22 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



It is gratifying to know That even in the smaller towns of Europe 

 the ideals which we hold before ns in our work are appreciated and 

 quoted. The "Brighton Herald" of August 18, 1894, contained the 

 following editorial comment : 



All those remarkably constituted persons who maintain that we do not want a 

 museum in Brighton would do well to read a well-written little brochure by Dr. 

 Charles A. White, of the U. S. National Museum, entitled "The relations of biology 

 to geological investigations." It is a philosophical subject, philosophically treated, 

 demonstrating the important relation that museums hold to science and to civiliza- 

 tion as centers of learning and conservatories of the evidence concerning acquired 

 knowledge. Museums [he concludes] should not only be made safe treasure-houses 

 of science, but they should be what their name implies, temples of study perpetually 

 open to all investigators. 



In our own country the spirit' of museum extension is spreading, as 

 is shown by such articles as that by Prof. Morse in the " Atlantic 

 Monthly,*' entitled "If Public Libraries why not Public Museums," 

 "which is reprinted iu a subsequent part of this report. It is the highest 

 ambition of the National Museum to be associated actively in the work 

 of museum reform, and to feel that we are standing shoulder to shoulder 

 in this respect with the older institutions of Europe, and that this fact 

 is recognized by them. 



As we have worked along from year to year, always striving to do 

 the best thing possible under the circumstances, we have always taken 

 first into consideration the plans in use in other museums, and have 

 either cast them aside as unavailable, modified them for our own needs, 

 or frankly adopted them. 



So it has come to pass that we have a large nuuiber of forms of cases 

 and devices for installation, fitted to meet almost every need of museum 

 or exposition administrators. These are always placed freely at the 

 disposal of those who need them. Working drawings and photo- 

 graphs of cases, and samples of fixtures of every kind are freely lent. 

 When the museum has had made, for its own use, expensive tools, such 

 as molds for specimen jars or pedestal tiles, or dies for corrugating 

 metal for the sliding-racks of storage cases, these are placed without 

 charge at the service of public institutions, and the use of blocks for 

 illustrating reports is always accorded. 



In this way the entire resources and experience of the isational 

 Museum are placed at the disposal of even the smallest country muse- 

 ums, and this policy has, we hope, been very beneficial. 



In pursuance of this policy some of the most instructive of our recent 

 experiments are described iu this report, in advance of a fuller discus- 

 sion in a comprehensive work on the i^rinciples and methods of museum 

 administration, which has been in preparation for some years. This is 

 done with less hesitation because of the example set by Dr. A. B. Meyer, 

 whose papers on the methods of the Royal Zoological and Anthropo- 

 logical-Ethnographic Museum in Dresden have proved so interesting to 

 all nuiseum workers, and who, rightly thinking that museums are 

 doing too much in the way of experiment and too little in utilizing the 



