228 Tin-: AMi:i!/c.\.\ mi'si-jm jornx.iL 



Also ;is the attitude ol' iimscniiis has cliaiijicd, so lias tlic cliaractcr of tlicir 

 follcctious, or to 1)C exact, the eharaeter of the jiart the piiliHe sees and iti 

 which it is interested — the exhihits. 



The museiiins of fifty years ago or e\'en much less were rather dreary 

 affairs conii)ared with those of the present day. The \ isitor was greeted 

 ])y row upon row of animals, most literally stufl'ed, arrayed in ranks and 

 accompanied hy lal)els whose prin(ii)al mission was to con\"ey to the jjuMic 

 what to them is a most unimportant niattei', the scientific names. 



The aim of the modern museimi is to illustrate ideas, not merely to 

 display objects, to take the facts or information gathered hy long years of 

 patient study and so present them that they may he understood hy everyone. 

 More than that it aims to present these facts in such manner as to interest 

 the visitor, having come to understand that if you cannot interest him you 

 cannot instruct him. For the average museum Aisitor does not come in 

 search of knowledge but to be interested, and "rational amusement" was 

 long ago coimted as one of the purposes of a public museum. So instead of 

 a host of beasts, birds, and fishes marshalled in serried coliorts we haxc oin- 

 groups showing not only what the creatures are, but wliere they live and 

 what they do. In our ethnological halls you see not only the objects used 

 by strange and far-oil' peoples, but the people themselves engaged in the 

 occupations of e\eryday life. 



We have our Children's Room though this is merely in its beginning, 

 our lectures, our guides to the collections, all with the puri)ose of making 

 the collections of real use to visitors. 



These things have not come to pa.ss all at once; they hax'c come about 

 as a part of the evolution of nuiseums, for there is an cxolution of ideas 

 and institutions, as well as of living things. 1 can recall every step in the 

 progress of the American Museum; I ha^•e seen it change from a mere 

 storehouse of objects to a great educational institution. 



Dr. Goode of the National Museum used to sa\- that the aims of a 

 museum were three — record, research, and publication: record by the 

 preservation of ol)jects, research I)y their study, an<l publication by giving 

 to the world the information thus gained. Had Dr. Goode been sj)ared 

 but a few years longer, he would have added to the above mentioned pin-- 

 poses of a nuiseum the further aim, education of the ])ul)lic. .\nd let me 

 say here that no one in this country did more than he to further the educa- 

 tional influence of museums and that his loss was a great calamity. 



An educational museum may be defined as a museum in which the 

 objects shown, the manner in which they are arranged, and their accom- 

 panying labels illustrate some fact in nature or in the history of mankind 

 in such manner that it may readily be grasped by all, and this is what 

 the American Museum is endeavoring to be for the public. 



