524 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



of the lirst one. The very high entrance hall (Plate 34) appears to me to 

 be too churchlike and empty. That it looks very dingy is, of course, 

 due lirst of all to the London atmosphere, but perhaps also it is due to 

 the character of the building- materials and the yellow color, being of 

 terra cotta, ornamented with animal representations in high relief." 

 The side galleries with skylights (fig. S3) give somewhat the impression 

 of factory rooms. The installation is in some respects excellent, but 

 in many cases is capable of improvement, notwithstanding the fact that 

 enormous sums have been expended on it. Some groups of birds, for 

 example, cost as much as $250 or more. Rather too nuich has been 

 done in this respect to the greater neglect of other things. The cases 

 are of mahogany, clumsy and unprepossessing; some of the back- 

 grounds are green. The labels have been prepared with much care 

 and taste. The arrangements for lighting are in part deficient. An 

 anthropological gallery has recently been installed, which promises in 

 time to be very attractive, but otherwise there has been but little 

 general change in the twelve years since 1 last visited the museum. 

 The number of visitors on the three occasions when I was at the museum 

 was not great, and one can scarcely feel that there is justification for 

 exposing these valuable collections to the light from morning till 

 evening, when it is evident that they will ])e ruined thereby. If the 

 shades are drawn, however, it becomes so dark that one can see but 

 little. Everywhere in England the collections are exhibited during 

 the entire day, and it is said that this custom must continue, for other- 

 wise the money for expenses will not be forthcoming. I think, how- 

 ever, that this is an error. If the officials themselves were onl}^ 

 convinced that the collections intrusted to their keeping are really 

 being injured they would be able to impress this fact upon the trus- 

 tees, but they fail to consider the subject, or at any rate have neglected 

 it until very recently. The public would soon become accustomed to 

 shorter hours of opening if there were some way of making them gen- 

 erally known. This is not the case now, everyone knowing that he 

 can gain admittance from morning until evening. 



There are no double windows, these always being omitted in English 

 museums. There is no necessity for them, however, for no annoy- 



the large entrance hall is 170 feet long, 95 feet wide, and 72 feet high. Regarding 

 the style the architect says (General Guide to the British Museum, Natural History, 

 1888, p. 12) that it is "earlier Romanesque, which prevailed largely in Lombardy 

 and the Rhineland from the tenth century to the end of the twelfth century." 



"The architect says ((hiide to the Museum, p. 14): The Museum is the largest, if 

 not indeed the only modern building in vvhich terra cotta has been exclusively used 

 for external facades and interior wall surfaces, including all the varied decoration 

 which this involves. On the western side of the building, where it is intended that 

 the zoological collection shall be placed, the ornamentation of the terra cotta (which 

 will be found very varied both within and witliout the building) has been based 

 exclusively on living organisms. On the east side, where geology and paleontology 

 find a home, the terra-cotta ornamentation has been derived from extinct specimens. 



