REPORT OF ASSISTANT DIKECTOR. 11 



c'xi.slciKX', bccii iiuuie the (lcpoi>itory of collect iou.s in c\cry ilcpurt- 

 iiu'iit — j;cok)j;ical, botanical, zoolojj^ical, and antlu(>i)o[o;;ical — and its 

 work lias of noccssit-y been oiganizeil ujion a very coniiuohensivc plan. 



0. PKINCirLES OF ARRANGEMENT OF COLLECTIONS DESIGNED FOR 



PUBLIC EXHIBITION. 



The majority of visitors to any museum go thither for amusement, or 

 actuated by praiseworthy curiosity. Many hav(i no desire to gain in- 

 struction, and even if actuated by such a purpose, would fail to accom- 

 plish their object by a visit to an ordinary museum. This is due in 

 part to the fact that where so much duplicate material is exldbited the 

 really instructive objects are lost to view; that the objects in but lew 

 museums are labeled in a really instructive manner ; but is principally 

 because the objects exhibited are not of the kind best adapted to the 

 needs of the museum-visitiuj;- i)ublic. The visitors carry away only gen- 

 ei'al im])ressions of roo4ns full of glass cases containing animals, min- 

 erals, and " curiosities," gathered by travelers among nncivilized races. 

 Professor Huxley has defined a museum as " a consultative library of 

 objects," and this definition, true enough in itself as a description of 

 the best ideal museums, is unfortunately too true a descriiJtion of all. 

 Most collections are as useless and little instructive to great masses of 

 our people, who know not how to use them, as are our libraries of 

 consultation. The museum of research, since it is intended chiefly for 

 investigators, should be the consultative library'. The educational mu- 

 seum should resemble a great encyclopedia rather than a library full of 

 learned volumes. Every library of importance, however, contains the 

 cyclopedias for the general reader and the monographs for the scholar. 

 The larger public nniseums may in like manner be adapted to the needs 

 of both student and general visitor. 



To overcome the difficulties in the way of this adaptation many stepis 

 must be taken which are not usual in museums. By far the most im 

 l)ortant of these is in the direction of thorough labeling. 



An efficient educational museum, from one point of view, may be 

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

 selected si)ecimen. 



Tliere are many obstacles to the ellort to build up a museum upon 

 this basis. Museums which exhibit only such objects as arc in them- 

 selves beautiful or marvelous cannot fail to be attracti\c, no matter 

 how ])oorly the objects are ananged and labeled. 



When, however, the objects depend lor their interest u])un the expla 

 luitions on the labels, and upon the manner in which they are placed, 

 relatively to each other, a responsibility a hundredfold greater is en- 

 tailed upon the curators. The materials of su(;Ii a museum may be com- 

 pared to piles of brick, stone, lumbcT, and architectural ornaments, 

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

 thought and labor be combined into an imposing and useful edifice. 



