Tlie Mi/s('in)is of f/ic Fi/fiire. 26 1 



There are special collections on the Ijoundary line ])et\veen art and 

 ethnology, the maimer of best installation for which has scarcely yet 

 been determined. The Louvre admits within its walls a musemn of 

 ship models (Musce de Marine). vSoutli Kensington includes nnisical 

 instruments, and many other objects equally appropriate in an ethno- 

 logical collection. Other art nui.seums take up arms and armor, selected 

 costumes, .shoes, and articles of household u.se. vSucli objects, like por- 

 celaiiis, laces, medals, and metal work, a])peal to the art nniseum admin- 

 istrator through their decorations and graceful forms. For their u.ses he 

 cares presumably nothing. As a consequence of this feeling only arti- 

 cles of arti.stic excellence have been saved, and nnich has gone to destruc- 

 tion which would be of the utmost importance to tho.se who are now 

 studying the hi.story of human thought in the j)ast. 



On the other hand, there is much in art mu.seums which might to much 

 better purpo.se be delivered to the ethnologi.st for use in his exhibition 

 cases. There is also nuich which the art nmseums, tied as they often 

 are to traditionary metliods'of installation, might learn from the scien- 

 tific museums. 



Many of the arrangements in the European art collections are calcu- 

 lated to send cold shi\-ers down the back of a sensiti\'e \'isitor. The 

 defects of these arrangements have been well de.scribed by a German 

 critic, W. Biirger. 



Our museiiins [he wriu-s] arc the verita1)le graveyards of arts, in which have 

 been heapt-d u]), with a tviinulous-like promi.scu()u.sness, the remains which have 

 been carried thither. A Venus is placed side by .side with a Madonna, a satyr next 

 to a saint. IvUther is in i-lose proximity to a Pope, a painting of a lady's chamber 

 next to that of a church. Pieces executed for churches, palaces, city halls, for a 

 particular edifice, to teach some moral or historical truth, desiji^ned for some especial 

 light, for .some well-studied surrounding, all are hung pellmell upon the walls of 

 some nonconnnital gallery — a kind of po.sthimious asyhnii, where a ]:)eo])le, no 

 longer capable of producing works of art, come to admire this magnificent gallery 

 of d(?bris. 



When a nm.seum l)uilding has been provided, and the nucleits of a col- 

 lection and an admini.strative staff are at hand, the work of nm.scum- 

 building begins, and this wcjrk, it is to be hoped, will not .soon reach an 

 end. A fini.shed museinn is a dead nm.seum, and a dead mu.setmi is a 

 useless nutseiim. One thing .shoidd be kept prominently in mind l)y any 

 organization wdiich intends to found and maintain a nui.seinn, that the 

 work will never be finished; that when the collections cea.se to grow, 

 they begin to decay. A friend relating an experience in vSouth Kensing- 

 ton, said: "I applied to a man who .sells photographs of stich edifices for 

 pictures of the main building. He had none. 'What, no photographs 

 of the South Ken.sington Mti.seum!' I exclaimed, with .some impatience. 

 'Why, sir,' replied the man mildl\', 'you see the mtiseum doesn't stand 

 still long enough to be ])hotographed. ' And so indeed it seems," con- 



