490 



NATURE 



\Sept. 23, 1S80 



anthropology during the series of years in which it was 

 -exhibited at the Bethnal Green branch of the South 

 Kensington Museum as Col. Lane Fox's collection, and 

 no one visited it without picking up a great deal of in- 

 teresting and curious information. To those who studied 

 it with care it opened up a new field of exploration, 

 and invested all objects of art and manufacture, from 

 the simplest ornaments, weapons, or implements of 

 savages, to works the product of the highest modern 

 culture, with a certain peculiar interest over and above 

 the gratification derived from the objects themselves 

 without reference to the history of their origin. It is 

 needless to say that the moving power of this peculiar 

 interest was the evolution theory, for the object which 

 General Pitt Rivers set before him was, as he explained, 

 " so to arrange his collection of ethnological and pre- 

 historic specimens as to demonstrate, either actually or 

 hypothetically, the development and continuity of the 

 material arts from the simpler to the more complex 

 forms. To explain the conservatism of savage and 

 barbarous races and the pertinacity with which they 

 retain their ancient types of art. To show the variations 

 by means of which progress has been effected and the 

 application of varieties to distinct uses. To exhibit 

 survivals or the vestiges of ancient forms which have 

 been retained through natural selection in the more 

 advanced stages of the arts, and reversion to ancient 

 types. To illustrate the arts of prehistoric times as far as 

 practicable by those of existing savages in corresponding 

 stages of civilisation. To assist the question of the mono- 

 genesis or polygenesis of certain arts; whether they are 

 exotic or indigenous in the countries in which they are 

 found. To this end objects of the same class from different 

 countries have been brought together in the collection, 

 but in each class the varieties from the same localities 

 have been placed side by side, and the geographical 

 distribution of each class has been shown in distribution 

 maps." The gradual growth of the arts has of course been 

 the theme of many writers. But General Pitt Rivers 

 was the first, and up till now has, we believe, remained 

 the only, collector who has investigated the development 

 of arts and manufactures, and brought home their history 

 to students by means of series of the objects themselves 

 arranged in groups so as to illustrate their actual pedigrees. 



It is in the arrangement that the collection differs from all 

 others. Very many of the objects of which it is composed are 

 to be found in most ordinary ethnological collections, such 

 as that in the British Museum, and the Christy collection; 

 but in these the specimens are arranged geographically, 

 and though thus serving a purpose of the utmost import- 

 ance as showing in what matters of culture the various 

 races of man are most clearly distinct and separate, or more 

 or less allied, they do not afford that kind of information 

 which it is the one aim of General Pitt Rivers' collection 

 to convey and develop. In fact in the case of all series 

 of objects of arts or manufactures two collections are 

 absolutely required : the one to illustrate pedigree in 

 accordance with the Darwinian theory, the other to 

 illustrate geographical distribution. A collection arranged 

 on General Pitt Rivers' plan is much needed in natural 

 history galleries. What is specially required for the 

 purposes of general instruction is a series which shall 

 trace the pedigree of man and all the other highest types 

 in the several groups as directly as possible from the 

 lowest forms of life. Such a collection might be arranged 

 m a series of galleries radiating from a central chamber 

 in which should be placed the lowest forms, each gallery 

 leading gradually up to the highest of the group to which it 

 was alloted. Good models should represent in the series 

 those links which are embryonic, or which require recon- 

 struction from fossil remains. 



Since the year 1851, when General Pitt Rivers' collec- 

 tion was first commenced, it has been continuously added 

 to, and it has now reached very considerable dimensions. 



The space allotted to it at present in the South Kensington 

 Museunr will not be sufficient to display it sufficiently. 

 General Pitt Rivers has most generously offered to pre- 

 sent it to the nation on certain conditions, which will 

 insure its being properly maintained in its present 

 arrangement, and prevent the possibility of its being 

 broken up and distributed amongst other collections by 

 any future authorities who might not thoroughly compre- 

 hend its importance in its present condition. It is stipu- 

 lated that General Pitt Rivers shall have the management 

 of the collection during his lifetime, and that sufficient 

 space shall be allotted to him to allow of his making 

 additions and further developing it in accordance with 

 the plans which he has formed. 



A committee consisting of Sir P. Cunlifife Owen, 

 Col. Donelly, Mr. Augustus Franks, Prof. Huxley, Sir 

 John Lubbock, Mr. Poynter, and Prof. Rolleston, was 

 appointed to consider the advisability of the acceptance 

 of the collection by the nation, and it has, we believe, 

 although the conclusions arrived at have of course 

 not been officially announced, reported unanimously in 

 favour of its being accepted. There can be no doubt 

 that it has acted with the best judgment in so doing ; 

 indeed the eminent men of science and art of which it 

 was composed could have arrived at no other conclusion. 

 It would be a very serious matter if the country were to 

 miss so excellent an opportunity, and there could be no 

 better place for the collection than in the South Kensing- 

 ton Museum. It is, as it were, the key to the whole of 

 the vast collections there gathered together. On the one 

 hand, in the Pitt Rivers collection is traced the earliest 

 history of inventions, showing plainly how every primitive 

 implement and machine grew slowly from the simplest 

 contrivances, thus leading up to and acting as a prelimi- 

 nary training for the study of the contents of the Patent 

 j\luseum ; whilst on the other is to be learnt the develop- 

 mental history of all the arts, the gradual development of 

 sculpture and painting, the history of the development of 

 pattern ornaments, the growth of musical instruments, 

 of the art of pottery, of clothes, and the history of the 

 gradual dex'elopment of ships. All these series and very 

 many others lead directly up to the various large collec- 

 tions of paintings, sculpture, pottery, models of shipping, 

 &c., which it is the main object of the Museum to exhibit, 

 and cannot but greatly enhance their value and interest 

 to the student. They ser\e to impress upon the observer 

 the curious fact that all arts and inventions, even those 

 apparently of extreme simplicity, have never been arrived 

 at by jumps, but have grown slowly by degrees by means 

 of a series of slight modifications, just as in the case of 

 biological development. The collection, it should be 

 remarked, does not in any way clash with the Christy 

 and British Museum collections, which are arranged on a 

 perfectly different plan, and which do not in any way 

 bring together savage and civilised objects. There is 

 full room for both collections, and indeed a necessity for 

 them. 



We will now draw attention briefly to some few of the 

 scries of objects exhibited in the collection taken more or 

 less at random as samples of the whole. The collection 

 may be considered as consisting of three parts. Firstly, a 

 collection of photographs of the various races of mankind 

 which is not as yet far advanced, though it contains large 

 and instructive series of portraits of Danes, .Scandi- 

 mavians, the people of Britanny, and Japanese ; whilst 

 together with the photographs is a small series of those 

 skulls which show the best marked racial characteristics, 

 and another which is to exhibit the various modifications in 

 the forms of their skulls which are made by different races. 

 Secondly, the very large collection showing the growth 

 of weapons of all kinds. Thirdly, the various scries 

 illustrating the development of musical instruments, 

 ornaments, sculpture, painting, and artistic design of 

 all kinds ; and fourthly, those which relate to the develop- 



