CURATORS 35 



the parent of smaller branch museums of the same kind 

 wherever they 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 must 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 circumstances 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 it 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 necessities 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 certain annual 

 expenditure, and the means afforded by any occupation for 

 this necessary expenditure give a rough and ready test of the 

 appreciation in which such occupation 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 

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

 human knowledge his museum illustrates, he must be able to 

 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 

 education, in fact, must be not dissimilar to that required for 

 most of the learned professions. Skill, manual dexterity, and 

 good taste are also most valuable. He must, in addition, if 



