424 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSETTM, 190;}. 



and then swiino- slmt. These cases offer many advantajjfes and are 

 inoeniously designed, hut the}- should he made of iron instead of wood, 

 for they would then he more secure against dust and tire. (See also 

 Keport for 181)9 and 1900, p. 450, Plate XLVl.) This remark will 

 apply likewise to the wooden cases of the entire museum. In this con- 

 nection maj^ be mentioned the pasteboard boxes still used, instead of 

 tin, for the display of minerals and the like. I do not doul)t but that 

 the Field Ck)lund)ian Museum will in time haye recourse to iron cases, 

 be it onl}^ as a security from fire, and that then excellent desig-ns will 

 be brought forth by the adyanced technical skill of America." Better 

 cases are also to be desired on account of security against dust, for in 

 the great halls of this palace, designed for a former exposition and 



all communicating with each 

 other, the dust spreads un- 

 impeded oyer eyerything and 

 is yery troublesome. 



A collection of coins is sus- 

 pended between glass plates — 

 a yery pretty method, but 

 somewhat clumsily executed 

 here. 



The oyercrowding of the 

 exhil^ition space already men- 

 tioned is occasioned partly by 

 the fact that far too nuuh 

 is exhibited. Objects nuist 

 often be displayed because 

 the donors demand it, and the 

 result is that there are fre- 

 quently hundreds of almost identical specimens, as in the ethno- 

 graphic diyision, which are yaluable for study but quite superfluous 

 in a puldic collection, the more so as light fades them. Besides, by 

 reducing the number of exhil)its space could be found for work- 

 roojus, now quite insufficient throughout. There haye been proyided, 

 as in the American Museum of Natural History in New York (see page 

 388 of the earlier portion of this paper), yery practical, tight-closing 

 tin boxes, wdth easily sliding compartments, for the preseryation ol 



-Field ColuiHhiuii Must'Uiii. Tyjics of cast's ami 

 racks. 



«From the criticipm made l)y L. P. (iratacap in his article, The Makiiit^; of a 

 IMnseuin, in the Architectural Record, IX, li)00, p. 398, on iron cases, both ujni^ht 

 and horizontal, as "clunisy and ngly forms" (ti<f. 17), which are the only ones witli 

 which he is acqnainted, one would not tlunk the prospect of such a reform in America 

 was very favorable. The lionored curator of the mineralojiical section of the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History in New York, who luis an interest in and knowl- 

 ed>,'e of the technical side of museum aihiiinistration possessed by few experts, 

 would certainly chani^e his view if he became aware of tlie better results in this line 

 in Europe. 



