6 Boyd Dawkins, Organisation of Museums 



Museum in Peter Street, in 1870, and have now grown into a scheme 

 specially intended for workers who are engaged all day and can only 

 attend on Saturday and Sunday. It has made the Museum a living 

 force in education. I look upon my share in this work as the most 

 interesting and fruitful part of my teaching in Manchester. 



The Museum has also become a centre of attraction to various 

 institutions of working men, and clubs and other organisations of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire. It has also along with the Art Galleries 

 been of service to the Education Committee of the Manchester Cor- 

 poration, in the instruction of the primary and secondary schools l 

 by teachers especially trained by the staffs of the Museum and Art 

 Gallery, with so much success, that Museum and Art courses are now 

 fully recognised as part of the education of the people. 2 



I take this opportunity of calling attention to this new and pro- 

 gressive measure of the Education Committee, in recognising the value 

 of Museums and Galleries in their courses of study. Their example 

 will without a doubt be followed ultimately by the educational authori- 

 ties throughout the country. 



The Manchester Museum is now one of the leading Museums in 

 Britain, remarkable for its special collections, and is growing so fast, 

 mostly by private gifts, that it will be necessary in the future to add an 

 additional block, not only for the specimens, but for laboratories for 

 the classes of the Education Committee. 



From all these things, it may be concluded that the Manchester 

 Museum is doing its share in raising the educational standard, both in 

 the University and outside among the people. It has become what it 

 is by the co-operation of the University with the City, and by the 

 combination of the collections made by various societies and indi- 



1 At present 2000 children are under instruction in the Museum. 



2 "The visits to the Museums and Art Galleries for lessons in Natuial History, 

 Geology, Botany, Egyptology, and Art, have proved exceedingly interesting and 

 valuable. The children look forward to these visits. Many of them have long 

 distances to cover and, considering the severity of the weather, the attendance has 

 been very good indeed, and is the best proof of the esteem in which the lessons are 

 held. During the lessons the children are keen, curious, and inquisitive, and betray 

 an intelligent interest which is very pleasing. The educational value of these 

 lessons is great. They are undoubtedly broadening the children's outlook, intro- 

 ducing them to new worlds of ideas and giving them a new view of the wonderful 

 world in which they live. The inauguration of the system of various classes 

 in the available institutions of Science and Art in the City, thereby bringing their 

 resources to the knowledge of the children, and establishing a connection between 

 them and the City's education, is one of the obvious and possibly permanent benefits 

 of the present situation. It is felt that when the war is over, this section of the 

 work should be placed on a sure basis and facilities provided to enable the children 

 to benefit from these great storehouses of knowledge. " — SPURLE Y HE Y, Director 

 of Education, Report, /une, igif, pp. 22-3. 



