THE 



MUSEUM GAZETTE. 



No. 2. JUNE, 1906. Vol. i. 



OUR HISTORY ROOM. (See Frontispiece.) 



A department of our Museum to which, as regards its 

 educational usefulness, we attach very great importance, is 

 that which attempts the illustration of Human History. It is 

 displayed in a separate division of the main building, and is 

 arranged, as far as possible, on " the space-for-time method." 

 This method, which, following the pattern of an ordinary 

 diary, allots to every period of time the same amount of space, 

 is, of course, possible only where the time-periods and dates 

 are fairly well established. It is not well adapted, excepting 

 as a sort of open and, to some extent speculative, frame- 

 work for the illustration of prehistoric times. A courageous 

 example of such use of it we ventured to offer in our last 

 number in reference to prehistoric man in Britain. It was 

 not history in any other sense than that the periods of time 

 were real ; the events assigned to them were largely con- 

 jectural. In the Museum itself we do not attempt to deal 

 with very remote periods in this manner. Our space-for-time 

 arrangement begins only with 2000 b.c. It might now, 

 perhaps, fairly begin with 4000 B.C., but, unfortunately, we 

 have not space enough. In this Schedule, which occupies the 

 whole of one side of a long room (70 feet), a measured space 

 on the wall, of nearly two feet, is allotted to each century. 

 The centuries are marked out by strong black lines, drawn 

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