The Ahisc'iDiis of tJic Future. 253 



Unreniunerated service in museum administration, though it may be 

 enthusiastically offered and conscientiously performed, will in the end 

 fail to be satisfactory. Still more is it impossible for a respectable 

 museum to grow up without liberal expenditure for the acquisition of 

 collections and their installation. 



Good administration is not to be had for nothing. As to the qualifica- 

 tion of a museum administrator, whether it be for a nuiseum of science 

 or a museum of art, it is perhaps superfluous to say that he should be the 

 very best obtainable, a man of ability, enthusiasm, and, withal, of experi- 

 ence ; for the administration of museums and exhibitions has become of 

 late years a profession, and careful study of methods of administration is 

 indispensable. If the new administrator has not had experience he must 

 needs gain it at the expense of the establishment which employes him — 

 an expense of which delay, waste, and needless experiment form consid- 

 erable elements. 



No investment is more profitable to a museum than that in the salary 

 fund. Around a nucleus of men of established reputation and adminis- 

 trative tact will naturally grow up a staff of volunteer assistants whose 

 work, assisted and directed in the best channels, will be of infinite value. 



The sinews and brains of the organism being first provided, the 

 development of its body still remains. The outer covering, the dress, 

 can wait. It is much better to hire buildings for temporary use, or to 

 build rude fireproof sheds, than to put up a permanent museum building 

 before at least a provisional idea of its personnel and contents has been 

 acquired. 



As has been already said, a museum must spend money in the acquisition 

 of collections, and a great deal of money. The British Museum has 

 already cost the nation for establishment and maintenance not far from 

 $30,000,000. Up to 1882 over $1 ,500,000 had been expended in purchase 

 of objects for the art collections at South Kensington alone. 



Such expenditures are usually good investments of national funds, 

 however. In 1882, after about twenty-five years of experience, the 

 buildings and contents of the South Kensington Museum had cost the 

 nation about $5,000,000, but competent authorities were satisfied that 

 an auction on the premises could not bring less than $100,000,000. For 

 every dollar spent, however, gifts will come in to the value of many dollars. 

 In this connection it may not be amiss to quote the words of one of the 

 most experienced of English museum administrators (presumably Sir 

 Philip Cunliffe Owen) when asked many years ago whether Americans 

 might not develop great public institutions on the plan of those at 

 Kensington: 



Let tliem plant the thing [he said] , and it can't help growing, and most likely 



beyond their powers — as it has been almost beyond ours — to keep up with it. What 



. is wanted first of all is one or two good good brains, with the means of erecting a 



good building on a piece of ground considerably larger than is reqiiired for that 



building. Where there have been secured substantial, luminous galleries for exhi- 



