before you a humbler plan, but one which, I
think, will be found to embody the practical principles necessary in a
working museum of almost any description, large or small.
The fundamental idea of this plan is that the whole of the building
should be divided by lines intersecting at right angles, like the warp
and the woof of a piece of canvas.
The lines in one direction (see Plan, next page) divide the different
natural sections of which the collection is composed, and which it is
convenient to keep apart; the lines crossing these separate the portions
of the collection according to the method of treatment or conservation.
Thus, the exhibited part of the whole collection will come together in a
series of rooms, occupying naturally the front of the building. The
reserve collections will occupy another, or the middle, section; and
beyond these will be the working rooms, studies, and administrative
offices, all in relations to each other, as
[Illustration]
well as to the particular part of the collection to which they belong. A
glance at the plan will show at once the great convenience of such a
system, both for the public, and still more for those who work in the
museum.
This plan, of course, contemplates a one-storied, top-lighted building,
as far as the main rooms are concerned, although the workrooms and
studies will be in two or more stories. The main rooms should all have a
good substantial gallery running round them, by means of which their
wall space is doubled. There is no question whatever that an
evenly-diffused top light is far the best for exhibition rooms. Windows
not only occupy the valuable wall space, but give all kinds of
uncomfortable cross lights, interspersed with dark intervals. On the
other hand, for doing any kind of delicate work, a good north light from
a window, as provided in the plan, is the most suitable. The convenience
of having all the studies in relation with each other, and with the
central administrative offices, while each one is also in close
contiguity with the section of the collection to which it belongs, will,
I am sure, be appreciated by all who are acquainted with the
capriciously scattered position of such rooms in most large museums,
notably in our own. Among other advantages would be the very great one,
that when the daily hour of closing the main building arrives, the
officers need no longer, as at present, be interrupted in whatever piece
of work they may have at hand, and turned out of the building, but, as
arrangements could easily be made for a separate exit, they could
continue their labours as long and as late as they find it convenient to
do so, without any fear for the safety of the general collections.
It will be observed that provision is made for a central hall, which is
always a good architectural feature at the entrance of a building, and
which in a large museum is certainly useful in providing for the
exhibition of objects of general interest not strictly coming under any
of the divisions of the subject in the galleries, or possibly for
specimens of too great a size to be conveniently exhibited elsewhere.
There is also provision in the central part of the building for the
refreshment-rooms, as well as for the library and a lecture room, the
first being an essential, and the latter a very useful adjunct to any
collection intended for popular instruction, even if no strictly
systematic teaching should be part of its programme.
I may point out, lastly, as a great advantage of this plan, that it can
be, if space is reserved or obtainable, indefinitely extended on both
sides on exactly the same system without in any way interfering with the
existing arrangements; a new section, containing exhibition and reserve
galleries and studies, can be added as required at either end, either
for the reception of new departments, or for the expansion of the old
ones. With a view to the latter it is most important that the fittings
should be as little as possible of the nature of fixtures, but should
all be so constructed as to be readily removable and interchangeable.
This is a point I would strongly impress upon all who are concerned in
fitting up museums, either large or small.
The modifications of this plan, to adapt it to the requirements of a
municipal, school, or even village museum, will consist mainly in
altering the relative proportion of the two sections of the collection.
The majority of museums in country localities require little, if
anything, beyond the exhibition series. In this the primary arrangement
to be aimed at is, first, absolutely to separate the archæological,
historical, and art portions of the collection from the natural history,
if, as will generally be the case, both are to be represented in the
museum. If possible they should be in distinct rooms. The second point
is to divide each branch into two sections: (1) a strictly limited
general or type collection, arranged upon a purely educational plan; (2)
a local collection, consisting only of objects found within a certain
well-defined radius around the museum, which should be as exhaustive as
possible. Nothing else should be attempted, and therefore reserve
collections are unnecessary. Even the insects and dried plants can be
exhibited on some such plans as those adopted for the Walsingham
collection of Lepidoptera in the Zoological Department, or the
collection of British plants in the Botanical Department of our Natural
History Museum.
I have elsewhere indicated my views as to the objects most suitable for,
and the best arrangement of them in, school museums,[6] so I need say
nothing further on the subject now. Indeed, I fear I have exhausted your
patience, so I will conclude by expressing an earnest hope that this
meeting may prove a stimulus to all of us to continue heartily and
thoroughly at our work, which I hardly need say is the only way to
ensure that general recognition of it which we all so much desire.
III
LOCAL MUSEUMS[7]
Attention has already been directed, in several letters which have
recently appeared in the newspapers, to the desirability of a central
institution in which the numerous historical documents and objects of
interest connected with the county might not only be preserved from
destruction, but also made available for study and reference. Many of
these, which may be considered trifles now, will be of great value in
after time, as illustrating the history and mode of life of generations
passed or passing away. Many customs change with great rapidity, and all
evidences of their existence disappear, or only remain in literary
allusions, often difficult to understand without actual illustrations.
Take for instance the old flint and steel and brimstone match, the
universal source of illumination in even my early days. Most living
people, accustomed to the daily use of one of the greatest triumphs of
applied science, know nothing of the difficulties their grandfathers had
to contend with in supplying this most necessary want of common life. I
doubt if many of our generation were to see the old apparatus, whether
they would know what it was for or how used, and though one must have
existed in every cottage in the county fifty years ago, it is possible
that it would be very difficult to procure one, even for a museum, at
the present time. The candle-snuffers, without which we could not exist
in my childhood, are now as extinct as the Dodo. Take again the
threshing-flail, an instrument in universal use, with little change for
thousands of years, now rapidly disappearing in many districts; or the
stocks, once such an important social institution in rural life, but of
which I know now only one in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury,--that which
still remains in the picturesque village of Dinton. Specimens of all
these, and many others which will readily suggest themselves, should be
preserved in every local museum.
Then again, the natural history, the birds, the butterflies, the wild
flowers, and the fossils and minerals of the neighbourhood, so arranged
and named that any one can identify every creature or plant he may
chance to meet with in his walk, are essential features in a local
museum.
But now let me give a necessary warning. There are museums and museums.
A good one well arranged, and well kept, clean, neat, and attractive,
may be the means of conveying instruction and giving interest and
pleasure to the lives of thousands of our fellow-creatures. But such
museums do not grow of themselves; money, time, knowledge, and loving
and sympathetic care must be expended upon them, both in their
foundation and their maintenance, and unless all these can be provided
for with tolerable certainty, it is useless to begin. Voluntary
assistance is, no doubt, often valuable. There are many splendid
examples of what it may do in country museums, but it can never be
depended on for any long continuance. Death or removals, flagging zeal,
and other causes tell severely in the long run against this resource. A
museum must have an endowment adequate to defray its expenses, and
especially to ensure the staff of intelligent, educated, and paid
curators required to maintain it in a state of efficiency. You might as
well build a church and expect it to perform the duties required of it
without a minister, or a school without a schoolmaster, or a garden
without a gardener, as to build a museum and not provide a competent
staff to take care of it.
It is not the objects placed in a museum that constitute its value, so
much as the method in which they are displayed, and the use made of them
for the purpose of instruction.
The scope of the museum should be strictly defined and limited; there
must be nothing like the general miscellaneous collection of all kinds
of “curiosities,” thrown indiscriminately together which constituted the
old-fashioned country museum. I think we are all agreed as to the local
character predominating. One section should contain antiquities and
illustrations of local manners and customs; another section local
natural history, zoology, botany, and geology. The boundaries of the
county will afford a good limit for both. Everything not occurring in a
state of nature within that boundary should be rigorously excluded. In
addition to this, it may be desirable to have a small general collection
designed and arranged specially for elementary instruction in science.
This part might be brought into connection with the technical
instruction given in the county, and will be a valuable--indeed, a
necessary adjunct to it. Every branch of such instruction should have
its special collection of objects to illustrate it; the teaching will
then be made far more real and practical than it otherwise would be.
Agricultural chemistry and geology, dairy-farming, fruit-growing, and
such like subjects, might each have its collection. And these various
collections, though kept quite distinct, in different rooms if possible,
might be all associated in the County Museum and under the same general
management. Thus some of the funds devoted by the county to the purposes
of technical education might most profitably assist in the formation and
maintenance of the County Museum; indeed, I think myself that if a
portion of this money had been in the first place directly allocated to
the endowment of a museum in each county more good would have been done
for the advancement of education than by most of the schemes at present
under discussion. At any rate, the classrooms and laboratories required
for the teaching now contemplated should be associated with the museum,
if possible under the same roof, and the staff of teachers should assist
in the curatorial work, thus forming a sort of central college in every
county for technical education, which might send out ramifications into
the various districts in which the need of special instruction was most
felt, and also might be the parent of smaller branch museums of the same
kind wherever they seem required.
This is the kind of institution which I hope will, before long, be
established in every county in the land. The marvellous spread of
state-supported and rate-supported libraries which has taken place
during the last few years appears to be only the prelude to museums
supported in the same way. The underlying idea of a library and a museum
is precisely the same. They are both instruments of intellectual
culture, the one as much as the other. We have this illustrated on a
magnificent scale in our great National Library and Museum in London.
Before long a well-arranged and well-labelled museum will be
acknowledged as a necessity in any well-considered scheme of educational
progress. The museum and library will go hand in hand as essential
complements to each other in the advancement of science and art, and
intellectual development generally. A book without illustrations is of
comparatively little value in teaching many of the most important
subjects now comprised in general education. A museum should be a book
or rather library of books, illustrated not by pictures only, but by
actual specimens of the objects spoken of. The great principle of
expending public money upon purposes of education, though a
comparatively new one, is now conceded upon all sides. The cost of
supporting really efficient museums in all our principal local centres
would be but a trifling addition to the millions spent upon other
methods (some probably of far less value) of educating and elevating the
people. But in all cases let us remember, as Professor Brown Goode, the
Director of the United States National Museum, in an admirable essay on
“The Museums of the Future,” says, “One thing should be kept prominently
in mind by any organisation which intends to found and maintain a
museum, that the work will never be finished, that when the collections
cease to grow they begin to decay. A finished museum is a dead museum,
and a dead museum is a useless museum.”
IV
SCHOOL MUSEUMS[8]
Having lately been asked by Dr. Warre, Head Master of Eton, to give him
some assistance in the fitting up, arrangement, and management of the
museum about to be inaugurated at that College, I put down some notes
which he was pleased to think might be of use in pointing out the lines
that should be followed with most advantage. As these notes are equally
applicable to other school museums, I venture to publish them for the
information of those who may be in a position to profit by them,
premising that they are mere outlines, which are susceptible of much
elaboration in detail, and of some modifications, according to special
circumstances.
The subjects best adapted for such a museum are zoology, botany,
mineralogy, and geology.
Everything in the museum should have some distinct object, coming under
one or other of the above subjects, and under one or other of the series
defined below, _and everything else should be rigorously excluded_. The
curator’s business will be quite as much to keep useless specimens out
of the museum as to acquire those that are useful.
The two series or categories under which the admissible specimens should
come are the following:--(1) Specimens illustrating the teaching of the
natural history subjects adopted in the school, arranged in the order in
which the subjects are, or ought to be, taught. (2) Some special sets of
specimens of a nature to attract boys to the study of such branches of
natural history as readily lie in the path of their ordinary life,
especially their school life, and to teach them some of the common
objects they see around them.
The specimens of the first class should be all good of their kind,
carefully prepared and displayed, and fully labelled. They should also
be so arranged that they can be seen and studied without being removed
from their position in the case or in any way disturbed or damaged. It
would be best that they should never be taken out of the museum, but if
it is necessary to remove them for the purpose of demonstration at
lectures or classes, special provision should be made by which a whole
tray or case can be moved together, with due precautions against
disturbing the individual specimens. As a rule, the teachers should
either bring the classes into the museum for demonstrations, or they
should rely upon a different set of specimens kept in store in the
classrooms, and only brought out when required, and which may be handled
and examined without fear of injury. Really good permanent preparations
may be looked at, but not touched except by very skilled hands.
In zoology the collection should consist of illustrations of the
principal modifications of animal forms, living and extinct, a few
selected typical examples of each being given, showing the anatomy and
development as well as the external form. The series now in the course
of arrangement in the Central Hall of the Natural History branch of the
British Museum in the Cromwell Road may, as far as it is complete, be
taken as a guide, but for a school museum it will not be necessary to
enter so fully into detail as in that series.
In botany there should be a general morphological collection, showing
the main modifications of the different organs in the greater groups
into which the vegetable kingdom is divided, and illustrating the terms
used in describing these modifications. Such a collection may also be
seen (although still far from complete) in the same institution.
For a teaching collection of minerals, an admirable model has for
several years past been exhibited in the Mineralogical Gallery of the
Natural History Museum, being, in fact, the various paragraphs of Mr.
Fletcher’s _Introduction to the Study of Minerals_ cut up, and with each
statement illustrated by a choice specimen.
The geological collection would best be limited mainly to a series
illustrating the rocks and characteristic fossils of the British Isles,
arranged stratigraphically. There would be no difficulty in making such
a series on any scale, according to the space available, and if well
selected and arranged, it would be extremely instructive and form a
complete epitome of the whole subject. It should be placed in a
continuous series along one side of the room, beginning with the oldest
and ending with the most recent formations. It might be preceded by some
general specimens illustrating the various kinds of rock structures,
etc.
Mineral and fossil specimens are generally to be procured as wanted from
the dealers, and as they require little or no preparation, collections
illustrating these subjects can be quickly made, if money is available
for the purpose. This is not, however, the case with zoological and
botanical specimens, most of which require labour, skill, and knowledge
to be expended upon their preparation before they can be preserved in
such a manner as to make them available for permanent instruction.
We will next proceed to consider what objects may be included under the
second head, many of which need not be constantly exhibited, but may be
preserved in drawers for special study. These may be--
(1) A well-named collection of the commoner British insects, especially
those of the neighbourhood in which the school is situated, with their
larvæ, which should (if means will allow) be mounted on models of the
plants upon which they feed. All should have their localities and the
date of capture carefully recorded. These are best kept in a cabinet,
with glass-topped drawers, with a stop behind, so as to allow them to be
pulled out for inspection, but not entirely removed. Such a collection,
formed of specimens prepared and presented by Lord Walsingham, can now
be seen in the British Room of the Natural History Museum.
(2) A similar collection of British shells, especially the land and
freshwater shells of the neighbourhood.
(3) If space and means allow, a collection of British birds, especially
the best-known and more interesting species. Rare and occasional
visitors, reckoned in the books as British, which are the most expensive
and difficult to procure, are the least important for such a collection.
Variations in plumage in young and old, and at different seasons, should
be shown in some common species. Every specimen must be good and well
mounted, or it is not worth placing in the museum.
(4) The principal British mammals of smaller size, especially the bats,
shrews, and mice.
(5) The British reptiles, Amphibia, and commoner fishes, so shown that
their distinctive characters may be recognised.
(6) A collection, as complete as may be, of British plants, or at all
events of the plants of the neighbourhood. By far the best way of
preserving and exhibiting such a collection is in glazed frames, movably
hinged upon an upright stand, as may be seen in the Botanical Gallery of
the Natural History Museum. A collection arranged in this manner should
find a place in every school museum of natural history.
(7) A collection of the fossils found in the quarries of the
neighbourhood, should there be any.
Every collection or series should be kept perfectly distinct from and
independent of the others, and its nature and object clearly indicated
by a conspicuous label.
The exhibited specimens should be arranged in upright wall-cases or in
table-cases on the floor of the room. For the latter a high slope is
preferable, and in all the exhibition space should not extend too high
or too low for comfortable inspection. Between three to six or seven
feet from the floor should be the limits for the exhibition of small
objects. The three feet nearest the floor may be enclosed with wooden
doors forming cupboards or fitted with drawers. Glass in this situation
is liable to be broken by the feet or knees.