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BULLETIIV 



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THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Vol. 7 CHARLESTON, S. C, DECEMBER, 1911 No. 8 



MUNICIPAL CATALOG OF ART 



At the request of the City Art Commission, recently created by 

 act of Council, the Museum has undertaken to maintain for the 

 Commission a municipal catalog of public and private works of 

 art in Charleston. Professor N. W. Stephenson, honorary cu- 

 rator of art, will have charge of this catalog. 



So much is heard of the many activities in which Charleston 

 was a pioneer in past centuries that it is pleasant to note that this 

 is the second municipal catalog of this sort which is known to the 

 writer. It follows the plan of the Registry of Local Art main- 

 tained by the Museum of Fine. Arts in Boston. Both of these 

 catalogs are the result of a paper on Museums of Art and the Con- 

 servation of Monuments ^ read before the American Association 

 of Museums in May, 1909, by Mr. Benjamin Ives Gilman, secre- 

 tary of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In this paper Mr. 

 Gilman suggested that the function of museums of art and science 

 be extended to the preservation of accurate records, photographs, 

 etc., pertaining to works of art or natural features of scientific in- 

 terest which on account of their size or for other reasons cannot 

 be brought within the museum walls. In October of the same 

 year the Registry was established in the Museum of Fine Arts, 

 and Mr. Gilman reported a most successful beginning of the work 

 in June, 1910.^ 



^Proc. Am. Assoc. Mus., Ill, 1909, 87-92. 



'Museum Registry of Local Art. Proc. Am. Assoc. Mus., IV, 1910. 84-87. 



67 



