and Laboratory Methods. 



2603 



and bring the object examined into the best 

 light. Many flat objects can be mounted 

 in frames on walls, and a very notable 

 efifect could be produced by arranging the 

 wall space of narrow connecting halls for 

 the exhibition, in this way, of vertebrate 

 fossils, slabs of crinoids, etc. The frame 

 work should, if possible, relieve by contrast 

 the color of the objects. Figure ST shows 

 an attempt at decorative effect gained by 

 an arrangement of reindeer skulls on wooden 

 shields, uncased, on the wall of a stairway. 

 In this case an explanation of the objects 



is printed on the wall itself beneath them. L 



The method is, to the mind of the writer, 

 hardly wise. The use of walls in large 

 museums, in this way, as sign boards or 

 label stations is somewhat provincial and 

 dwarfing. It seems generally a better 

 practice to frame or encase all such ob- 

 jects, if placed on the walls, and a certain 

 amount of abstinence must indeed be ob- 

 served in museums of some architectural pretense as to crowding wall spaces 

 with too many objects at all. 



The many contrivances by which objects of various sorts are held in posi- 

 tion, or the numerous receptacles for them, and the manner in which they are 

 labelled, constitute paraphcr)ialia. Trays, labels, supports, stands, pins, blocks, 

 plaster cells, rods, backings, covers, etc., etc., all make up paraphernalia. 



Fig. 86. — Turnstile for photographs, 

 charts, etc. 



TRAYS. 



More diversity than would be considered probable, may exist in trays ; their 

 sizes, heights, color, and attachments all offering points of difference. A form 

 of exhibition tray has been in use in the National Museum, for a long time, 

 which receives some praise, but can hardly be recommended with enthusiasm. 

 These are made with rather high sides and with a bevel front, upon which the 

 label of the specimen in the tray rests. They are black, and may have the 

 bottom covered with paper or a colored fabric. In the British Museum the 

 minerals are laid on jeweller's wool, which is packed into the edges of a rabbeted 

 block whose edges form a block frame. This method, for the purpose, has met 

 with unqualified approval. A similar or identical effect can be attained by cov- 

 ering the bottoms of the shallow paper trays with jeweller's wool, which is 

 fastened down by very thin black strips of black wood (painted and shellaced) 

 fitted inside the tray (Fig. 88). The cotton rises or pufTs slightly, the frame of 

 black gives individualism and elegance, and the effect is very attractive. In 

 these cases the label is fastened to a sloping block placed within the tray, so 

 that the edges of the trays come in close contact. Such trays are made in an 



