THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 495 



In its library system the student should have access to the litera- 

 ture bearing upon the subjects with which the museum is concerned. 

 In its exhibition halls each object should be labeled and arranged 

 with the view of presenting, by graphic illustration and concise de- 

 scription, all that it is capable of teaching, either as a discrete object 

 or as one of a series of objects telling the story of the evolution of 

 the group to which it belongs. Such a museum is not a place where 

 the uninformed student may obtain the elements of a university 

 training; it is an institution where the post-graduate student can 

 secure access to material for study and research in connection with 

 men who are carrying forward scientific work of the highest type. 

 Dr. D. C. Gilman would go further than this. He says : * 



" Any person of either sex, from any place, of whatever age, 

 without any question as to his previous academic degree, should be 

 admissible; provided, however, that he demonstrate his fitness to 

 the satisfaction of the leader in the subject of his predilection." 



Dr. Gilman thinks that such an organization " may be devel- 

 oped more readily around the Smithsonian Institution, with less 

 friction, less expense, less peril, and with the prospect of more per- 

 manent and widespread advantages to the country, than by a dozen 

 denominational seminaries or one colossal university of the United 

 States. 



." To the special opportunities that the Smithsonian and its affili- 

 ations could offer, every university, at a distance or near by, might 

 be glad to send its most promising students for a residence of weeks, 

 months, or years, never losing control of them. Many other per- 

 sons, disconnected with universities, but proficient to a consider- 

 able degree in one study or another, would also resort with pleasure 

 and gratitude, and with prospect of great advantages, to the rare 

 opportunities which Washington affords for study and investigation 

 in history, political science, literature, ethnology, anthropology, 

 medicine, agriculture, meteorology, geology, geodesy, and astron- 

 omy." 



I fully agree with him, but would make the National Museum 

 the center of activity, rather than the Smithsonian Institution. 

 It would then be under the control of the Board of Regents, through 

 the secretary or the assistant secretary, who could have direct 

 charge. It seems to me that the function of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution is to aid at the beginning of such a movement, and then 

 place the administration in charge of one of its bureaus or transfer 

 it to some other suitable organization. 



With the National Museum as a center or base, the student in 

 Washington may avail himself of the Library of Congress and of 

 * Century Magazine, vol. IT, 1897, p. 156. 



