STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 411 



peculiar genesis explains tlie vast scope of this Chicago institution, 

 perhaps eni])racino- too wide a tield, as we shall see, and accounts 

 for the astonishing repletion of its overcrowded cases, as well as 

 for the fact that the museum, in true Chicago stj'le, could, from its 

 very beginning, claim a place among the leading museums of the 

 world, an apparently solitary example in the history of such institu- 

 tions. There was also the extraordinary advantage of having available 

 among the exposition buildings one of more substantial construction 

 than the rest, the one provided for the exhibit of line arts. It is a 

 wide-spreading structure in Ionic style of the Spanish t3^pe, designed 

 by Charles B. Atwood. It has about 6 acres of ground space avail- 

 able for exposition purposes, or almost double the space of the old 

 market at Dresden, and stands ])v itself in Jackson Park, an area 

 of 521 acres, immediateh" on the shore of Lake Michigan, which 

 is nearly as large as the Kingdom of Bavaria. The main front of 

 the building faces north toward the citj^; the south front (Plate 15) 

 faces a large pond; the east side is toward the lake. Its orienta- 

 tion is of no importance to the collections within as the building is 

 lighted throughout from above. The ground plan (fig. 32) shows two 

 naves, 110 feet wide, 77 high, and 556 and 333 feet long, crossing 

 each other at right angles. To these are adjoined transverse and longi- 

 tudinal halls. A central rotunda is 140 feet high. There is annexed 

 to the north front on either side, a pavilion 223 feet long b}" 133 feet 

 wide, divided into separate rooms. The building with its classical 

 style presents an imposing effect from a distance, but on near approach 

 its beauty is marred by the dilapidated aspect of the exterior, for the 

 white covering of the brick wall is here and there damaged and broken 

 away. The simple division of the interior is very favorable for finding 

 one's wa3nn the extensive building. The naves are provided with galler- 

 ies (fig. 33), but the ordinary character of an exhibition hall, in which 

 most heterogeneous objects are placed near together,'* generall}^ prevails, 

 and there is lacking that intimate charm which can only be afforded by 

 a building designed for its special purpose. Although it would be easy 

 to imagine a better building (the American Museum of Natural History 

 in New York, already described, being incomparably l)etter) yet there 

 are in Europe new museum buildings nuuh inferior to that of the Field 

 Columbian Museum. Its principal faults are defective sk3"lighting in 

 some portions and insecurity from fire because of the large amount of 

 interior woodwork. It is to be hoped that it may continue to be spared 

 the disaster of a conflagration. The extraordinar}^ quantity of mate- 



« For instance, a few steps from the collection of shells there stands furniture 

 belonging to the Danish jwet, Hans Christian Andersen, and also stocking and glove 

 machines from Chemnitz dating from 1884. This must somewhat perplex the lay 

 public, irrespective of the fact that the gri'en ui)holstere(l sofa with two similar stools, 

 even though it belonged to a celebrated poet, impresses a visitor strangely in a 

 nuiseum of hiuii standard. 



