ON THE PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 127 



but there is sometimes a disposition to eliminate this element as trenching 

 on the domain of the regular officers ; and sometimes the societies, feeling 

 that they are no longer responsible for the maintenance of the museum, 

 lose interest in it. Only about a dozen of the rate-supported museums 

 report that they are receiving any assistance from local societies. 



30. Donations. — Nearly all museums, except the smallest and the 

 most neglected, receive donations fi'om time to time, though many report 

 that these are ' mostly vcorthless.' The donations come from all classes 

 of the community. Many are sent from old inhabitants now living 

 abroad ; sea-captains and sailors carry home many objects which they 

 present to the museums of various ports ; artisan naturalists bring in the 

 fossils or the eggs or the insects which they find in the neighbourhood. 

 Hitherto this desultory method of accumulating a promiscuous mass of 

 objects has been almost the only resource of a large number of museums. 

 It has its advantages, and should by no means be ignored or discouraged ; 

 but if museums in the future are to do the scientific work of which they 

 are capable and which waits to be done, this must only be relied on as 

 supplemental to a much more systematic method of collection. 



31. Labels. — A museum without labels is like an index torn out of a 

 book ; it may be amusing, but it teaches very little. It is true that, when 

 vertebrates are set up pictoi'ially, labels injure the picturesque effect, 

 but picturesqueness is not the chief object of a museum. The Leicester 

 Museum, having set up all its vertebrates in pictorial style, has made an 

 attempt to do without labels, and the i-esult is instructive. Instead of 

 labels or numbers there is a small coloured sketch of each group with 

 small numbers near each figure. The figure of the specimen of which 

 the name is required has to be found on this sketch, the number noted 

 and carried to a separate printed card in rather small type ; here the 

 number has to be found, and the name and particulars are then obtained. 

 Afterwards the specimen has to be found again in the stuffed group, and 

 if any of the information is forgotten the process must be repeated. This 

 is much too complicated and wastes too much time. The cases are a 

 little more showy than they would be if labels were dotted all over them, 

 but the sacrifice is far too great. 



A few old museums still preserve the practice of numbering their 

 specimens and registering them in a manuscript catalogue which is open 

 to visitors. Such a register should always be kept as a check, but should 

 not be allowed to take the place of labels. Effective labelling is an art 

 to be studied ; it is like style in literature. A good writer conveys his 

 meaning clearly, tersely, artistically. The reader grasps the thought 

 with the least possible effort and with a pleasing sense of elegance and 

 harmony. A good labeller produces the same effect. It is to be attained 

 by a combination of well-chosen words, expressing well-arranged ideas 

 in carefully selected type on paper of appropriate colours. In the 

 smaller museums the labels are generally written by hand, and in a good 

 many larger ones this system is still continued ; many have printed 

 headings and fill up the details with the pen ; the best museums have 

 nearly everything fully printed. Some have set up small printing- 

 presses on the premises, with which the curator prints his own labels, 

 but in most cases this is not a success — the work is done too roughly. 



In some museums the English name is always placed first in the 

 boldest type ; in others the scientific name takes the lead in genera, 

 the English in species. Some museums possessing classical collections 



