6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



NECESSITY FOR A NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



That the Uuited States must have a JSTational Museum is so evident 

 that the proposition needs no argument for its support. 



Every considerable nation has a museum or group of museums in its 

 capital citj' — centres of scientific and educational activity — the treas- 

 ure-houses of the nation, tilled with memorials of national triumphs in 

 the fields of science, art, and industrial progress. 



They are legitimate objects of national pride, for upon the character 

 of its museum and libraries intelligent jjersons visiting a country very 

 properly base their judgment as to the nature and degree of the civili- 

 zation of the people. 



In most great cities, as I have said, there is a group of museums. 

 London, for instance, has — 



The British Museum, with its coUectiou of hooks and manuscripts, its galleries of 

 archicology, historic and prehistoric, its collectioa of coins, pottery, sculpture, etc. 

 The Natural History Museum (devoted to botauy, mineralogy, and geology). 

 The South Keusingtou Museum (arts and art-manufactures). 

 The Betliual Green Museum (industrial and decorative art). 

 The National Gallery of Art. 

 The National Portrait Gallery. 

 The Museum of Practical Geology. 

 The Museum of Economic Botauy at Kew. 



The Imperial Institute (commerce and natural resources of the British Empire). 

 The Parkes Museum of Hygiene. 

 The India Museum. 

 The Patent Musem. 



The Hunterian Museum (comparative anatomy). 

 The Museum of Naval Architecture. 

 The National Museum of Fisheries, and others. 



Paris has — 



The Museum of the Louvre (art and archieology). 



The Luxembourg Museum (modern art). 



The Museum of Natural History and Comparative Anatomy in the Garden of Plants. 



The Geological Museum. 



The Ethnological Museum at the Trocadero. 



The Museum of Ai'ts and Manufactures. 



The Museum of the City of Paris. 



The St. Germain Museum (French archiBology). 



The Cluny Museum (costumes, furniture, and decoration (')). 



The Military Museum at the Hotel des Invalides. 



The Guimet Museum (history of religion). 



The Museum of Marine Architecture in the Louvre. 



The Collections at the Gobelin and Sevres establishments, and others.. 



Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Vienna have similar groups,, and so have 

 Florence, Christiania, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Ley den, Brussels, Mad- 

 rid, Buda-Besth, Tokio, and other national establishments. 



It should be borne in mind that here in Washington under the roofs 

 of the Smithsonian and New Museum buildings are grouped together 

 collections which in London, Paris, or any other of the European 

 capitals are provided for in a group of museums, for accommodating 



