REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 11 
While it is the primary duty of a museum to preserve the objects 
confided to its care, as it is that of a library to preserve its books 
and manuscripts, yet the importance of public collections rests not 
upon the mere basis of custodianship, nor upon the number of 
specimens assembled and their money value, but upon the use to 
which they are put. Judged by this standard, the National Museum 
may claim to have reached a high state of efficiency. From an 
educational point of view it is of great value to those persons who 
are so fortunate as to reside in Washington or who are able to visit 
the Nation’s capital. In its well-designed cases, in which every detail 
of structure, appointment, and color is considered, a selection of 
representative objects is placed on view to the public, all being 
carefully labeled individually and in groups. The child as well as 
the adult has been provided for, and the kindergarten pupil and the 
high-school scholar can be seen here, supplementing their classroom 
games or studies. Under authority from Congress, the small colleges 
and higher grades of schools and academies throughout the land, 
especially in places where museums do not exist, are also being aided 
in their educational work by sets of duplicate specimens, selected 
and labeled to meet the needs of both teachers and pupils. 
Nor has the elementary or even the higher education been by any 
means the sole gainer from the work of the Museum. To advance 
knowledge, to gradually extend the boundaries of learning, has been 
one of the great tasks to which the Museum, in consonance with the 
spirit of the Institution, has set itself from the first. Its staff, though 
chiefly engaged in the duties incident to the care, classification, and 
labeling of collections in order that they may be accessible to the 
public and to students, has yet in these operations made important 
discoveries in every department of the Museum’s activities, which 
have in turn been communicated to other scholars through its 
numerous publications. But the collections have not been held for 
the study of the staff nor for the scientific advancement of those 
belonging to the establishment. Most freely have they been put at 
the disposal of investigators connected with other institutions, and, 
in fact, without the help of many such the record of scientific progress 
based upon the material in the Museum would be greatly curtailed. 
When it is possible to so arrange, the investigator comes to Wash- 
ington; otherwise such collections as he needs are sent to him, whether 
he resides in this country or abroad. In this manner practically 
every prominent specialist throughout the world interested in the 
subjects here well represented has had some use of the collections, 
and thereby the National Museum has come to be recognized as a 
conspicuous factor in the advancement of knowledge wherever civili- 
zation has a foothold. 
