THE FUNCTIONS OF MUSEUMS. 211 



a re-survey of the situation recently presented itself to me, and I was 

 led to the conclusion that a redisposition of our forces was required 

 if we were to cope adequately with the difficulties of the present situa- 

 tion. On that occasion, however, I had another object in view, and 

 alluded to this question only so far as was necessary to explain certain 

 proposals with regard to art-museums.* The subject is too important 

 to be dealt with as a side-issue, and so I wish to discuss some aspects of 

 it a little more fully. 



Let us then consider the main purposes of museums, and see first 

 how each of them may best be worked out, and secondly how they may 

 be combined when necessary. 



First, then: What are the functions of museums? Multifarious 

 though they are, the more important of them may be placed under 

 three heads : 



(a) The collection and preservation of material for study by ex- 

 perts, so that they may widen the bounds of knowledge. The ultimate 

 aim of this function may be summed up in one word — investigation. 



(&) The collection, preservation and exhibition of material for 

 the education of less advanced students and for the assistance of 

 amateurs. The provision for students covers such collections and ex- 

 hibitions as samples of textiles for the use of weavers, specimens of 

 wood-carving and of wrought iron for the workers in wood and in 

 metal, plaster cases, paintings and engravings for students of the 

 plastic and graphic arts, anatomical preparations for medical students, 

 series of natural objects or of physical apparatus and the like for young 

 people taking their B.Sc. The term 'amateurs' is a convenient one 

 to include the field-naturalists who come to a museum to identify their 

 captures, the collector of coins, of postage stamps or of china, who 

 wishes to verify some recent acquisition, and, in short, the many lovers 

 of art, who without being artists, art critics or connoisseurs, yet enjoy 

 the examination of even inferior productions of some school or period 

 in which they have assumed an interest. For students and amateurs 

 alike, this function of the museum may briefly be expressed as in- 

 struction. 



(c) The selection and display of material in such a way as to attract 

 the general public, to provide for its members intellectual and esthetic 

 pleasure, and so eventually to interest them in noble things outside the 

 daily groove. Any one who visits a museum, or any portion of a 

 museum, not as a specialist or student, but as a sight-seer, is to be 

 regarded as one of the general public. To every such layman, learned 

 or unlearned, the museum should help to give that higher and broader 



* Museums Association. Aberdeen Conference, 1903. ' Address by the 

 President,' Museums Journal, III., pp. 71-94, 110-132 and 36 plates; Septem- 

 ber and October, 1903. 



