IF PUBLIC LIBRARIES, WHY NOT PUBLIC MUSEUMS? 777 



immediate locality ; tiftli, that it be oue in a series of institutions whose 

 object shall be to further the education of the many and the special 

 studies of the few. The section that Mr. Greenwood devotes to a com- 

 mercial museum would be far better devoted to objects of art. The 

 commercial products of a community are always accessible, and every 

 recurring State or county fair makes full display of the material, with 

 the machinery and men pro<lucing it in full operation. 



In a committee's report, made to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, upon the provincial museums of the United 

 Kingdom, it is stated: 



The specialobjectsof afree r.ite-siipported museum in a provincial town should be— 



(1) To contribute its share to the general scientific statistics of the country by 

 collecting and preserving specimens of the natural and artificial productions of the 

 district in which it is situated. 



(2) To procure such other specimens as may be desirable for illustrating the gen- 

 eral principles of science, and the relations of the locality to the rest of the world. 



(3) To receive and preserve local collections or single specimens, having any scien- 

 tific value, which the possessors may desire to devote to public use. 



(4) So to arrange and display the specimens collected as to afford the greatest 

 amount of popular instrnctiou consistent with their safe preservation and accessi- 

 bility as objects of scientific study. 



(5) To render special assistance to local students and teachers of science. 



r. T. Mott, esq., a member of the above-mentioned committee, in a 

 paper read before the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, on 

 the "development of museums as public educators," says: 



Museums, free libraries, and art galleries have this in conunou : that they are each 

 expected to fulfill two purposes which are somewhat iucongruous, and require to be 

 pursued by different methods and with difierent appliauces. Each of these institu- 

 tions is expected to minister to the wants both of trained students and of the 

 untrained and ignorant public; and the demands of these two classes of persons are 

 so diverse that they must be provided for separately. The free library must have 

 its lending department for the general public, and its reference department for stu- 

 dents. The art gallery must have attractive and interesting pictures for ordinary 

 visitors, but it must also have masterly studies for the instruction of young artists. 

 The museum, however, has a still more complex and difflcult part to play. It has 

 not only to provide for the diverse wants of students and of visitors, but it has also 

 to contribute to the general progress of scientific knowledge. Every museum, at 

 least every provincial rate-supported museum, which is a public and in some sense 

 a national institution, has a threeftdd duty: (1) to the nation at large, (2) to the 

 stiTdents of the neighborhood, and (3) to the local public. If museums are ever to 

 be more than a confused compound of the curiosity shop and the peep show, which 

 is what very many of them are at present, this threefold duty must be very clearly 

 recognized, and means must be found for the efficient carrying on of each department. 



First and foremost, then, the town museum should illustrate the 

 natural products of the immediate region. By natural products is 

 meant, of course, the animals, plants, rocks, and minerals found in the 

 county, or possibly in the State, for a county collection would require 

 but a few extra-limital forms to compass the State; second, a general 

 collection of similar material from elsesvhere, to show the relation of 

 the country to the rest of the world. Anatomical, physiological, and 



