The Miixcinii Siludlion in Ciiiciiiinili IH 



surest iiu:ir;intee of the life of an organization. Public nniscums 

 have grown prodigiously since Natural History societies 

 ceased to be founded, but they have not grown for the pleasure 

 of those who finance and manage them, but for the education, 

 entertainment and refinelnent of the comnmnity. They are 

 now benevolent or i)hilanthropie rather than democratic in 

 the old sense. In the old society all were, at least in theory, 

 both givers and receivers of information. Now the distinction 

 between givers and receivers is generally marked. 



Such of the old time societies as have survived have either 

 been privately endowed or have been subsidized, generally 

 by their own cities. Of the two already mentioned, the Charles- 

 ton Museum, beside receiving from the city a $40,000 building, 

 receives $4,000 a year for curatorship and management. The 

 Salem ^Museum is well endowed. The Philadel})hia Academy 

 of Sciences has large collections and ample resources and the 

 Boston Society of Natural History receives nearly $14,000 a 

 year from its endowment. The Davenport (Iowa) Academy 

 of Sciences, fonnded but three years before the Cincinnati 

 Society and having approximately the same means of support, is 

 one of the very few which has preserved its vigor, but it has done 

 this by entering actively into the educational field. It was one 

 of the first to effect definite cooperation with the public schools. 



As already stated, nearly two-fifths of all the museums 

 and galleries listed in the United States belong to educational 

 institutions. For the most part these are "poorly supported, 

 ■ badly cared for and not much seen." In 1909 only five colleges 

 (or universities) and five independent societies appropriated 

 more than $1,000 each to museums. Most colleges dei)end for 

 curatorship on the voluntary services of science instructors, 

 whose advancement in the world depends on research and not 

 on philanthropic work for the community. Time for mu.senm 

 work nuist be subtracted from the small time allowed for re- 

 search and writing. Most college museums are decadent for 

 the same cause which affects Natural History societies. So 

 long as the teaching of .science was in the Natural History 

 stage there was great interest in multifarious forms, but this 



