II 



MODERN MUSEUMS 1 



THE Museums Association is one of the youngest of the 

 numerous social organisations which it is thought expedient 

 at the present day to constitute, in order to give facilities 

 for the interchange of ideas on subjects interesting to a special 

 group of men. It is, indeed, only in the fourth year 

 of its existence, and this is the first time that a meeting 

 has been held in London, the centre in which are gathered 

 the great national collections, and in which reside so con- 

 siderable a number of persons engaged in their custody. The 

 association claims York as its birthplace, and Liverpool, 

 Cambridge, and Manchester have in succession afforded it 

 hospitality and enjoyed the advantage of its presence 



We all meet with one object in view. We are all 

 impressed with the value with the necessity, I should say 

 of the Museum (using the word in its widest sense, as a 

 collection of works of art and of nature) in the intellectual 

 advance of mankind. 



How could art make any progress, how could it even 

 exist, if its productions were destroyed as soon as they were 

 created, if there were no museums, private or public, in 

 which they could be preserved and made available to 

 mankind now and hereafter ? How could science be studied 

 without ready access to the materials upon which knowledge 

 is built up ? In many branches of science the progress is 

 mainly commensurate with the abundance and accessibility of 

 such materials. 



1 Presidential Address to the Museums Association at the Meeting in London, 

 3rd July 1893. 



