4 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



confronted with the old 'question as to whether the energies of the 

 officers are to be directed toward getting together a systematic series 

 of specimens arranged for study alone, or a show collection arranged 

 behind glazed doors and properly labeled for the instruction and edifi- 

 cation of the general public. This is a question that has been discussed 

 since museums began, and is perhaps now no nearer settlement than 

 ever. I find the specialist almost wholly inclined to the first view, and 

 willingly acknowledge that were I working for merely my own gratifi- 

 cation should adopt that plan. 



It is to be doubted, however, if there exists a more thoroughly selfish 

 class than that of the confirmed specialist. Looking at matters from 

 the standpoint of his specialty, interested only in its advancement, and 

 perhaps, in only too many instances, in his own aggrandizement, he 

 demands not merely that the public contribute towards his support, but 

 that they receive in return nothing but his published results, which are 

 presumably intelligible to not more than one person out of every ten 

 thousand the world over. 



Recognizing that not merely do the public have rights in this mat- 

 ter, but guided by a far loftier ideal, that of educating the masses and 

 arousing an interest in natural phenomena, it was early decided to 

 strive and so arrange the collections of the Museum as to meet the 

 wants of both classes. We thus have an exhibition series arranged 

 and labeled for the general public, but at the same time accessible to 

 the student and specialist, and also a study series stored away in draw- 

 ers for the exclusive use of the latter class and to which the general 

 public have no access. 



First, as to this exhibition series. The plan of treatment adopted has 

 been essentially the same as that given by Professor Geikie in the 

 latest edition of his Text Book of Geology.* This not merely on account 

 of the general excellence of the work, but because of the fact that it 

 seemed best to conform, so far as possible, to some authoritative work 

 that is accessible to the public. 



In following out this plan the idea advanced by Assistant Secretary 

 Goode in his annual report for 18S1, that a museum should consist of 

 a collection of labels illustrated by specimens has been ever kept in 

 mind. Otherwise expressed, I have striven to build up the exhibition 

 scries on the plan of a profusely illustrated text-book in which the speci- 

 mens themselves form the illustrations and the text is furnished by the 

 labels. 



No object has been intentionally exhibited merely on account of its 

 beauty, rarity, or as a curiosity, a method of treatment which may well 

 be relegated to the dime museums and cabinets of the relic hunters. 

 Each, intended to illustrate some special point, forms a part of a more 

 or less extended series tending toward the elucidation of the earth's 

 structure and history. 



* Text Book of Geology, second edition, 1885, MacMillan A Co., London. 



