68 General Conehisions. 



space and additional lighting facilities the glass certainh^ affords. 

 With plent}' of light about the case wooden shelves do very well. 



In labels the greatest deficiency is shown in almost all Euro- 

 pean museums, even the great one at Berlin cannot be entirely 

 excepted. The expense of properly printing labels is certainly 

 considerable, but the information that a comprehensive label legi- 

 bly printed can afford is worth all it costs. Many of the large 

 museums have their own presses worked by one of the regular as- 

 sistants. One museum in the colonies which had well-printed 

 labels on many, but by no means all, of its large exhibits, had 

 spent several hundred pounds on the work which was done outside. 

 By the use of a Golding Pearl Press any of the labels can be printed 

 as needed and much time saved in corre(5ting printer's mistakes in 

 the technical words generally in use. This will require a large 

 variety of type but onl}- small fonts of each kind: Book plates, 

 notices and lists of duplicates or exchanges can easily be printed on 

 such a press and a ver}- complete outfit would cost less than $400. 



Type-written labels and those made with rubber stamps are 

 unadvisable as the aniline inks used with these will certainh* fade 

 in sunlight, even if not direct, at least in the tropics. 



The American museum in New York was by far the best 

 equipped with labels of any museum visited, and the Boston Society 

 of Natural History has also good labels. In the former institution 

 the printing is done outside, in the latter a printer has been for 

 years employed not only to do the printing of labels but also to 

 attend to the composition of the man}- publications of the Society, 

 the presswork and binding being done outside. With good labels 

 an expensive catalogue which in a growing museum is soon out of 

 date may be dispensed with. 



How to increase the museum exhibits and obtain desiderata 

 is a most important question and needs great consideration. Cer- 

 tair articles that can now only be found in large museums may be 



since this report was written the Bishop Museum has been provided with such a press 

 (Golding & Co., Boston, Pearl No. 3) and type not only for the labels (mam- of which have 

 already been printed) but also for the publications of the museum. The label printing has 

 proved a great success. This report and other publications are composed in the museum 

 office; the presswork is done outside. 



