282 



NA TURE 



[July 21, 1892 



The Principles of Museum Organization. 



These four groups are sharply defined from each other. In 

 practice however it is often necessary to use for the illustration 

 of one what, strictly speaking, belongs to the others. In all such 

 cases, however, the reason of the presence of the alien object 

 must be made obvious, if the general effect of the arrangement 

 is to be preserved. For example, in the Manchester Museum, 

 I found it necessary to complete the history of the Tertiary 

 Period to illustrate the first appearance of man, and to carry on 

 the narrative through the prehistoric and historic divisions down 

 to modern times by a small selected series of specimens, showing 

 the progress of mankind. Were it not for this they would be 

 wholly out of place in a collection of natural history. In like 

 manner our Egyptian mummy has its due place in the National 

 Gallery in Trafalgar Square, its locus standi consisting in the 

 fact that it illustrates the art of portrait painting among the 

 Alexandrine Greeks of the first century after Christ. 



Next in the point of importance to the leading ideas in museum 

 work comes the question of labelling and illustration. The 

 labels should be clear and distinct, and if possible in English as 

 well as in Latin. The specimens should illustrate the labels 

 quite as much as the labels the specimens. All possible means 

 of illustration should be employed, maps, diagrams, restorations, 

 and the like, so that the main points and relations are clearly 

 brought home to the visitor. In addition to the systematic 

 catalogue of each specimen there should also be apopular guide 

 similar to those of the British Museum. It goes without saying 

 that a collection of books is also necessary. 



The kind of museum most desirable in any place depends 

 entirely on the local conditions, and there is no hard and fast 

 scheme applicable to all cases. Nor is the question of great or 

 small to be looked at otherwise than as one of detail. A small 

 well-arranged collection in a school or in a village will do the 

 work which it is intended to do as well as large museums in the 

 metropolis, or in a university, or in a centre of commerce. The 

 principles of success are the same in all : they must be orderly, 

 they must be intelligible, they must as far as possible appeal to 

 the sense of beauty. Under no circumstances must unnamed 

 and unknown specimens be allowed to appear. A ragged recruit 

 may be drilled into a good soldier, but he spoils the parade if 

 he appears out of uniform in the ranks. Nearly all of us who 

 have had to do with museums have sinned in this matter, and it 

 is not for me to cast a stone at my fellow sinners. 



The work, however, is only partially done when a museum is 

 properly arranged, labelled, and catalogued on the above lines. 

 To make it intelligible in the best possible way, it is necessary 

 that there should be lectures and demonstrations given in the 

 museum itself, in which some special points should be taken up 

 which interest either the general public or the special worker. 

 In my experience oral instruction with the things before the eyes 

 in the museum, and not away from it in the lecture-room, is the 

 best manner of doing this. As an example of this, I would 

 refer to the demonstrations organized in the British Museum by 

 Prof. Stewart Poole, in which ancient art and civilization were 

 dealt with, and to those which have from time to time been 

 given in the national collection of natural history, under the 

 auspices of Dr. Flower. In this relation the British Museum will 

 be found to be one of the most valuable instruments for spreading 

 knowledge in the University which London will have in the 

 future. In this relation, too, the Geological Museum in Jermyn 

 Street, around which are centred some of the ablest men of the 

 time — De-la-Beche, Murchison, Ramsey, Edward Forbes, 

 Tyndal, Huxley, and many others — has done most valuable 

 service. It is in this direction that museums will influence the 

 general education in this- country, and take their natural place 

 in the new learning. 



Application of these Principles to the Manchester Museum. 



I pass now to the application of the above principles to the 

 Manchester Museum, Owens College. Our experience gained 

 in bringing the old collection into harmony with modern re- 

 quirements cannot fail to interest those who are now engaged in 

 like work, because it may show not only what is to be copied, 

 but what is to be avoided. 



When the task of organization was entrusted to me in 1869, 

 there was a large general collection of natural history, and a 

 large geological collection. The former had been a first-class 

 collection in the second quarter of this century, but had ceased 

 to grow, and therefore had become dead. The second was in 



NO. I 186, VOL. 46] 



good order, and, under the care of its founders, Binny, Ormerod, 

 and others, was properly named. Both, however, were in a 

 most deplorable state so far as relates to fittings, and were 

 simply ignored by the general public, and scarcely used by 

 students. The first step was to sweep out of the way the mis- 

 cellaneous objects which had no place in a Natural History 

 Museum. The next was to organise what remained into a 

 systematic collection in rooms and cases which were unfit for 

 the purpose. Then followed evening lectures and demonstrations 

 in the old Museum building in Peter Street. Later the teaching 

 collections in Owens College were added, and the Museum 

 began to revive and grow, slowly but steadily, as the connection 

 with the College grew closer, till, in 1874, it was transferred to 

 temporary quarters in the attics and basement of the Owens 

 College. It continued to grow in spite of the removal and of the 

 inadequate cases, and the interest of the public was maintained 

 very largely by the system of Saturday afternoon demonstra- 

 tions in the only part open to the public — the Geological 

 Museum. 



The systematic rearrangement in view of the new build- 

 ings was taken in hand. The minerals were arranged, 

 labelled, and catalogued, Dana's " Hand-book of Mineralogy " 

 offering a ready-made catalogue. To meet the mining interests 

 of Manchester special groups of the minerals found in associa- 

 tion were organized to illustrate the minerals of Derbyshire, the 

 Lake District, Cheshire, the diamond mines, the apatite mines, 

 and the like. 



For the special ends of the geological teaching, the rock 

 specimens were also arranged, and special groups were formed to 

 illustrate their association — such as the products of Vesuvius, 

 and of the volcanoes of Auvergne — and to illustrate the destruction 

 of rocks by natural causes. Then naturally followed the classifica- 

 tion of the fossils to show the sequence of events in the geological 

 record. In this the Carboniferous flora and fauna naturally 

 took a prominent place, because of the vast importance of the 

 coal-fields to this district. The arrival, too, of the existing 

 higher Mammalia, including man, on the earth, took a jjro- 

 minent place in the Tertiary collections, and formed the leading 

 idea in the Tertiary chapter of a history of the earth, while the 

 story of the earth was fitly closed by a series of groups illus- 

 trating the evolution of human culture and the prehistoric 

 and historic periods. The general principle of classification 

 throughout the whole geological series, or, in other words, the 

 historical method, was that of time. Next the zoological col- 

 lections were arranged, as far as the changing classification would 

 allow, zoologically, with a special group for the zoology of Great 

 Britain. The botanical collections, which offered exceptional 

 difficulty, are now in hand. In this manner the whole of the 

 collections were arranged for the time when they should find 

 their place in the new buildings, and pass under the care of the 

 professor in each department. A scheme of uniformity was 

 carried out with regard to fittings and mounts also ; a definite 

 unit of size, 4" x xA", was decided upon, and all tablets and glass 

 boxes were made either on that or on multiples of that. This 

 unit also ruled the size hoth of the drawers and of the cases in 

 the new fittings. The system of printed labels in which black 

 ink represents the specific name and the red the name of the 

 group was also devised. In the plans of the new Museum the maxi- 

 mum amount of light, consistent with stability and architectural 

 beauty, was the leading idea, while the laboratories and lecture- 

 room of the whole of the Natural History Department of the 

 College were brought as close as they could be to the Museum. 

 The building itself was designed to suit the organization of the 

 collections. Thus step by step the present Museum was gradu- 

 ally built up, and when the buildings were completed in 1884 

 the collections were transferred to the quarters which they now 

 occupy, and where they form a centre towards which other 

 collections gravitate. 



While the museum has been rapidly growing during the last 

 eight years, the system of museum lectures and addresses to 

 various organizations, mechanics' institutes, schools, and the 

 like has been largely developed. In its present state it is used 

 largely by students of Owens College, and is growing in favour 

 with the general public. In other words it is taking the place it 

 ought to have in the education of this densely populated district. 

 These results, it must be observed, have only been possible 

 through the liberality with which the Museum has been treated 

 both by the public and by Owens College. I look forward with 

 confidence to the time when both will be amply repaid by the 

 impulse it is giving, and will give, to the new learning. 



