July 6, 1893] 



NA TURE 



235 



asked for either to complete that establishment l)y the erection 

 of the wings at the sides, or to finish the neighbouring South 

 Kensington Museum in such a manner as worthily to hild its 

 collections, both of art and science ; or who would deprecate 

 the further expansion of the magnificent series of treasures of 

 ancient and mediaeval art in the British Museum at Bloomsbury, 

 of which the country has such just reason to be proud. Let 

 such persons consider that the largest museum yet erected, with 

 all its internal fittings, has not cost so much as a single fully- 

 equipped line of-battle ship which in a few years may be either 

 at the bottom of the sea, or so obsolete in construction as to be 

 worth no more than the materials of which it is made. Not 

 that I am deprecating the building of ships necessary for our 

 protection, but ra'.her wishing to show that the cost of such 

 museums as are. still required for the proper education of the 

 nation is not such as would produce any sensible impression 

 upon its financial position. 



I may make a still more apposite comparison, and point to the 

 vast sums of money spent by this nation upon the whole subject 

 of education now and a few years ago. The total estimate for 

 what is called "Class IV., Education, Science and Art," for the 

 financial year 1883-84, amounted to ^^4,748, 556. In ten years 

 it has grown to nearly double that amount, the estimate for 

 1893-94 being ;^9, 172,216, ^^^ increase being mainly due to 

 what is termed " Public Education." The amount spent upon 

 the development of museums is comparatively insignificant. 

 The British Museum vote (including the library and the natural 

 history branch) has only increased from ^146,019 to ^157,500. 

 The cost of the various museums maintained by the Science and 

 An Department shows little appreciable augmentation, except 

 in ihe case of that at Dublin, where I am glad to see .^19,035 

 is nr)w put down instead of the jf 13,602 of Ihe former period. 

 Compared with the whole amount expended upon other methods 

 of education, national expenditure upon museums and art 

 galleries is at present very small. 



In reference to this subject one cannot help considering how 

 much might have been done if only a moderate portion of that 

 large sum of money obtained a few years ago by the tax on 

 brewers, and handed over to the County Councils to spend in 

 promoting technical education, had been used for erecting 

 mueums, which might have taken a permanent place in the edu- 

 cation of the country. Every subject taught, in order to make the 

 teaching real and practical, should have its collection, and these 

 various collections might all have been associated in the county 

 museum under the samegeneral management. ThestafFof teachers 

 would assist in the curatorial work, and thus a well-equipped 

 central college for technical education might have been formed 

 in every county, senJing out ramifications into the various dis- 

 tricts in which the need of special instruction was most felt, and 

 being also the parent of smaller branch museums of the same 

 kind wherever thiy seem required. 



But it is not only in the buildings that the expense of the 

 museums of the future will have to be met. Another great 

 advance will have to be made before they can be placed upon a 

 satisfactory footing, and perform the functions that can be 

 legitimately expected of them. This is in the elevation of the 

 position and acquirements of those who have the care of them. 

 As I have said on a previous occasion, " What a museum really 

 depends upon for its success and usefulness is not its building, 

 not its cases, not even its specimens, but its curator." 



Speaking in the presence of a number of gentlemen who are 

 curators of museums, do not let me be misunderstood. I do 

 not mean that you are not zealous in the cause and make great 

 sacrifices for it, and do all you can under the often difficult 

 ciicumstances in which you are placed ; but what I mean is — 

 and I am sure you will one and all agree with me when I say 

 il —you are not properly appreciated by the public, and the 

 importance and difficulties of your position are by no means 

 sufficiently understood. In a civilised community the necessi- 

 ties of life, to say nothing of luxuries (which we do not ask for), 

 but the bare necessities of a man of education and refinement, 

 who has to associate with his equals, and bring up his children 

 to the life of educated and refined people, involve a cerlain 

 annual expenditure, and the means afforded by any occupation 

 for this necessary expenditure gives a rough and ready test of 

 the appreciation in which such occupa ion is held. 



Now, a curator of a museum, if he is fit for his duties, must 



be a man of very considerable education as well as natural 



j ability. If he is not himself an expert in all the branches of 



hum.an knowledge his museum illustrates, he must be able to 



NO. 1236, VOL. 48] 



understand and appreciate them sufficiently to know where and 

 how he can supplement his own deficiencies, so as to be able 

 to keep every department up to the proper level. His educa- 

 tion, in fact, must be not dissimilar to that required for most of 

 the learned professions. Still, manual dexterity and good taste 

 are also most valuable. He must, in addition, if he is to be a 

 success in his vocation, possess various moral qualifications not 

 found in every professional man — punctuality, habits of busi- 

 ness, conciliatory manners, and, above all, indomitable and 

 conscientious industry in the discharge of the small and some- 

 what monotonous routine duties, which constitute so large a part 

 of a curator's life. Such being the requirements of the profession, 

 let us see what are the inducements offered to men to take it up 

 as a means of livelihood. I really am sorry to have to speak 

 of such a sordid subject, but I know it is one you naturally 

 shrink from talking of yourselves. You would be the last 

 people in the world to take the remedy, so often now resorted 

 to by other classes, into your own hands. A strike of curators 

 is hardly to be contemplated. Remember, now, that I am not 

 speaking of this subject in your interests, or the interests of any 

 individuals. Whether any of you personally should have your 

 emoluments, your social position, your opportunities for good, 

 improved, is not now with me an object of concern, it is in the 

 interest of that great question, the advance of the museum as a 

 means of educating, culivating, and elevating mankind, that I 

 am speaking, an advance that can only be effectively made 

 when the curatorship of a museum is looked upon as an honour- 

 able and desirable profession for men of high intellectual 

 acquirements. 



Let me take a few examples of the inducements to enter this 

 profession at the present time. I have before me some recent 

 advertisements. The curator of the Museum of the Philoso- 

 phical and Literary Society of one of the largest and most 

 flourishing of our manufacturing cities is offered ^125 a year 

 for his services. In another town, smaller and less wealthy, it 

 is true, "a resident curator, meteorological observer, and care- 

 taker, is wanted for the museum and library buildings at a 

 salary of ;^So per annum, with rooms, coal, and gas. Appli- 

 cants are to state age and scientific qualifications." 



In a recent newspaper discussion upon the establishment of a 

 museum in one of the midland counties, after it had been pointed 

 out that one of the prime necessities of such an institution was a 

 provision for the maintenance of a curator, a leading gentleman 

 of the district, a zealous and sympathetic advocate of the cause, 

 perfectly acquiescing in this view, suggested that .1^100 a year 

 should by all means be set aside for this purpose. 



It is frequently my lot to be consulted by anxious parents of 

 sons who develop a taste for museum work as to what such 

 a taste will lead to if cultivated. I need hardly say that, how- 

 ever much I may wish our ranks to be recruited by such enthu- 

 siastic aspirants, boys often of great ability and promise, I cannot 

 conscientiously offer much encouragement. The best I can say 

 is that I hope things will be better in the future than they are at 

 present. As far as the Metropolis is concerned there has been 

 some improvement, and I think that indications are not want- 

 ing that this improvement will continue and extend. 



I have referred at the beginning of this address to the great 

 amount of recent literature upon the museum question, consist- 

 ing chiefly in depreciation of the old ways of arranging museums, 

 of suggestions for the improvements for the future, and mainly 

 in the development of what may be called the new museum idea. 

 What this idea is was tersely expressed nearly thirty years ago 

 by the late Dr. John Edward Gray, in his address to the British 

 Association at Bath (1864) as President of Section D, when 

 near the close of his long career as administrator of a collection 

 which by his exertions he had made the largest of the kind in 

 the world, he laid down the axiom that the purposes for which 

 a museum was established were two — "first, the diffusion of 

 instruction and rational amusement among the mass of the 

 people, and, secondly, to afford the scientific student every ])os. 

 sible means of examining and studying the specimens of which 

 the museum con^ists." He then continued — "Now, it appears 

 to me that in the desire to combine these two objects, which are 

 essentially distinct, the first object^namely, the general in. 

 struction of the people — has been to a great extent lost sight of 

 an 1 sacrificed to the second without any corresponding advan- 

 tage to the latter, because the system itself has been thoroughly 

 erroneous." 



This was a remarkable admission, coming from a man who 

 had been brought up in, and had acted throughout the whole of 



