BUILDING A MUSEUM. 



BY T. VAN IIYNING.* 



The up-to-date museum is the highest possibk' type of an educational 

 institution; it supplies the text accompanied by the object. (Object 

 teaching.) 



All museums should be, in a manner, provincial, i. e., organized to 

 cover a certain territory as a specialtj^ whether this territory be a 

 single state, several states, the United States, or the whole world. 

 In this- connection it should be remembered that almost any single 

 state will produce a much more varied and larger amount of museum 

 material than is commonly supposed. The geology, flora, fauna, pre- 

 historic and civil history of a state, will, in many instances, nearly 

 duplicate its border states, and very well represent the United States. 



The mistake is often made by the museum builder, of working back- 

 wards, by constructing a fine, large and expensive building, with no 

 apparent forethought as to the specific uses to which it is to be ap- 

 plied; consequently, as his plans begin to mature, and the material 

 accumulates, he discovers that his rooms are not properly proportioned 

 in size to suit the various departments. The architecture may be in- 

 convenient, the ceilings and windows too low, the heating apparatus 

 in the way, the artificial lighting improper, and many other things 

 wrong that might have been prevented by forethought. 



In building a museum the province is the first step for its builder 

 to decide. The writer has for some time been giving considerable 

 thought towards a plan of school museums; a plan whereby every com- 

 mon school in the country might have a museum, if it be no more than 

 a single case on the wall filled with well-selected specimens; or possi- 

 bly a scheme of traveling museums, something after the traveling 

 library plan. The traveling museum plan has been in operation to 

 some considerable extent in some cities, the idea being to extend sub- 

 stantial encouragement in the observation of objects in nature, to 

 young minds, many of whom never even reach a high school, that they 



'Director of the Museum of the State Historical Department of Iowa. 



