230 Memoi^al of George Brown Goodc. 



tive, being absolutely powerless when the needs of the great majority of 

 students and visitors are concerned. 



2. The labels describing the specimens in a collection are intended to 

 take the place of the curator of the collection when it is impossible for 

 him personally to exhibit the objects and explain their meaning. When 

 collections were small and visitors few, the curator or owner of a cabinet 

 was accustomed to conduct visitors in person among the cases, to take 

 the specimens in his hand, to tell their names and w^here they came from, 

 to indicate features of special interest, and to answer questions. This 

 was in some respects an ideal way when the curator was a man of wide 

 knowledge and so much of an enthusiast that he took pleasure in talking 

 without limit. The method was not without defects, however, since the 

 lecturer (for such he was in fact) selected for exhibition a limited num- 

 ber of objects which interested him, or which he supposed might interest 

 the visitors, and gave the latter no chance for selection. Furthermore, 

 the arrangement could not be such as to convey a sequence of ideas, such 

 as a selected and well-labeled series of specimens can do, and the spoken 

 descriptions, being as a rule full of unfamiliar words, were not remem- 

 bered. The printed label maybe read over again and again, and is often 

 copied into the visitor's notebook. Again, under the old system, exam- 

 ining a collection was looked upon rather in the light of amusement than 

 study, and what might have been possible in the way of instruction was 

 rarely attempted. 



In these days, when the curator attempts verbal instruction, it is by 

 means of a lecture in the museum lecture hall, or, if a floor lecture, 

 among the cases, surrounded by hundreds or scores of auditors, who may 

 either take notes or find the substance of the lecture in a syllabus or 

 printed text-book prepared by the lecturer. 



Where one museum visitor listens to the museum lectures, tens of thou- 

 sands pass through the halls without a guide. They must depend 

 entirely upon the labels for information; for guide books, if such have 

 been printed, are rarely bought, still more rarely used in the presence of 

 specimens, and though often taken home with the intention of studying 

 them, are only in the rarest instances ever opened after leaving the 

 museum. 



3. The function of a label, then, is a most important one, since it is 

 practically only through the aid of the labels that visitors derive any 

 benefit whatever from a visit to a museum. Therefore a label should 

 answer all the questions which are likely to arise in the mind of the 

 persons examining the object to which it is attached. 



4. The office of the descriptive label may be stated as follows: 



{a) The label must tell the name of the object; its exact and technical 

 name always, and if there be one, its common name. 



((^) It must call attention to the features which it is important for the 

 visitor to notice. 



