8 Boyd Dawkins, Organisation of Museums 



The Municipal School of Aft places within the reach of the art 

 students some of the masterpieces of applied art, but has little, or no 

 direct influence on the workers who cannot attend the classes. The 

 only art institutions open to the public are the Municipal Art Galleries 

 and the Whitworth Institution. Both are well organised, and made 

 intelligible by public lectures and addresses, and both have been 

 utilised by the Education Committee for the instruction of the primary 

 and secondary schools. In neither, however, can the general public 

 find the wide education in art, such as is offered by the Science and 

 Art Museum at Edinburgh, or the Municipal Galleries of Aberdeen, 

 Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham, or Liverpool. They rank immeasur- 

 ably below those of the principal cities of the Continent and of the 

 United States. 



It may be assumed that our need in Manchester of institutions for 

 teaching from the things themselves is practically that of London. 

 There the galleries of the British Museum grew round the library, and 

 it was found necessary to establish sections of Greek, Roman, Assyrian 

 and Egyptian Art. At a later time new galleries were added to include 

 ethnology and pre-historic and mediseval antiquities. The exhibition 

 of pictures was left to the National Gallery, and other institutions such 

 as the Tate Gallery, which have been founded since. It was, however 

 fully realised in 1851 that galleries of paintings and sculpture did not 

 satisfy the needs of art and industry. To meet these the Museum of 

 Science and Art was founded at South Kensington, on German lines, 

 through the influence of Prince Albert, and in close connection with 

 the Board of Education. We cannot obviously have in Manchester 

 galleries on the scale of those in London. We can only be guided 

 by our local needs. The place of the National and the Tate Galleries 

 in London is filled here by the existing art galleries, and certain 

 sections of the British and South Kensington Museums indicate the 

 direction which our new development of art should take. The best 

 examples, however, are to be found on the Continent, in Berlin, 

 Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, as is pointed out in the Report to 

 the City Council of the Art Gallery Committee in 1905, after the 

 visit of their deputation to the Continent. In these as " in most 

 other German towns efforts are made to encourage the application 

 of art to industry, to inculcate good craftsmanship, as well as to give 

 refined pleasure, to improve the standard of taste, and foster the love 

 of the beautiful." If we are to maintain our place in the world, we 

 must, to say the least, offer to our citizens the same facilities for 

 education that are enjoyed by our rivals and enemies. 



This report has been before the City Council for twelve years, and 

 the Art Gallery question still remains unsettled, to the injury of the 

 higher interests of the city, and especially of the workers, who have 

 the right to demand the opportunity of educating themselves by the 

 study of things. It is more important for labour than for any other 

 class, that the galleries should be available as soon as possible after 



