2 Boyd Dawkins, Organisation of Museums 



Also as Sir Adolphus Ward points out, - it was a moving force in 

 Manchester, that contributed to the evolution of the University from 

 its small beginnings in Owens College. It is therefore not without 

 reason that I now lay before the Society a scheme for the further 

 development of our Museums and Galleries that will complete our 

 system of education by giving those who cannot attend Schools or 

 Lectures, because of their daily work, the chance of educating them- 

 selves by the study of things, as well as of books. The keys of 

 knowledge must be within the reach of all classes, if we are to win in 

 the commercial struggle before us, to be decided not by brute intellect 

 or individual courage, so much as by the organisation and the training, 

 both of the captains, and the rank and file of industry. The victory 

 will go to those who are best organised and are armed with the best 

 education. 



We have to make good the weak places in our armour, and among 

 these the absence of great central public institutions for placing the 

 highest standard of art and industry before our workers is the most 

 pressing. We have now the opportunity of making our city as note- ■ 

 worthy, in the strenuous new England that will be after the war, as 

 she was in the happy lotus-eating Victorian times, now so far behind us. 



II. — Professor Huxley and Manchester. 



Few are aware of the extent to which Manchester is indebted to 

 Professor Huxley in the establishment and organisation of its institu- 

 tions. His advice was followed in the re-organisation of Natural 

 Science in Owens College, and he used his powerful influence in 

 London in breaking through the obstacles and prejudices that stood 

 in the way of the Owens College growing into a new type of 

 University. It was in accordance with his suggestion that the Corpora- 

 tion took up the difficult problem of instruction in technology. I well 

 remember that he said in a public meeting in Manchester, that he did 

 not know the best solution, that there was not much to be learnt 

 about it in Britain, and that Manchester was the place where the ex- 

 periment should be tried — -fiat experimentum in corpore Mancuniensi. 

 The idea took root, and grew into the School of Technology. And 

 lastly he took a keen interest in the organisation and development of 

 the Manchester Museum. It was through him that I gave up, in 1869, 

 the association with him on the staff of the Geological Survey of 

 Great Britain, for the task of combining the various collections of 

 Natural History in Manchester, into one living Museum. He was my 

 unfailing refuge in times of difficulty until the completion of my task 

 in 1884, when the collections already arranged were transferred to 

 their present places in the galleries. 



- Founders' Day in War Time, 17th March, 1917, p. 21. 



