220 Memorial of George Bi^ouni Goodc. 



to laboratories and lecture rooms. The "People's museum" should 

 be much more than a hall full of specimens in glass cases. It should 

 be a hall full of ideas, arranged with the strictest attention to system. 



2. The ideas which a museum is intended to teach can only be con- 

 veyed by means of labels. 



As I have said in a previous paper: 



An efficient educational museum may be described as a collection of 

 instructive labels, each illustrated by a well-selected specimen. 



3. The effectiveness of a museum for the use of the public at large 

 depends chiefly upon the following considerations: 



(a) There should be a careful selection and effective arrangement of 

 the specimens exhibited (which implies the exclusion of many objects in 

 themselves attractive and interesting). 



i^U) The specimens for exhibition must be chosen solely with refer- 

 ence to the lesson they can teach, singly or in combination. 



(c) A small exhibition series, complete within its own limits, system- 

 atically arranged, fully labeled, and effectively displayed, is far more use- 

 ful than a vast collection exhibited without reference to its teaching 

 power. 



(fl') To complete a series any specimen is better than none. 



(^) A copy, model, or picture of a good thing is often more useful 

 than an actual specimen of a poor one. 



(/) A picture or model may often be shown to advantage in place of 

 a minute or unintelligible object. 



(^■) Books, manuscripts, pictures, maps, etc. , become specimens when 

 treated in the museum method. 



(Ji) There should be a thorough system of labels, written in simple lan- 

 guage, supplemented by pictures, diagrams, maps, and books of reference. 



(/) Cases, labels, colors of backgrounds, aisles, and all the practical 

 details of arrangement, however minute, should be considered with the 

 comfort and physical ease of the visitor in mind, since the use of a 

 museum is at best necessarily attended by fatigue of eyes and of body, 

 which may be greatly lessened by the adoption of proper devices. 



(/) Installation ideals can not be too lofty. 



D. — CUMBERSOME AND SUPERFLUOUS MATERIAI^S IN COI.I,ECTlONS. 



1. There are few objects which may not be used in museum work. It 

 does not follow, however, that any one museum should attempt to include 

 such objects. There are many which in the present stage of nmseum 

 practice may be entirely neglected. If any museum were to be extended 

 to the limits of its possibilities, a dictionary might be made to serve as 

 an alphabetical index to its contents. 



2. One of the chief perils to a museum is the possession of vast 

 collections. 



3. Not the least important duty of the curator is to prevent the acces- 

 sion of undesirable material. 



