THE MUSEUMS OF THE FUTURE. 431 



that of England, that tbe revival of interest in museums, aud in popular 

 education, at the middle of the present century, is especially significant 

 to us. 



The Great Exhibition of 1851 was one of the most striking features 

 of tbe industrial revolution in England, that great transformation 

 which, following closely upon the introduction of railroads, turned 

 England feudal and agricultural, into England democratic and com- 

 mercial. This Exhibition marked an epoch in the intellectual progress 

 of English speaking peoples. " The Great Exhibition," writes a popular 

 novelist — a social philosopher as well — " did one great service for 

 country people : It taught them bow easy it is to get to London, aud 

 what a mine of wealth, especially for after-memory and purposes of 

 conversation, exists in that great place." 



Our own Centennial Exhibition in 1876 was almost as great a revela- 

 tion to tbe people of the United States. The thoughts of the country 

 were opened to many things before undreamed of. One thing we may 

 regret — that we have no such wide-spread system of museums as that 

 which has developed in tbe motherland, with South Kensington as its 

 administrative center. 



ruder the wise administration of the South Keusiugton staff, an out- 

 growth of the events of 1851, a great system of educational museums 

 has been developed all through the United Kingdom. A similar exten- 

 sion of public museums in this country would be quite in harmony with 

 the spirit of the times, as shown in the present efforts toward university 

 extensions. 



England has had nearly forty years in which to develop these tend- 

 encies, and we but thirteen since our Exhibition. May we not hope 

 that within a like period of time and before the year 1914, the United 

 States may have attained the position which England now occupies, at 

 least in the respect of popular interest and substantial governmental 

 support. 



There are now over one hundred aud fifty public museums in the 

 United Kingdom, all active and useful. The museum systems of Great 

 Britain are, it seems to me, much closer to the ideal which America 

 should follow than are those of either France or Germany. They are 

 designed more thoughtfully to meet tin- needs of the people, and are 

 more intimately intertwined with the policy of national, popular edu- 

 cation. Sir Henry Cole, the founder of the "Department of Science 

 and Art," speaking of the purpose of the museum under his care, said 

 to the people of Birmingham in 1874: "If you wish your schools of 

 .science and art to be effective, your health, the air, and your food to 

 be wholesome, your life to be long, your manufactures to improve, 

 your trade to increase, and your people to be civilized, you must have 

 museums of science and art, to illustrate the principles of life, health, 

 nature, science, art, and beauty. 



Again, in words u> applicable i" America <>f today as to Britain 



