REPORT OF AS8ISTAN 1' DIRECTOR, 1 1 



existence, been made the depository of collections iu ever} depart 

 ment— geological, botanical, zoological, and anthropological — and its 

 work b as of necessity been organized upon averj comprehensive plan, 



5. PRINCIPLES OF ARRANGEMENT OF COLLECTIONS DE8IONED FOR 



PUBLIC EXHIBITION. 



The majority of visitors to any museum go thither for amusement, or 

 actuated b\ praiseworthy cariosity. Many have no desire to gain in 

 struction, and even it* actuated by such a purpose, would fail to accoin 

 plish their object bj a visit to an ordinary museum. This is due in 

 part to the fact that where so much duplicate material is exhibited t lu- 



really Instructive objects arc lost to view ; that the objects in but few 



museums are labeled in a really instructive manner; but is principally 



because the objects exhibited are not of the kind best adapted to the 

 needs of the museum- visit ing public. The visitors carry away only gen 

 oral impressions of rooms lull of glass c.ises containing animals, min- 

 erals, and u curiosities," gathered by travelers among uncivilized races. 

 Professor Huxley has defined a museum as u a consultative library of 

 objects," and this definition, true enough in itself as a description of 

 the best ideal museums, is unfortunately too true a description of all. 

 Most collections are as useless and little instructive to great masses of 

 our people, who know not how to use them, as are our libraries of 

 consultation. The museum of research, since it is intended chielh for 

 investigators, should be the consultative library. The educational mu- 

 seum should resemble a great encyclopedia rather than a library full of 

 learned volumes. Every library of importance, however, contains the 

 cyclopedias for the general reader and the monographs for the scholar, 

 The larger public museums may in like manner be adapted to the needs 

 of both student and general visitor. 



To overcome the difficulties in the way of this adaptation many steps 

 must be taken which are not usual in museums. By far the most im- 

 portant of these is in the direction of thorough labeling. 



An efficient educational museum, from one point of view, may be 

 described as a collection of instructive labels, each illustrated by a well- 

 selected specimen. 



There are many obstacles to the effort to build up a museum upon 

 this basis. Museums which exhibit only such objects as are iu them 

 selves beautiful or marvelous cannot fail to be attractive, no matter 

 how poorly the objects are arranged and labeled. 



When, however, the objects depend tor their interest upon the expla- 

 nations on the labels, and upon the manner in which they are placed, 

 relatively to each other, a responsibility a hundred-fold greater is on- 

 tailed upon the curators. The materials of such a museum may be com- 

 i to piles of brick, stone, lumber, and architectural ornaments, 

 which by themselves possess little apparent interest, but which may by 

 thought and labor be combined into an imposing ami useful edifice. 



