Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixii, (191 7) No. $ 7 



viduals into one central organisation, aided by the generous support, 

 financial and other, of the leading citizens. 1 



In common with the University it is of a new type intended to meet 

 the situation in Manchester. The organisation is sufficiently elastic 

 to be applicable to all other places where the museums are not in 

 touch with the education of the people, and on a scale great or small, 

 depending on the local conditions. 



The study of the whole field of Nature is placed in the Manchester 

 Museum, within the reach of the people. In the next section, I shall 

 deal with the question how far can the fields of art and industry be 

 covered by the development of existing or the founding of new 

 institutions. 



Manchester is now in a better position than it was in 1869 with 

 regard to Natural History, and offers better facilities for development 

 in other directions. Then the success was due to the co-operation of the 

 Owens College with the Geological and Natural History Societies aided 

 by the public spirit of our citizens — R. D. Darbishire, Thomas Ashton, and 

 Cosmo Melvill and others. Now we can reckon on the support of the 

 University and of the Corporation in an effort to meet the needs of 

 Manchester with regard to art and industry, to say nothing of the large 

 body of citizens interested in these questions. The public spirit in 

 Manchester now is not less than it was then, while the need for action 

 is far greater, in view of the situation created by war. 



V. — Art in Manchester at the Present Time. 



Manchester contrasts with all other cities of equal importance in 

 the civilised world in the fact that it has no central Institution of Art 

 adapted for modern requirements. The existing Art Galleries are 

 devoted mainly to painting and sculpture, and the applications of 

 Art to industry are either absent, or so inadequately represented, 

 or so isolated from kindred objects, as to be of little use for systematic 

 study. The workers and craftsmen generally in this city look in vain 

 for standards by which they can measure the artistic value of their 

 work, and learn how to combine beauty of form and of colour with 

 the needs of modern life. Art is practically separated from handi- 

 crafts, and the best work done by the best men is a closed book to the 

 great mass of our citizens. 



The establishment of the Ancoats Museum, by Mr. T. C. Horsfall, 

 is a noble effort to mitigate this evil, and to raise the standard of art 

 and life in a poor quarter of the City. 



1 We owe the main buildings and Natural History laboratories to Mr. Thomas 

 Ashton, to Mr. R. D. Darbishire, as representing the Whitworth Trustees, and to the 

 other contributors, the Egyptian Block to Mr. Jesse Howarth, and the applied 

 Geology Annexe to the Geological and Mining Society of Manchester, and to other 

 benefactors interested in the applications of geology to mining. 



