NA TURE 



269 



K*^\ 



THUKbDAY, OCiUBER 28, 1920. 



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Museums in Education. 



FOR many years past a number of people, ap- 

 proachinff the question from diverse or even 

 opposite sides, have agreed that our museums 

 should do more for education, and that our educa- 

 tional establishments should be brought into closer 

 touch with museums. The desire for mutual aid 

 is expressed by representatives of science, art, 

 classical studies, history, and indu.stry. A discus- 

 sion of the subject in the Education Section of the 

 British Association at Birmingham in 1913 led to 

 the appointment of a committee drawn from many 

 sections "to examine, inquire into, and report on 

 the character, work, and maintenance of museums, 

 with a view to their organisation and development 

 ■AS institutions for education and research, and 

 especially to inquire into the requirements of 

 schools." A wide reference — and the committee, 

 «;omposed of university officers and professors, 

 school inspectors and teachers, humanists and 

 men of science, administrators and museum cura- 

 tors, has taken a wide sweep and a broad view. 

 The final report, now before us,* was deferred 

 owing to the difficulties and economies of war- 

 time, and is now published with the forced omis- 

 sion of the detailed data on which the conclusions 

 are based. This, however, makes it the easier 

 reading, and read it should be by all interested in 

 either museums or education. 



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NO. 2661, VOL. 106] 



Those who are to be educated by museums 

 may be classed as the general public, the pupils of 

 primary and secondary schools, students at uni- 

 versities and similar institutions, and, finally, post- 

 graduate and other advanced students. In the 

 past the attempt to reach these people has been 

 subject to many difficulties. The name " museum " 

 has diverse connotations ; while some museums, of 

 modern origin, are purely educational in aim, those 

 of older foundation were not, and cannot be, pri- 

 marily engines of education. None the less, 

 the officials of the latter have long been 

 anxious to enlarge this side of their work. 

 The appeal to the general public, initiated 

 by Flower in the Natural History Museum, 

 has been followed and surpassed elsewhere, 

 notably in the United States. With us the 

 provision of guide-books and of the human 

 guides so strenuously advocated by Lord Sudeley 

 demands more money than is forthcoming. But 

 the real difficulty in our larger museums has 

 always been the conflicting aims of the exhibition 

 galleries. This will not be overcome until the 

 reference series for collectors and advanced 

 students are separated from the more popular and 

 elementary exhibits, just as the research collections 

 are already separated. Above all, in every museum 

 there is the ditficulty of the overworked and under- 

 paid curator. 



Turning to the other side, we have found diffi- 

 culties in the schools. The value of the museum 

 and of museum material has not been appreciated 

 by teachers. It was too much trouble. "When 

 the ground is covered by manuals, why try to drag 

 in pictures or objects which are a bother to look 

 after, and which distract the pupil's attention from 

 his book? And, as for taking the class to a 

 museum, how are we to find either time or 

 money? " Our great public schools have some 

 excellent museums, but there is little or no evi- 

 dence that they arc used in school teaching. Our 

 universities have museums, or collections specially 

 designed for their students, but too often they 

 compete rather than co-<ipcrate with the public 

 museums of their neighbourhood. As for indus- 

 tries, they keep their own secrets, and (except in 

 a few instances, as the Potteries museum) do not 

 realise the value of museums for their purpo.scs. 

 Possibly curators, too, have not always redlised 

 the service they themselves might render to in- 

 dustry. 



In tbese matters, as in so much else, the war 

 has produced a change of conditions and a change 

 of view. Museums have proved their usefulness 



