38 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1^93. 



museum of Ainerioau liistoiy. and tbe book itself could hardly be 

 improved u])oii as a handbook to sneh a collection. 



The modern illustrated dictionary owes much of its success to the 

 adoption of museum methods, due, perhaps, to the fact that so many 

 men, trained in museum work, have been engaged upon the preparation 

 of the latest American publications of this kind, the Century Diction- 

 ary aud the more recently published Standard Dictionary. These 

 works impart instruction by methods very similar to those in use in 

 museums, except that they are placed much at a disadvantage by reason 

 of their alphabetical arrangement. 



There is, of course, one respect in which the museum exhibition-case 

 has the advantage over the lecturer, who can only present one subject 

 at a time, or over the writer of books, who is i)re vented by the size 

 of his pages from bringing a large number of ideas into view at once. 

 This difficulty has been in part overcome by the editor of the Standard 

 Dictionary, in the large plates, where are shown, in one case all the 

 princii)al \arieties of precious stones; in another plate, all the races of 

 the domesticated dog, and in another, the badges of orders of chivalry. 

 Even this, however, is far from reaching the possibility possessed by 

 the Museum (with its broad expanses of exhibition cases) of showing a 

 large number of objects so arranged as to exhibittheir mutual relation- 

 ship, and so labeled as to explain the method of their arrangement. 



As has already been said, the size and typography of the label are of 

 the greatest importance. The best written label may be ruined by the 

 printer. Not only must the letters be large enough to be legible from 

 the customary point of view, but the type must be pleasing in form, 

 and so arranged as to lead the eye of the reader with pleasure from 

 one line to another, and so broken into paragraphs as to separate from 

 each other the topics discussed. 



Furthermore, a system of subordinate sizes of type is essential, so 

 that the most important facts will tirst meet the eye. In many of the 

 labels shown in the accompanying illustrations type of four or live dif- 

 ferent sizes is used, the largest giving the name of the object, the next 

 size the name of locality and donor, the next its distribution, and so on, 

 much in the order of importance of the topics already proposed, while 

 the least essential illustrative matter at the bottom of the label is placed 

 in the smallest tyi)e. The theory is that the largest type should give 

 the information desired by the greatest number of visitors — by every 

 one; the next size, that needed by those who are studying the collection 

 in a more leisurely way, and so on. 



Too nuich can not be said of the necessity of breaking the descrip- 

 tive matter into short paiagraphs, which should never be more than 

 half a square in length. Where a label of great width is printed, it is 

 our experience that it is l)etter to arrange the matter in two columns, 

 as is shown in one of the accompanying plates, rather than to weary 

 the eye by requiring it to follow back and fro across the card. 



