76 McDiorial of George Bj^oivn Goode. 



is mainly under the control of The Science and Art Department of the 

 Committee of Council on Education. 



This classification is not entirely satisfactory, since it is" based upon 

 methods of arrangement rather than upon the nature of the objects to be 

 arranged, and since it leaves in a middle territory (only partially occu- 

 pied by the English museum men of either department) a great mass 

 of museum material, of the greatest moment, both in regard to its inter- 

 est and its adaptability for purposes of public instruction. 



On the other side stand the natural history collections, undoubtedly 

 best to be administered by the geologist, botanist, and zoologist. On 

 the other side are the fine-art collections, best to be arranged, from an 

 aesthetic standpoint, by artists. Between is a territory which no English 

 word can adequately describe — which the Germans call Ciilturgcschichte — 

 the natural history of civilization, of man and his ideas and achieve- 

 ments. The museums of science and art have not yet learned how to 

 partition this territory. 



An exact classification of museums is not at present practicable, nor 

 will it be until there has been some redistribution of the collections 

 which they contain. It maj^ be instructive, however, to pass in review 

 the principal museums of the world, indicating briefly their chief char- 

 acteristics. 



Every great nation has its museum of natural history. The natural 

 history department of the British Museum, recently removed from the 

 heart of Eondon to palatial quarters in South Kensington, is probably 

 the most extensive, with its three great divisions, zoological, botanical, 

 and geological. 



The historian and the naturalist have met upon connnon ground in 

 the field of anthropology. The anthropologist is, in most cases, historian 

 as well as naturalist; while the historian of to-day is always in some 

 degree an anthropologist, and makes use of many of the methods at one 

 time peculiar to the natural sciences. The museum is no less essential 

 to the study of anthropology than to that of natural history. The library 

 formerly afforded to the historian all necessary opportunities for work. 

 It would seem from the wording of the new charter of the American 

 Historical Association that its members consider a nuiseum to be one of 

 its legitimate agencies. 



Your secretary has invited me to say something about the possil:)ilities 

 of utilizing museum methods for the promotion of historical studies. 

 This I do with much hesitation, and I hope that my remarks may be 

 considered as suggestions rather than as expressions of definite opinion. 

 The art of museum administration is still in its infancy, and no attempt 

 has yet been made to apply it systematically to the development of a 

 museum of history. Experiment is as yet the museum administrator's 

 only guide, and he often finds his most cherished plans thoroughly 

 impracticable. That museums can ever be made as useful to history as 



