268 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1920. 



institutions should, together with Public Libraries, be definitely included in 

 any scheme of education for a local area in England and Wales, and that 

 these institutions should be taken into account in State grants allotted to the 

 local authorities. 



It was further suggested that, under the powers and duties of the Local 

 Government Board, Libraries and Museums should be transferred forthwith 

 to the Board of Education by an Order in Council. 



The Committee on Adult Education did not seek the advice of this Committee, 

 or of the Museums Association, and unfortunately their recommendations for 

 the transference of Museums and Libraries to the local Education Authority 

 proved unacceptable to both the Museums Association and the Library Associa- 

 tion. The Public Libraries Act. which received the Royal Assent in December 

 1919, makes it possible for the change to be brought about locally at any time. 

 The same Act also abrogates the Museums and Gymnasiums Act of 1891. under 

 which a rate of id. in the £ might be levied by a local authority for the 

 maintenance of Museums. A County or Town Council may constitute itself 

 as the Library Authority, and bring all public Museums under its control, 

 though it is in the discretion of this authority to appoint a separate committee 

 for Museum management. The amount of the rate for maintenance for any 

 year is to be decided by the Librarv Authority, no limit being fixed. Further, 

 it is provided that a county which has adopted the Libraries Acts may borrow 

 for the purpose of these Acts, as for the purpose of the Local Governments 

 Acts. 1888; sixty years is the time period laid down for repayment of loans. 



The Libraries Act. 1919, thus provides for the adequate maintenance of 

 Museums, if local authorities choose to exercise their powers. It also enables 

 the raising of capital sums for buildings and fittings. 



Furthermore, official recognition has now been given to the Museum as an 

 auxiliary factor in public education, but we desire at once to point out that 

 the recommendations of the Committee on Adult Ediication for the transference 

 of Museums by an Order in Council to the control of the Board of Education 

 may, if pressed too far, seriously -Drejudice the functions of Museums as 

 conservators of material and centres of research. 



The Functions of Museums. 



Before considering the questions specially raised in the terms of reference 

 to the Committee, and in order to clarify the subject, it seems advantageous 

 to state what seem to the Committee to be the proper functions of a Museum. 



Museums are of many kinds. There are institutions which rank as Museums 

 in one sense, yet have no collections; such is the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 

 which educates through loan exhibitions. There is at least one Museum in 

 the United States which has only a director's office, since all its possessions 

 are always out on loan. The Circulating Department of the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum carries out the same idea on a larger scale ; but by its historical 

 development, and in the general acceptation of the term, a Museum is a place 

 where objects appealing by their form, not by the written word, are preserved 

 for reference and study. 



The aims and functions of this last kind of Museum are : — 



1. Collection of works of Nature and of man. Collecting may be through 

 work in the field, through purchase, and through donations. The first of 

 these is the most valuable as assuring accurate data of provenance. Obviously, 

 the function of collecting must precede all others. 



2. Preservation of material thus collected. Much of this is the irreplaceable 

 groundwork of human knowledge, and ought to be safeguarded at all costs. 

 This is the necessary second function. 



3. Study of the collected objects. This is the research side of Museum 

 work, and. whether carried out by the staff (as in large measure it should 

 and must be) or by specialists under the direction of the staff, it must be 

 prosecuted if Musevmis are to fulfil their highest function, which is the 

 advancement of Science, .^vt. and Industry. 



4. Classification of Museum material, so that each specimen ip readily 

 accessible to future students. 



