Pope. — Museum Methods. 59 



to the other (called by us Habitat Groups) . They want also 

 exhibits to show the usefulness of these many fishes, birds, 

 reptiles, insects and other forms of life to man, if such have 

 an economic value; how they are obtained or captured, 

 what is the economic status of the animal, and how it is 

 converted into a useful purpose by man, etc., etc. The 

 people now want something for their money. They want 

 the best of exhibits, lectures, and, above all, they want the 

 latest and correct information. And the modern progres- 

 sive museum is keeping up with the times. It now posses- 

 ses, in the case of all the larger institutions, the staff and 

 facilities for gathering of suitable exhibitional material, the 

 proper installation of the same and the broadcasting of 

 popular information. That the people of a community do 

 want such an institution, can support it financially, as well 

 as back it up with actual attendance and encourage its 

 development, allow me to cite you the concrete example of 

 the Public Museum of Milwaukee. The museum is general 

 in scope, it is ranked as about fifth in size of all museums in 

 the country, even though the city only occupies the position 

 of thirteenth in population. In actual attendance, by the 

 same method of computation as employed by all other 

 museums, it ranks second, with an annual attendance of ap- 

 proximately 750,000, thus being next to a famous New York 

 City institution. This attendance places the museum in the 

 enviable position of being the only institution of its kind in 

 the country whereby the annual attendance is greater than 

 the entire population of the community in which it is located. 

 This fact is of no little significance when it is remembered 

 that the city is not noted for its 'sight-seeing' advantages and 

 therefore such abundant support is of local nature and 

 comes entirely from the people that support it financially 

 and not from transient patronage. Its public free lectures 

 were attended by close to 100,000 last year and that figure 

 is on the increase for the present current year. These facts 

 are not incorporated in this paper with any intention to 

 advertise the institution (because it already draws adequate 

 support, as shown, in its own local community) but simply 

 to offer a concrete example to the claim made above, namely, 

 that the public natural history museums of the country, 

 either individually or collectively, are in a position to pro- 

 mote considerable sentiment and dispense information on 

 subjects under public control as represented by fishery 

 production. 



3. The modern progressive public museum has the facili- 

 ties for promoting the cause of the American Fishery Society 

 and allied scientific societies. 



