PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
ON 
THE PUBLIC MUSEUM AND EDUCATION 
By JOSEPH A. CLUBB, DSc., 
Curator of Museums, Liverpool. 
[Read to the Society, Oct. 12th, 1917.] 
As one of the pioneer members of this Society, it has been 
my privilege to hear a large number of the now lengthy series 
of Presidential Addresses, and so | have ample evidence of 
the exceedingly high standard of these discourses. It 
is, therefore, with the greatest diffidence that I venture to 
submit to you to-night a few considerations on the Public 
Museum and Education. To me, personally, it is of course 
a subject of the greatest possible moment, and I venture to think 
that there will be no lack of interest in the subject by the 
members of a Biological Society, seeing how large a percentage 
of Public Museums are more or less Biological Museums. 
The term ‘“‘ Public Museum ” is usually applied to Museums 
supported by public money, to which free access by the public 
is given. According to the return of a Committee of the British 
Association in 1887, appointed for the purpose of preparing 
a Report upon the Provincial Museums of the United Kingdom, 
there were at that time, in the words of the Report, “* about 
fifty-five museums now the property of Municipal Corporations, 
and which are nearly all supported by local rates levied under 
the Public Libraries Act.” From a more recent return (1914) 
this number had then grown to ninety-two. A large proportion 
