The Principles of Museii)>i Ad)iiinistralioii. 239 



gross injustice to the desceiulants of the lar^-c-minded collectors) had not Parlia- 

 ment made certain pecuniary advances on account of them. While but for the 

 foundation of the British Museum and of the National Gallery, the collections of 

 Cracherode and Hohvell Carr, of Beaumont, of vSir Joseph Banks, and of King George 

 III would have continued in the hands of individuals. 



C. PUBLIC APPRKCIATION OF TIII<; HIGHKR PUNCTION Ol'^ .'VHJSKU.M.S. 



1. Museums, libraries, reading rooms, and parks have l)een referred 

 to by some wise person as "passionless reformers," and no better term 

 can be employed to describe one of the most important of their u.ses. 



Comment. — The appreciation of the utility of nuiseinns to the great public lies 

 at the foundation of what is known as "the modern nniseum idea." No one has 

 written more eloquently of the moral influence of museums than Mr. Ruskin, and 

 whatever may be thought of the manner in which he has carried his idea into prac- 

 tice in his workingmen's museum, near ShefSeld, his influence has undouljtedly 

 done -much to stimulate the development of the "people's museum." The same 

 spirit inspired Sir Henry Cole when he said to the people of Birmingham in 1894: 

 "If you wish 3'our schools of science and art to-be effective, your health, ycnir air, 

 and 3'our food to be wholesome, 3'our life to be long, and j-our manufactures to 

 improve, j-our trade to increase, and 3'our people to be civilize<l, you nmst have 

 museums of science and art to illustrate the principles of life, wealth, nature, 

 science, art, and beavity. " 



And I never shall forget the words of the late Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, who said 

 to me some years ago: "We educate our working people in the public schools, gi\e 

 them a love for refined and beautiful objects, and stimulate them in a desire for 

 information. They leave school, go into the pursuits of town life, and have no 

 means provided for the gratification of the tastes the^' have been forced to acquire. 

 It is as much the duty of the Government to provide them with museums and 

 libraries for their higher education as it is to establish schools for their jjrimary 

 instruction." 



2. The development of the modern nmsemn idea is due to Great Britain 

 in nitich greater degree than to any other nation, and the movement dates 

 from the period of the great exhibition of 185 1, which is recognized upon 

 the western side of the Atlantic as marking an epoch in the intellectual 

 progress of English-speaking peoples. The nnniificcnce with which the 

 national museums of Great Britain have been supported, and the liberal- 

 minded manner in which they have been utilized in the cause of i)opular 

 education and for the promotion of the highest intellectual ideals, has 

 l)een and still is a source of inspiraticju to all in America who are laboring 

 for similar results. 



3. The future of the museum, as of all similar public institutions, is 

 inseparably associated with the continuance of modern civilization, ])y 

 means of which those sources of enjo}-ment which were formerh' accessi- 

 ble to the rich only, are now, more and more, placed in the possession 

 and ownership of all the people (an adaption of what Jevons has called 

 "the principle of the multiplication of utilit}'"), with the result that 

 objects which were formerly accessible only to the wealth}-, and seen by 



