844 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 439. 



societies; 29 are under national or state 

 control, such as the museums of the various 

 geological surveys, agricultural and mining 

 bureaus, etc. Sixteen of our museums are 

 not under the control of colleges, learned 

 societies or national or state governments, 

 but either are maintained by private en- 

 dowment derived from public-spirited 

 citizens, are supported by municipalities, 

 or are under the control of boards of trus- 

 tees- who administer funds derived both 

 from cities and from private subscription. 



It is noteworthy that, although the num- 

 ber of such institutions is as yet small, 

 among them we find some of the greatest 

 and most useful of our museums, such as 

 the American Museum of Natural History, 

 the Field Columbian Museum, the Car- 

 negie Museum at Pittsburgh, etc. 



It is both sad and interesting to observe 

 that no society composed primarily of 

 learned men has succeeded in maintaining 

 a thoroughly successful museum, yet forty- 

 five years ago the leading museums of our 

 country were controlled by such societies. 

 It is possible that the government of these 

 societies may have been too democratic to 

 insure that permanency of policy and 

 maintenance of a strong executive which 

 appear to be necessary to. insure the suc- 

 cess of American institutions of learning. 



However, these societies have not ad- 

 vanced in material resources at a rate com- 

 parable with that of the country itself, and 

 in consequence are relatively poorer to-day 

 than they were many years ago. Their 

 general lack of success is the more remark- 

 able from the fact that most of them have 

 existed in our wealthiest and most pro- 

 gressive cities, and that while other insti- 

 tutions of learning have received bountiful 

 support from both private and public 

 sources,* the museums of learned societies 



* In 1850 the funds of Yale University amount- 

 ed to about $300,000. In 1902 they were over 



have been relatively neglected. In other 

 words, they have generally failed to inter- 

 est men of wealth who are desirous of de- 

 voting a portion of their resources to the 

 advancement of public education. 



Experts upon scientific subjects are not 

 usually adepts in matters of finance, and 

 the successful management of a great mu- 

 seum appears to demand that its financial 

 resources and expenditures be under the 

 control of a board of trustees composed of 

 representative men of affairs, while the 

 scientific policies of the institution might 

 well be directed by men of science. 



Such, in general, is the scheme of man- 

 agement of some of our best museums, and 

 it would appear that our learned societies 

 must surrender the control of financial 

 matters into the hands of experts in finance 

 before they can hope to achieve their due 

 measure of success in museum nianage- 

 ment. It is much to be regretted that 

 many of the collections which have fur- 

 nished the basis for classic memoirs of sci- 

 ence, 'and some of the most valuable scien- 

 tific libraries in our country, are stored in 

 buildings which are not fire-proof and are 

 inadequate in many ways for the proper 

 care and maintenance of the treasures 

 which they contain. 



Turning to the subject of museums 

 under the control of colleges and universi- 

 ties: 176 such institutions are known to 

 maintain collections in the natural sciences, 

 while 44 more small colleges are believed to 

 contain collections. It is safe to say that 

 fully two thirds of these college museums 

 are, as Goode aptly states, 'mere store- 

 houses for the materials of which museums 

 are made.' Our universities, both under 

 private endowments and under state con- 

 trol, are developing good miTseums, but it 



$6,800,000. During the same period the funds 

 of Harvard have increased from a little over $000,- 

 000 to more than $14,000,000. 



