776 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



and others that would be better otit" if deprived of the wretched apolo- 

 gies they have. A proiuiueiit Western university has a museum liter- 

 ally bathed in soot, the most instructive features of which are the foot- 

 tracks of various insects delicately traced on the soot-laden shelves. 

 I mention these facts not in a way of reproach, but to emphasize an 

 important truth, and that is that the creating of a proper museum 

 requires the services of one endowed with special taste and talent for 

 the work. A man may be an excellent collector and systematist, but 

 disorderly to the last degree. As a collector and specialist he may 

 have made a record; but museum work demands more than these 

 qualifications. One must have the power of clearly illustrating truths 

 in science by the proper and adequate display of specimens. Labels 

 must be neatly, clearly, and concisely drawn. A hand-made label, if 

 well done, is better than a printed one. Prof. Goode, to whom we are 

 greatly indebted for numerous essays and addresses on museum mat- 

 ters, has said with truth that " an efficient educational mnseum may 

 he (lescrihed as a collectioti of instructive labels, each illustrated hy a well- 

 selected specimen.'''' 



But we anticipate. The importance of the museum as an adjunct of 

 the public library having been indicated, the pre-Darwinian condition 

 of many of the smaller and some of the larger museums having been 

 shown, we come now to consider the question, What kind of a museum 

 may i^roperly be denumded as the working companion of a public 

 library? Museums are almost as varied in their character as human 

 knowledge. There are zoological, anatomical, botanical, mineralogical, 

 geological, paleontological, ethnological, archaM^logical museums; his- 

 torical museums of art and armor; museums of architecture, terres- 

 trial and marine; industrial museums; museums showing the history 

 of a nation, such as the wonderful one at Nuremberg; museums solely 

 to commemorate the work of great men, as the Thorwaldsen Museum 

 at Copenhagen; museums, again, limited in scope to the last degree, as 

 seen in the unique one at Berlin, illustrating the history and develop- 

 ment of the postal service. Obviously, not one of these various muse- 

 ums would answer to parallel the i)ublic library; but an epitome of all 

 of them would answer the purpose comj^letely, were it possible to bring 

 the material together. And such an epitome is within the reach of any 

 well-ordered community willing to spend a portion of its library 

 endowment for such a collection. 



Thomas Greenwood, of England, in his work already alluded to, 

 summarizes the main objects of a public museum as follows : First, that 

 it provide rational amusement of an elevating character to the ordinary 

 visitor; second, that it be in the fullest sense an educational institu- 

 tion, easily accessible to all classes; third, that it provide a home for 

 examples of local objects of interest of an antiquarian, geological, or 

 other character; fourth, that a section of it be a commercial museum, 

 containing specimens of manufactures resembling those produced in the 



