47 
Public Interest in and Support of Science and Art 
Cost of Science Education 
In our preceding annual report we called attention to a 1932 
report of the U. S. Office of Education that the combined public 
and private support of science education through science mu- 
seums, in 1930 in the United States, was less than two thirds that 
of art education through art museums. 
An analysis of data taken from the //andbook of American 
Museums for 1932 indicates that fourteen science museums, 
widely distributed throughout the United States, had in 1920 a 
total attendance of 8,050,833. The budgets of these institutions 
total $3,668,292.00. Dividing the budget figures by the at- 
tendance figures, it appears that the total cost per visitor, for 
1930, for science museums is 45% ¢. 
Cost of Art Education 
In a similar way, it appears that the total cost per visitor for 
twenty-one art museums, for 1930, was $1.58 per visitor. In 
these institutions, there were included no children’s museums, no 
history museums, no mixed (science-and-art) museums. There 
were included, for both science and art, the largest museums of the 
country. The choice was otherwise made primarily with refer- 
ence to securing a wide geographical range. 
The endeavor was also made to choose museums of comparable 
budgets, but in the art museums one institution was included with 
a budget of only $2500. This would tend, of course, to bring 
down the average for art museums. The lowest budget for any 
of the science museums was $14,077. 
The attendance figures suggest that there is a much wider 
public interest in science museums throughout the United States 
than in art museums. 
The budget figures suggest that there is a greater interest in art 
museums among persons of large wealth, since by far the larger 
proportion of the financial support of both types of museum is 
derived from private funds, including annual contributions and 
endowment derived by bequests and gift, rather than from ap- 
propriations by any branch of the government. 
