The Principles of Museum Adjninistration. 20I 



4. A finished museum is a dead museum, and a dead museum is a 

 useless museum. 



5. Many so-called "museums" are little more than storehouses filled 

 with the materials of which museums are made. 



D. — THE RESPONSIBII^ITY OF MUSEUMS TO EACH OTHER. 



1. There can be no occasion for envious rivalry between museums, 

 even when they are in the same city. Every good museum strengthens 

 its neighbors, and the success of the one tends to the popularity and 

 public support of the others. 



2. A system of cooperation between museums is seemingly possible 

 by means of which much duplication of work and much expenditure of 

 money may be avoided. 



3. The first and most important field for mutual understanding is in 

 regard to specialization of plan. If museums in the same town, prov- 

 ince, or nation, would divide the field of work so that each should be 

 recognized as having the first rights in one or more specialties, rivalry 

 would be converted into friendly association, and the interests of science 

 and education better served. 



4. An important outcome of such a system of cooperation might be 

 the transfer of entire groups of specimens from one museum to another. 

 This would greatly facilitate the work of specialization referred to, and 

 at the same time relieve each museum of the responsibility of maintain- 

 ing collections which are not germane to its real purpose. Such transfers 

 have occasionally been made in the past, and there are few museums 

 which might not benefit individually, in a large degree, by a sweeping 

 application of this principle. If its effect on the attractiveness and 

 interest of any local or national group of museums be taken into account, 

 as no one can doubt that the result would be exceedingly beneficial. 



5. Another field for cooperation is in joint expenditure of effort and 

 money upon labels and catalogues, and in the economical purchase of 

 supplies and material. 



Comment. — In the United States, for instance, the iron molds for specimen jars 

 used for terra-cotta mounting tablets, and the dies used in rolling the metal guid- 

 ing strips for supporting the drawers in specimen cabinets, which have been made 

 at considerable expense for the National Museum, are placed without cost at the 

 disposition of other museums ; drawings and specifications for the construction of 

 cases, and many other results of experiment in this Museum are placed at the serv- 

 ice of all others. 



6. Still another would lie in the cooperative employment of expert 

 curators and preparators, it being thus practicable to pay larger salaries 

 and secure better men. 



Comment.— The curator of graphic arts in the United States National Museuni 

 is the custodian of the collection of engravings in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 

 giving part of his time to each institution — an arrangement advantageous to both. 



