The ifii.stinn SiliKitioii in ('iiiriiniati 29 



iiiul \;nio(l collections of Ilaiis Slojinc, to which others wore 

 soon added. The le;unn<j; i)hice which England has from the 

 first occupied in the matter of j)ublic niu.seunis is probably 

 due partly to her leadership in exploration, travel and trade. 

 It is certain at least that the first great ])ublic collections drew 

 largely upon the New World. It is not strange therefore that 

 the same Englishmen living in that New World should act in 

 the same nuumer. So the British INIuseum was only fourteen 

 years old when the Charleston Library Society undertook for 

 the province of South Ciirolina, the task which the British 

 Museum had assumed for the world. The Charleston Museum 

 was founded three years before the Declaration of Independence, 

 and after a continuous career of one hundred and forty-four 

 years is a model of what may be called the sectioyial museum 

 as op])osed to the cosmopolitan nmseum Avhich represents the 

 world. 



The next oldest museum in America is probably the Pea- 

 body Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. It was started in 1799 

 by the Salem East India Marine Societ5^ an organization com- 

 ])osed wholly of the masters and supercargoes of Salem vessels 

 navigating the southern seas in the vicinity of Cape Horn or 

 the Cape "of Good Hope. Up to 1909, four hundred and six 

 members had passed this test. The collections of this social, 

 charitable and semiscientific or technical society were to 

 consist of "natural and artificial curiosities" brought home from 

 long voyages. Union with other societies of more local interest 

 has made of this museum another good, type of the sectional 

 museum. (Robinson, John — Proc. Amer. As.soc. of Mus., 

 vol. V. ]). 7.5.) It is now a part of the well endowed Peabody 

 Institute. 



The nineteenth century was so fruitful of musemns that 

 only the broad outlines of the movement can be noted. It 

 will be observed that the first museums were founded by 

 societies. Of the six Inmdred nmseums and galleries in the 

 United States, more than one-third were thus founded and are 

 now so sui)i)orted. A slightly larger number are connected 

 with schools or colleges. One-fifth of all are supported by 



