322 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, VM^. 



collections of art and .science; })ut apart from this the libraries have 

 ill oeneral already attained a higher degree of development than the 

 museums, and for that reason I was the less able to pass them by. 

 All things considered, the American libraries perhaps excel those of 

 p]urope in art'hitecture and in administration methods, whereas this is 

 not yet so decidedly the case with the museums. As both the libra- 

 ries and the museums of the United States are almost unknown to us, 

 I have assumed this lack of acquaintance in my report. However 

 great the ignorance of Americans regarding Germany may be, it is at 

 all events exceeded by the ignorance of the Germans regarding the 

 United States. Although 3'ear after year more than a thousand 3'oung 

 Americans study in German schools and thousands of men and women 

 of the educated classes of the Union annually visit the "Fatherland," 

 as Germany is affectionately called, proportionately few educated 

 Germans go to the United States merely for the purpose of becoming 

 acquainted with that country, with the exception of those Avho go to 

 America to recuperate in the sharp atmosphere which stirs there. 



Although German colleagues who had visited American museums 

 and Americans who came to Germany told me that " we had not much 

 to learn there," still the authoritative opinions of men like Zittel, Ball, 

 and Wallace indicated otherwise. In 1888 the well-known paleon- 

 tologist of Munich expressed the opinion that the Americans had ])egun 

 to make their natural history treasures accessible to the public and to 

 specialists in a manner worthy in many respects of admiration and 

 imitation. In 1885 the late director of the Science and Art Museums 

 in Dublin was particularly impressed with the methodical planning, 

 thoroughness, and order prevailing in the majority of the American 

 museums. Many, though of recent date, already displayed an astound- 

 ing development of strength, and the American people were looking 

 forward with great and joyful hopes to a giant increase of their spheres 

 of usefulness. Finally the distinguished English naturalist declared, in 

 1887, that the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University, 

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Avidely known as the Agassiz Museum, 

 far excelled all European museums as an educational institution for 

 the public, for students, and for the special investigator. That, how- 

 ever, was half a generation ago, a period which in America counts for 

 as much as half a century or more with us; in fact, during tlie last 

 twenty years many imposing libraries and museums have been estab- 

 lished in the United States. New York, above all, shows the evident 

 tendency to ))econie the " first city of the world." It will at all events 

 ])ecome the greatest by its natural power of expansion and its location. 

 The ardent desire of everyone's local patriotism is to accomplish the 

 ])ost, and I believe that this aim will in time be attained. We P^uro- 

 peans must, each in his place, exert all our strengtli to avoid being 

 outstripped. The other great cities of the eastern part of tlu> I'liited 



