Musemn-History and Mtisemns of Ilislory. 75 



glance. The inuseuni cultivates the powers of observation, and the casual 

 visitor even makes discoveries for himself, and, under the guidance of 

 the labels, forms his own impressions. In the library one studies the 

 impressions of others. 



The library is most useful to the educated ; the museum to educated 

 and uneducated alike, to the masses as well as to the few, and is a powerful 

 stimulant to intellectual activity in either class. 



The influence of the museum upon a community is not so deep as that of 

 the library, but extends to a much larger number of people. The National 

 Museum in Washington has 300,000 visitors a year, each of whom carries 

 away a certain number of new thoughts. 



The two ideas may be carried out, side by side, in the same building, 

 and, if need be, under the same management, not only without antag- 

 onism, but with advantage. That the proximity of a good library is 

 absolutely essential to the influence of a museum, will be admitted by 

 everyone. I am confident, also, that a museum wisely organized and 

 properly arranged is certain to benefit the library near which it stands in 

 many ways, and more positively than through its power to stimulate 

 interest in books, and thus to increase the general popularity of the library 

 and to enlarge its endowment. 



Many books and valuable ones would be required in this best kind of 

 museum work, but it is not intended to enter into competition with the 

 library. When necessary , volumes might be duplicated. It is very often 

 the case, however, that books are more useful and safer in the museum 

 than on the library shelves, for in the museum they may be seen daily by 

 thousands, while in the library their very existence is forgotten by all 

 except their custodian. 



Audubon's Birds of North America is a book which everyone has 

 heard of and which every one wants to see at least once in his lifetime. In 

 a library, it probably is not examined by ten persons in a year. In a 

 museum, if the volume were exposed to view in a glass case, a few of the 

 most striking plates detached, framed, and hung upon the wall near at 

 hand, it will teach a lesson to every passer-by. 



The library may be called upon for aid by the museum in many direc- 

 tions. Pictures are often better than specimens to illustrate certain ideas. 

 The races of man and their distribution can only be shown by pictures 

 and maps. Atlases of ethnological portraits and maps are out of place in 

 a library if there is a museum nearby in which they can be displayed. 

 They are not even members of the class described by Lamb as ' ' books 

 which are not books." They are not books, but museum specimens, 

 masquerading in the dress of books. 



In selecting courses for the development of a museum, it may be useful 

 to consider what are the fields open to museum work. As a matter of 

 convenience, museums are commonly classed in two groups — those of 

 science and those of art — and in Great Britain the great national system 



