Muscu7n-IIistory and Museums of History. 73 



I hope that the time will come when every town shall have both its 

 public museum and its public library, each with a staff of competent men, 

 mutually helpful, and contributing largely to the intellectual life of the 

 communit}'. 



The museum of the future in this democratic land should be adapted 

 to the needs of the mechanic, the factory operator, the day laborer, the 

 salesman, and the clerk, as much as to those of the professional man and 

 the man of leisure. It is proper that there be laboratories and profes- 

 sional libraries for the development of the experts who are to organize, 

 arrange, and explain the museums. 



It is proper that laboratories be utilized to the fullest extent for the 

 credit of the institution to which they belong. No museum can do good 

 and be respected which does not each year give additional proofs of its 

 claims to be considered a center of learning. On the other hand, the 

 public have a right to ask that much shall be done directly in their 

 interest. They will gladly allow the museum officer to use part of his 

 time in study and experiment. They will take pride in the possession 

 by the museum of tens of thousands of specimens, interesting only to 

 the specialist, hidden away perpetually from public view, but necessary 

 for proper scientific research. They are the foundations of the intellect- 

 ual superstructure which gives to the institution its proper standing. 



Still, no pains must be spared in the presentation of the material in 

 the exhibition halls. The specimens must be prepared in the most care- 

 ful and artistic manner, and arranged attractively in well-designed cases 

 and behind the clearest of glass. Each object must bear a label giving 

 its name and history so fully that all the probable questions of the visitor 

 are answered in advance. Books of reference must be kept in convenient 

 places. Colors of walls, cases, and labels must be restful and quiet, and 

 comfortable seats must be everywhere accessible, for the task of the 

 museum visitor is a weary one at best. 



All intellectual work may be divided into two classes, the one tending 

 toward the increase of knowledge, the other toward its diffusion ; the one 

 toward investigation and discovery, the other toward the education of the 

 people and the application of known facts to promoting their material 

 welfare. The efforts of learned men and of institutions of learning are 

 sometimes applied solely to one of these departments of effort — sometimes 

 to both — and it is generally admitted, by the most advanced teachers, 

 that, for their students as well as for themselves, the happiest results are 

 reached by carrying on investigation and instruction sinmltaneously. 

 Still more is this true of institutions of learning. The college which 

 imparts only second-hand knowledge to its students belongs to a period 

 in the history of education which is fast being left behind. 



The museum must, in order to perform its proper functions, contribute 

 to the advancement of learning through the increase as well as through 

 the diffusion of knowledge. 



