94 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



of the public. As a matter of fact no museum administrator, 

 however eminent as a scientist, has been successful unless he has 

 recognized the fact that a museum must be conducted primarily 

 for the benefit of the people, and has studied carefully the tastes 

 and interests of his constituency. But it does not always follow 

 that the people should be given all they ask for. That we have 

 several yellow journals of wide circulation is no excuse for 

 starting another; and if the curator cannot satisfy scientific re- 

 quirements and at the same time make his exhibits interesting 

 and instructive, he had better go out of the business. At the 

 same time the public should realize that scientific study of the 

 collections is essential to the man of science : they are the books 

 from which he derives whatever knowledge he may possess ; and 

 so it is that every modern museum tries to acquire a study series 

 of its own, specimens which are not necessarily for exhibition, 

 but which may be essential to a proper arrangement of the dis- 

 play series. No contributor should therefore feel sensitive or 

 hurt because his gift does not find a place in the public cases. 

 It may be fulfilling a far more important use in the general study 

 collection. A curator should never place a specimen on exhibi- 

 tion without asking himself the reason for it. If the object is 

 merely attractive to look at, or if it does not illustrate some fact 

 in nature, bear some relation to surrounding exhibits or possess 

 some historical association, should it be displayed? The answer 

 of the modern administrator is, no. The sound philosophy of 

 this reasoning will be apparent when we consider how quickly the 

 mind or the eye tires of looking at a series of objects merely 

 because they are pretty. During the past year I have spent 

 several days in the various museums listening to the comments 

 of visitors. In nearly every instance in which a large collection 

 of such objects were shown without labels of special interest, 

 the visitor would look at the first examples rather closely, in- 

 dulging in the usual adjectives; would pass more quickly by the 

 next examples ; and would ignore the rest of the collection. This 

 is especially true of biological collections. 



