NATIONAL WORK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM- 

 MUSEUMS AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 1 



By F. A. Bather, D. Sc, F. R. S., 

 British Museum (Natural History). 



I. NATIONAL WORK AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 



Shortly after the beginning of the war, as part of an attempt to 

 clarify our views as to the position that museum workers might 

 adopt, we published an article on " Museums and National Service " 

 (Museums Journal, Oct., 1914, pp. 121-127). This dealt mainly 

 with the work of the natural history departments of the British 

 Museum in the years immediately preceding the war. The recent 

 publication of the British Museum " Return " for 1916 suggested 

 that it was time to publish a similar article, showing how all this 

 national work has continued in spite of many difficulties and, more 

 particularly, how it has been utilised for the prosecution of the war. 

 This article was indeed being prepared when recent events gave 

 direful proof of the need for more widespread information con- 

 cerning the activities of the Natural History Museum. A brief 

 selection was therefore published in the Times (Jan. 5th, 1918). 

 The Executive Committee of the Museums Association feels, how- 

 ever, that it will be well to have a statement of this kind issued in 

 the more permanent form afforded by the Museums Journal, so 

 that it may be brought to the notice of all museum committees, and 

 may assist them to appreciate one aspect of museum work perhaps 

 more fully than has been possible for them hitherto. For it must 

 not be thought that this is a matter with which other museums have 

 no concern. Quite apart from the fact that much useful work of 

 the same character is being conducted in many a museum, it must be 

 remembered that " we are all members of one body," and that, as an 

 attack upon one is an attack upon all, so also the benefit of one mu- 

 seum is in the end the benefit of the rest. Happily, we are not com- 

 petitors but cooperators and colleagues. 



The writing of the desired article is not altogether easy. The 

 bluebooks are not lavish of such information, and what is given is 

 in too condensed a form for general consumption. Without the 



1 Reprinted, by permission, from the Museums Journal, vol. 17, pp. 120-125, February, 

 1918. and pp. 161-169, May, 1918. 



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