272 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1920. 



Temporary exhibitions are a means of attracting the attention of the general 

 public. They offer an opportunity of driving home a particular lesson, and 

 suggest a wide field of activity for the living direction of a Museum. Similarly, 

 the frequent changing of exhibits in the cases will add to the attraction, 

 though aimlessness must be avoided here as everywhere in Museum work. 

 Crowded cases of birds, which are not merely inartistic and ugly, but are also 

 wholly ineffective, are characteristic features of many Museums. Their contents 

 ought to be re-arranged on some definite principle. In many cases, no doubt, 

 this overcrowding is due to the absence of store-rooms in the building. 



The general public may be helped by the Museum authorities in a variety 

 of ways : — 



1. For general use a Guide, simply written and dealing with the collections 

 in the order in which they should be viewed, is best. Handbooks to special 

 sections are also useful, and often command a ready sale. Publications should 

 be as cheap as possible, and, if sold at some loss, the sale is merely carrying 

 a step further the provision of free specimens, free labels, and free lectures. 



2. The part played by an official guide in a small Museum will probably 

 differ considerably from that of his colleague in a large Museum. It may be 

 found that the ' conducted party ' is not easily got together in a small Museum, 

 and that the services of the guide will not be greatly in request. For societies 

 and other special parties he will be useful, and also for informal demonstrations. 

 Schools will make use of him, but this is not always necessary, as the teachers 

 themselves may be competent. 



3. Lectures play an important part in attracting visitors, in developing 

 interest in the control of the Museum, and in stimulating further study. A 

 lecture-room should be provided in every Museum. 



Museums and Schools. 



The services of the Museum to the school must vary greatly according to 

 local circumstances. A Museum can never take the place of field work in 

 Nature Study, or Geography, nor can the exhibition of historical relics, models 

 and the like be more than a pale substitute for visits to historical sites, buildings, 

 &c., when these are accessible, though an enterprising curator may gather within 

 walls significant fragments from the past, and by careful arrangement do much to 

 help the young to build up pictures of the old times which will make history 

 something more than a mere matter of words. The success of the Museum as 

 an educative agency depends very much upon the skill with which it suggests 

 a world of reality outside the Museum itself. The difficulty of managing this 

 varies according to the experience of the visitor. The aimless wanderer whose 

 curiosity may be awakened and directed by. good Museum arrangement is not, 

 however, here in question. The schoolboy is, ex hypothesi, under personal 

 guidance or under the guidance of ideas and problems which the schoolmaster 

 has inspired. How can the Museum encourage and assist him ? 



We have already noted activities in this direction actually in existence in 

 1914, and the Manchester experiment is a later development. Much may also 

 be learned from the practice of the Overseas Museums. The Committee's 

 inquiries have led to the following conclusions : — 



There are, broadly speaking, two types of use to which the Museum lends 

 itself. 



1. Its collections may be used to illustrate a particular course of instruction 

 and reading which is part of the school curriculum. A class which is studying 

 Australia may visit the Museum to see specimens of its fauna and its minerals, 

 and to study the ethnographical collection. Here the Museum renders ancillary 

 service of the highest value. A close acquaintance with the school curricula in 

 the locality seems desirable, and temporary exhibitions might be arranged if 

 co-operation between school and Museum services could be secured. 



2. On the other hand, the Museum collection as such may be an object of study. 

 The work will be very different in character. It centres in the Museum which 

 IS, as it were, a textbook in material form, and the instruction aims at making 

 this material intelligible. It is clear that for work of this kind the ordinary 

 logical arrangement of the Museum cases will in many ways need revision. 

 Teaching must take its start from the pupils' own minds, and select its material 



