EVOLUTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL SPIRIT IN MUSEUMS 



/)'// Fndrnc .1. Lucas 



The motto of llu- American Miisi'iim is '•|''or the I'coplc, l-'or ICducal ion. Kor Scieiici'" 

 and tlie institution liiis over striven to live up to that motto. Hampered somewhat at first. 

 l>y the bonds oflieredity and tradition it was tlie (irst museinu in tliis cotmtry to plan exhibits 

 for the public alone; it has been a leafier in the cause of education and has ever tried to set 

 an example for sister instituiioits to Collow 



M 



rSKl'MS were not educational at the outset. Xot only tliis, the 

 ix-nefit of the |)nl>lie was soinetliiiiu' that did noi enter into the 

 thought of iheir t'onndei->. l''of inusennis had iheif oi'iuin in the 

 eollections of i)aintin^s, statuary, and othei- ohjeets of aft, l»roti;;ht together 

 hy nien of wealth to uratify their loxc of the heaiitifnl, or in colleetions of 

 nattn'ai ()i)jeets and "(tn'ios" gathered mainly too Ky ineii of wealth, to 

 gratify their desire to know .something of the life of distant lands. Tlieii 

 came collections hroiiiiht toii'cther by scientific .societies with a real desire 

 to foster knowletlii-e, althonuh mainly of ix'iiefit to a few indix idiials, and 

 then the mnsemn, opened to the jjuhlic on the j)ayment of a fee and (|iiite 

 as much for the amusement of \isitors as for their instrnction. 



Yet we must not f<)i\uet that Peale the artist, a contemi)orary of Wash- 

 insiton, conducted one of these semi-i)o])ular, semi-scientific museums and 

 that in many ways his ideas of the educational possihilities of museums 

 were quite in accord with those held to-chiy. At a time when piihlic schools 

 were just springine- into existeiu e and free libraries did not exist at all, 

 the estahlishment of free museums coulfl not he expeetcd, the more that 

 according to the views of some the jiuhlic museum is the latest and high- 

 est, though l)y no means last, institution for i)ul)lic education. First we 

 have public schools, then libraries and now the museum. The opening of 

 the LouNTe to the jjopnlace seems to have been the hrst really free ])\iblic 

 uuiseum and this was rather an expression of the fierce demand for " Liberty, 

 Equality and Fraternity " than done w itli a. deliberate intent to benefit 

 the people. 



l,o\(' of beauty precedes the lo\c of knowledge, so the opening of the 

 Lou\fe preceded the opem'ng of the liritish Mtiseinn. To us the \ iew 

 then taken of the (•on(hict of n. J'nr nniseum is somewhat aimising. When 

 we do not liaxc at least li\e himdred xisitors a day at the .\merican Museum 

 we begin to worry lest the ])nblic is losing interest or our collections ceasing 

 to be attractixc; and yet at the outset the nmiil)er of \ isitors that might 

 enter the British Museum in one ilay was limited to thirty. We not infre- 

 (|uently ha\'e an attendance of one thousand to twehc hundred at one 

 of our lectures. I'nder tlie old regime it would have taken that audience 

 an entire year to pass through the British Museum. 



Lit tit! by little this state of affairs has changed. The public was first 

 permitted, then iin'itcd, then heartily welcomed to enter the miiscimi. 



