376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF LIMITED MUSEUMS. 



bt oscak w. collet. 



BY a museum I do not mean a storehouse of things curious in art 

 or nature — a repository of curiosities, as "Worcester defines the 

 word, although in most large towns there are places called museums, 

 and realizing his definition — but a building in which are collected 

 books, and natural or artificial objects that relate to, and are preserved, 

 classified, and conveniently arranged to illustrate, one or more depart- 

 ments of knowledge, and from which objects of mere curiosity are 

 excluded. Assuming that this description is sufficiently accurate and 

 comprehensive for present purposes, it would seem that a museum 

 should be regarded primarily as an instrument to communicate knowl- 

 edge, and its growth subordinated to such instrumentality that the 

 efliciency of the instrument may be assured. But the instrumentality 

 is passive, not active, and consists in being a repository or source of 

 knowledge for all that choose to avail themselves of it. 



Knowledge really valuable, subjectively considered, is thorough ; 

 and therefore the instrument of its communication should be adapted 

 and adequate to the purpose to which it is to be applied. Thorough 

 knowledge is not a general acquaintance with everything, but knowing 

 masterfully what one professes to know. If a museum is a storehouse 

 from which knowledge is to be dra-wTi, as knowledge is of many kinds, 

 the repository should be so filled that nothing is wanting. But in 

 most cases this is impossible. There is no reason, theoretically, for- 

 bidding an attempt to form a general museum which shall lack noth- 

 ing necessary to its integrity, but practically failure is certain to result 

 from the want of sufficient means. This difficulty is encountered the 

 world over, and in part has led to the establishment of special muse- 

 ums — natural science, natural history, archaeological museums, and the 

 like. 



This much premised, we now proceed to the subject of this paper, 

 museums in the Western part of the United States. Respecting these 

 museums we lay down two propositions : 1. They should be limited, 

 not general museums ; 2. That each one should select some specialty, 

 and the more distinctly its boundary-lines are drawn the better, even 

 if it be necessary, on the one side or the other, to run them somewhat 

 arbitrarily as to inclusions and exclusions. 



The value of every collection intended for scientific purposes and 

 public use — ^books, natural science objects, ethnographical specimens, it 

 matters not what — does not depend upon quantity or variety, but the 

 completeness of its classes or their subdivisions. A reference library, 

 for instance, that contained every publication of consequence relating to 

 the Mississippi Valley, would be preferable to one more numerously 



