116 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



lack of room, thoujih also because of practical difticulties of arrange- 

 ment and installation. It lias not been abandoned, bowever, and the 

 Museum possesses the materials for an extensive technological disi^hiy. 



In the meantime the specimens of this class derived from the min- 

 eral kingdom are incorporated with the geological collections, those 

 from the vegetable kingdom with the textile, materia medica, and food 

 and forestry collections, besides a great mass now in storage, while 

 those from the animal kingdom, with the exception of what are 

 arranged Avith the textiles, medicines, foods, and fishery collections, 

 are brought together in the animal products collection. 



It is still an open question whether technological material is not 

 more useful and instructive, distributed among tbe scientific depart- 

 ments, than set aside in a special series. At the present time, this is 

 the only practicable plan. If it were x>ossible to employ a special staff 

 of technological curators, trained to appreciate and to keep abreast of 

 the mechanical and chemical processes of modern industrial arts and 

 manufactures, and the arts of design connected with their develop- 

 ment, the case would be difterent. 



When the need shall be felt for a technological museum in Washing- 

 ton, one of the best in the world can be erected upon existing founda- 

 tions, with comparatively slight expense and in a very short time. 



In addition to those mentioned, there are certain other collections 

 which are still assigned to the Department of Arts and Industries, 

 which it would be ditficult to place elsewhere — those composed of objects 

 made by civilized man, in which the idea of beauty predominates over 

 that of utility. Here belong porcelains, pottery, bronzes, enamels, 

 lacquer, laces and tapestries, musical instruments ; in jiart, costumes and 

 their accessories, and the collections illustrating the graphic arts. 



Such objects are often arranged in art museums, but may with equal 

 propriety remain in contiguity with ethnological collections, with which 

 they have innumerable points of contact. Indeed the separation of 

 the aesthetic from the industrial and ethnical series is, in the case of 

 aesthetic races like those of eastern Asia, merelj' arbitrary and a mat- 

 ter of convenience. 



We value the speciuieus iu an ethuological mnsenm (writes Mr. C.F.Binns) because 

 they reveal to us the mauuers and customs of a bygoue age. We regard them as steps 

 in education, as stages iu the evolution of a people, but the moment that a woik can 

 be judged as artistic we remove it from the Dei>artment of Ethnography and ])hice 

 it upon a phvtform with the art work of all ages and all nations, to stand or fall by 

 another criterion."* 



This is a fair statement of the in'actice of most museum workers. 

 Whetheritisentireh' justifiable, either on scientific or a'sthetic grounds, 

 or is absolutely fair and advantageous, is a difiicult question, which 

 deserves full consideration. 



I 



*BiNNS, Charles F. : The Elements of Beauty in Ceramics. Journal of the Societff 

 of ArU, XLii, 409. Ai)ril 6. 1804. 



