REPORT OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. 13 



kinjis and kiii^bts, tlio furniture of palaces, the most artistic of metal 

 work, sfone work, antl wood work. The ethnolojii<'al nmsennis, on the 

 other liand, admit only the imi)lements and coytnmes of savage and 

 partially civilized races. Between the two there is a great chasm to 

 lie filled. It is as important to preserve in museums the more humble 

 iiiid simple objects which illustrate the domestic economy and customs 

 of the masses of the people of civilized nations, as to search for similar 

 objects in distant lands, or to treasure up only the objects which, on 

 account of their cost, are seen and used only by the most wealthy and 

 luxurious classes in the civilized community. 



Collections of this character are, perhaps, as well entitled to be called 

 " anthroi)ological collections" as those usually included under this 

 name, which are intentionally more limited in their scoi)e. 



To sujiply the place of objects too large to be placed in a museum, too 

 evanescent to have been preserved, or which, on account of their rarity 

 or neglect in preserving them at the time when they could have been 

 obtained, are necessaril}" lacking in the collections, it is essential that 

 museums should assume the administration of great quantities of mate- 

 rial such as is usually consigned to the library or to the picture-gallery. 

 Otherwise, deficiencies in groups of objects, which should illustrate by 

 their collective meaning a general idea, will much impair their value. 

 Pictures and diagrams should be freely used as temporary or permanent 

 substitutes for specimens which may be lacking, and also to supi^le- 

 ment and explain the descriptive labels. In many sections it ma.V be 

 ira])ossible to exhibit anything but pictures. It is needless to point out 

 the ditfereuce in the influence of a series of plates, like those, for in- 

 stance, in Audsley and Bowes "Keramic Art in Japan," the i)ublica- 

 tions of the Arundel Society, the autotypes of Brauu, or the illustrations 

 of many ethnographic works, if displayed in a public museum, where 

 they are seen daily by thousands of visitors, or hidden except from the 

 initiated few in a library, where they are only i^ractically accessil)le to 

 students with abundance of time and training in the use of books. 



Much of the material usually shown in art galleries and art museums, 

 such as is ordinarily used to illustrate the history of art, or is preserved 

 on account of its artistic suggestions, may be displayed in a much more 

 instructive manner in a museum without in the least lessening its value 

 to the artist or designer. Portraits, pictures of buildings, of costumes, 

 of geological features in scenery, of ceremonies, and of social customs 

 may be arranged and administered as anthropological s])ecimens. In 

 addition, much may be accom])lished by having standard works, re- 

 lating to the special de])artments of the museum, i)lared in convenient 

 places in the exhibition halls, and, if necessary, fastcmed to desks in 

 such a manner that they c(tuld not be removed, whih^ easily accessible 

 to any person who might wish to become informed upon sjiecial topics 

 ri'lating to objects Ix-ing exainiiu'd. 



