EEPORT OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL MUSEUM. 85 



plisli their object by a visit to tbe ordinary museum. TLiis is due, iu part, 

 to the fact that so much duplicate material is exhibited that the really 

 iustructive objects are lost to view ; iu i)art, to the fact that the objects 

 iu but few museums are labeled in a really iustructive manner, and priu- 

 cipally to tlie fact that the objects exhibited are uot of the kind best 

 adapted to the needs of the museum- visiting public. The visitors carry 

 awaj' only a general impression of rooms full of glass cases containing 

 animals, minerals, or " curiosities," gathered b^' travelers among unciv- 

 ilized races. Professor Iluxley has defined a museum as " a consulta- 

 tive library' of objects"; and this definition, true enough iu itself as a 

 descrii)tiou of the best ideal museums, unfortunately is too true a de- 

 scription of all. Most museums are as useless and little instructive as 

 are our libraries of consultation to the great masses of our i^eople, who 

 know uot how to use them. The educational museum should be more 

 like a popular enc^'clopedia than like a library* full of learned tomes. 

 The museum of research, since it is intended chiefly for investigators, 

 should be the consultative library. 



To obviate these difficulties many stejis must be taken which are not 

 usual in museums. By far the most important of these is in the direc- 

 tion of thorough labelling. 



An efficient educational museum, from one i)oint of view, may be 

 described as a collection of instructive labels, each illustrated by a well- 

 selected specimen. 



There is a certain peril in the attempt to build up a museum u^jon this 

 basis. Museums which exhibit only such objects as are iu themselves 

 beautiful or marvellous cannot fail to be attractive, no matter how poorly 

 the objects are arranged and labelled. 



When, however, the objects depend for their interest uj)on the ex- 

 I)lanations or the labels, and upon the manner in which they are jjlaced, 

 relatively to each other, a responsibility a hundred-fold greater is en- 

 tailed upon the curators. The materials of such a museum may be com- 

 pared to piles of brick, stone, lumber, and architectural ornaments, which 

 by themselves possess little apparent interest, but which may by thought 

 and labor be combined into an imi^osing and useful edifice. 



Frinciples to be follorced. — Certain cardinal iirincijiles may be an- 

 nounced which should be considered in the arrangement of every pub- 

 lic museum : (I) every article exhibited should illustrate an idea, and 

 no two objects should be shown which illustrate the same idea in ii 

 similar manner; (II) the idea which any object is intended to ilhistrate 

 should be explained upon its label in such a manner that any intelli- 

 gent visitor, without previous special knowledge of the subject, may be 

 able to learn (a) why the object is shown, and {b) what lesson it is iu- 

 teuded to teach; (III) the objects should be so carefully classified that 

 their relations to each other may be recognized by the visitor, so that, 

 taken together, they suggest certain general conclusions; in the forma- 

 tion of these conclusions he should be aided by certain general or col- 



