The Museums oftJie FuUire. 247 



rather than a species of conquest. A century before this, when Charles I 

 was beheaded by order of Parliament, his magnificent private collec- 

 tion was dispersed. What a blessing it would be to England to-day 

 if the idea of founding a national museum had been suggested to the 

 Cromwellians. The intellectual life of America is so closely l^ound to 

 that of Kngland,that the revival of interest in museiuns and in popular 

 education at the middle of the present century is especially significant 

 to us. 



The great exhibition of 1851 was one of the most striking features of 

 the industrial revolution in England, that great transformation which, 

 following closely upon the introduction of railroads, turned England, 

 feudal and agricultural, into England democratic and commercial. This 

 exhibition marked an epoch in the intellectual progress of English- 

 speaking peoples. "The great exhibition," writes a popular novel- 

 ist — a social philosopher as well — ' ' did one great .service for country 

 people: It taught them how easy it is to get to Eondon, and what a 

 mine of wealth, especially for after-memory and purposes of conversa- 

 tion, exists in that great place." 



Our own Centennial Exhibition in 1876 was almost as great a revela- 

 tion to the people of the United States. The thoughts of the country 

 were opened to many things before undreamed of. One thing we may 

 regret, that we have no such widespread system of museums as that 

 which has developed in the motherland, with South Kensington as its 

 administrative center. 



Under the wise administration of the South Kensington staff, an out- 

 growth of the events of 185 1, a great system of educational museums 

 has been developed all through the United Kingdom. A similar exten- 

 sion of public nuiseums in this country would be quite in harmony with 

 the spirit of the times, as shown in the present efforts toward university 

 extensions. 



England has had nearly forty years in which to develop these ten- 

 dencies and we but thirteen since our exhibition. May we not hope 

 that within a like period of time and before the year 1914 the United 

 States may have attained the position which England now occupies, at 

 least in the respect of popular interest and substantial governmental 

 support. 



There are now over one hundred and fifty public museums in the 

 United Kingdom, all active and useful. The museum systems of Great 

 Britain are, it seems to me, much closer to the ideal which America 

 should follow than are those of either France or Germany. They are 

 designed more thoughtfully to meet the needs of the people, and are 

 more intimately intertwined with the policy of national, popular educa- 

 tion. Sir Henry Cole, the founder of the ' ' department of science and 

 art," speaking of the purpose of the museum under his care, said to 

 the people of Birmingham in 1874: "If you wish your schools of science 



