January 19, 1922] 



NATURE 



81 



What the PubHc Wants. 

 A Study of the American Museum of Natural History 



THE American Museum of Natural History prob- 

 ably stands at the head of those museums 

 Avhich set out to interest and attract the general 

 public. In so doing it obeys the clauses of its Acts 

 of Incorporation, but it obeys also the more impera- 

 tive law of its continued life : to live, a museum, 

 like everything else, must progress; to progress, it 

 needs sustenance. The American Museum, being 

 neither a Government museum, nor a State museum, 

 nor a municipal museum, has to rely upon private 

 endowment and subscriptions. The annual appro- 

 priation of the city is contined 

 to the maintenance of the 

 building, and is inadequate 

 e\en for that purpose. To in- 

 stal its exhibits, to send out 

 its expeditions, to pay its staff, 

 and to prosecute those scientific 

 researches for which it is cele- 

 iirated, the museum must 

 arouse private individuals to 

 that degree of enthusiasm at 

 which they will part with their 

 dollars. The mechanism is the 

 enrolment of such individuals 

 as members of various grades, 

 and so successful is it that no 

 less than 5556 members are 

 now enrolled. 



Of the numerous ways in 

 which the museum appeals to 

 this great public, and to the 

 far greater public as yet only 

 on the road to membership, we 

 can mention here a bare selec- 

 tion. The most obvious, and 

 the most characteristically a 

 museum method, is the pre- 

 paration of popular exhibits. 

 The example set by our own 

 Natural History Museum has 

 here been left far behind. 

 The present report furnishes 



two illustrations, which we are permitted to 

 reproduce. Fig. i shows part of a group of 

 the northern elephant seal, from a colony recently 

 discovered on the island of Guadalupe. A small 

 portion of the new Bryozoa group, which represents 

 two square inches of sea-bottom magnified twenty- 

 five diameters, is depicted on two-thirds that scale 

 in Fig. 2. Groups of this latter kind, based 

 on prolonged studies, and carried out with 

 extreme technical skill, are among the most 

 instructive, as well as the most fascinating, novel- 

 ties. Then there are the larger series, such as the 

 exhibit of the natural history of (modern civilised) 

 man, projected by the Department of PubHc 

 Health. We in England hav€ done something in 

 this direction, as witness the exhibits of food, of 

 human parasites, and the biology of water-works 

 NO. 2725, VOL. 109] 



at the Natural History Museum, but we have not 

 formulated the conception of man in relation to his 

 whole environment of to-day. Temporary exhibi- 

 tions are useful as keeping a museum alive and 

 attracting fresh sections of the public. Dr. Lucas, 

 the director, does not favour the expenditure of 

 curatorial energy on these, but when they are in- 

 stalled by outside bodies, as the wireless telephone 

 display or the posters teaching kindness to animals, 

 it is only space that he grudges. During 1920 all 

 this activity in the exhibition galleries attracted 



Fig. I. — California sea-elephant group. 



By thecouriesy of the 

 New York. 



American iMuseun. uf Natural History, 



937,265 visits (exclusive of attendance on lec- 

 tures), Avhich compares favourably with the corre- 

 sponding totals of 851,483 at the British Museum 

 (Bloomsbury), and 527,701 at the British Museum 

 (Natural History). 



This number, however, does not represent half 

 the people reached by the popularising and educa- 

 tional work of the American Museum. Forty-eight 

 societies have been welcome to hold meetings, ex- 

 hibits, or lectures in the meeting-rooms of the 

 museum during the year. Lectures have been given 

 to school children and adults by a special depart- 

 ment of public education co-operating with the City 

 Board of Education. This increases the number 

 of visits by 100,750. This department also carries 

 its lectures to the schools themselves, lends lantern- 

 slides by myriads, and circulates 887 special col- 



