BULLETIIV 



OF 



THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Vol. 4 CHARLESTON, S. C, MARCH, 1908 No. 3 



LJBixAR 



MUSEUM RECORDS NEW 



. ^ X. OCT A I 



A Report of Progress 



QARl 



Three years ago a general reorganization of the Museum 

 was undertaken for the purpose of making it of greater ser- 

 vice to the people and of preserving and developing its scien- 

 tific value. In a lecture which was printed in the first issue 

 of the Bulletin the Director outlined the work of a modern 

 museum of natural history, laying special stress upon accu- 

 rate and permanent records as the indispensable foundation 

 of all future usefulness of specimens. He then showed the 

 importance of dividing the collections into reserve or study 

 series and exhibition series, the former affording the special- 

 ist an orderly and accessible arrangement convenient for 

 study, the latter affording the public carefully selected se- 

 ries of especially interesting and instructive specimens, ar- 

 ranged to illustrate particular subjects, explained by descrip- 

 tive labels, and supplemented by lectures. This arrange- 

 ment relieves the exhibition halls of collections monotonously 

 uninteresting to all but special students while at the 

 same time emphasizing the absolute dependence of the exhi- 

 bition series upon the study series and of this in turn upon 

 accurate records. In short, it is the^duty of a public mu- 



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