338 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



2. MUSEUM OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Brooklyn, with more than 1,250,000 inhabitants, has formed part of 

 (Jreater New York since 1897. The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 

 Sciences dates from l.'^24, and received its present name in 1887. Its 

 principal aim is the diffusion of knowledge by means of lectures, 

 instruction, and museum collections. Its motto is from Washington's 

 celebrated farewell address: . "Promote as an object of primary 



111 that cai^e the long side would be less exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It 

 would then have been unnecessary constantly to protect the collections on exhibition 

 by window curtains, which, umler the direct rays of the sun, change the proper color 

 (»f the objects and make conditions for exhibition unsuitalile. This fact is usually 

 lost sight of in connection with museum buildings, to the disadvantage of the collec- 

 tions installed in them. In the case under consideration the lines of the existing 

 streets Avere followed. The unconformity which would have occurred by a slight 

 turning of the building could, however, have been masked by planting groups of trees 

 ;uid the like. The building is massive and imposing, with a rich moulding, added 

 solely with a view to architectural effect. The arrangement of individual rooms 

 resulting from it is in many cases unsuited. As is very often the case with muse- 

 ums, this one was not built solely with reference to its needs; that is, t'onstructed 

 from within outward and the outer form of the building made to conform to the inte- 

 rior design. Thus, for exaiuple, the great projecting central part of the building 

 darkens the iialis lying behind it; the i^rojecting towers produce inconsistency and 

 irregularity in a number of the iniier rooms; the crossbars of the windows and the 

 window posts are too wide, and thereby unnecessarily reduce the light in the interior; 

 in certain stories the windows themselves ought to have been liigher and not extended 

 down as far as the iloor, for, had this been the case, the only advantageous method 

 of lighting, l)y upper side light, etc., would have been secured. 



The proportions of length, breadth, and height of some halls, and the width of the 

 spaces between windows in relation to the width of the windows, are often extremely 

 well worked out, so that indiviilual portions of the museum, rather than the whole 

 building, make the best impression. 



The furniture, cases, and desks are of wood, with heavy fraiiiew(U-k, generally with 

 many crossbars and relatively small panes, and they are not dii.st proof, except in the 

 large show cases without doors. It is the more astonishing that they have not intro- 

 duced iron t-ases, such as are to be found in many European museums, since .\merica 

 is far in advance of Europe in fitting out libraries and archives with iron furniture, and 

 understands how to install it in a niore jierfect manner than we have yet attained. 

 Objection may also be made to the dimensions and to the ])eculiar shape and the 

 position of many of the cases with regard to the source of liglit. Too little regard 

 has been paid to the architecture in its bearings upon the lighting arrangements; 

 thus several of the fine large groups of animals (the bisons, among others) are con- 

 siderably injured by reflections from the glass panes, which are distributed carelessly 

 without consideration of the source of light. This, however, could easily be remedied. 

 For the sizes of the cases and their distribution, it would have been more advantageous 

 if the iron-supporting columns had stood farther toward the middle of the halls. 

 These columns also run directly into the ceiling. The richly ornaniented capitals 

 in some halls do not harmonize with the prevailing simplicity of the interior decora- 

 tions which in a great degree are worthy of imitation, except that in some of the 

 older ])arts of tlui building they are too rough. 



I have already mentioned that the lumiber of scientific workers employed iii this 

 nm.seum, which is advancing with giant strides, is entirely inadeijiiate. The mass 



