20 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



The late Sir Wm. Flower, whose life was devoted to the 

 highest type of museum work, pointed out, in his famous British 

 Association address, that a museum should have a two-fold 

 object — Research and Instruction. 20 The part devoted to 

 research would be consulted only by those favoured few who had 

 ability and opportunity for enlarging the bounds of knowledge, 

 and consequently this portion need not be exhibited, but should 

 be reserved for secluded study by the specialist. Such an 

 arrangement is, perhaps, hardly applicable to a small museum' 

 like ours at Stratford ; yet even there we are following, to some 

 extent, the lines indicated, inasmuch as specimens prominently 

 displayed to the public are such as should attract the general 

 visitor, whilst the local collection for consultation by the serious 

 student is preserved in cabinets, though those are accessible to alU 



My friend, Dr. Bather, in a valuable address delivered a 

 short time ago to the Museums Association at Aberdeen, took a 

 wider view of museum organisation, and held that a typical 

 museum has three functions — Investigation, Instruction and 

 Inspiration.* 21 As an aid to investigation the Museum is con- 

 sulted by the specialist who is occupied in original research ; as a 

 means of instruction it is used by the ordinary student, the 

 amateur and the collector ; as an aid to inspiration it appeals to 

 the lay public, the rank outsider, the man in the street. Our 

 Essex Museum, though appealing to the ordinary student, is 

 largely concerned with the last of these functions — it seeks to 

 attract and elevate the general public of West Ham. Our 

 purpose, to borrow Dr. Bather's words, is " not to turn every 

 member of the gaping crowd into a doctor of science, but to 

 awaken their imagination and interest, and to give to a street- 

 bred folk some feeling for the nature it has well-nigh forgotten. 

 The love of nature is the essential thing ; the questioning of her 

 will follow." 



It may, perhaps, be said that theoretically we need three 

 museums, one for each type of visitor — the specialist, the student 

 and the stranger. The first and the second type of museum may 

 be united, so may the second and third, but the first and third 

 types are generally as little disposed to union as oil and water. 



20 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1889, reprinted in Essays on Museums. 

 London : 1898, p. 1. 



21 Rep. Mus. Assoc. Aberdeen meeting, 1903. See also his paper on " The Functions, 

 of Museums," in the Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1904, p. 210. 



