FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



35 



upon Cyrus Blenkarn. The potter, anxious to be at work and desirous 

 of getting rid of his untimely visitors, reaches for a piece of porcelain, 1 

 holds it out and says, "Teapot, Royal Worcester, 1760." Can not the 

 Museum of Art do better than the bored potter? For it should ever be 

 borne in mind that the average visitor does not go to a museum for in- 

 struction; he goes to be interested, pleased, in search of what John 

 Edward Gray called rational amusement. The student may be trusted 

 to find the information he is in search of, or at least to find where it 

 may be had. The problem of the museum — so far as its exhibits are 

 concerned- — is to add to the number of students, to stimulate the interest 

 and arouse a desire for more knowledge in the mind of the chance visitor. 



Having our collections, how shall they be housed? As a general 

 principle a museum building and its halls should be simple in design, 

 but as all things go by comparison so this simplicity should not degener- 

 ate into ugliness, as it may all too readily do. It is quite as easy to be 

 plain and ugly as it is to be ornate and ugly. There are various kinds of 

 plainness; Louis Agassiz's idea is embodied in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology — a cheap and ugly husk for its kernels of scientific gold; 

 and probably Dr. Gilman's definition would be found in the dignified 

 simplicity of Doric architecture employed in this building. The exterior 

 of a building should in itself attract attention and be worthy of study, 

 while at the same time implying that " there's that within that passeth 

 show." The masterpieces of literature are none the less masterpieces 

 though bound in plain boards, but lovers of books do not so bind them, 

 striving rather to preserve harmony between cover and contents. A 

 jewel is worthy of its setting of gold, and the exterior of a great build- 

 ing should be in keeping with its contents and suggest to the passer-by 

 the treasures of art or science displayed within. It should not be 

 possible to mistake a Museum of Art, or of any kind for that matter, for 

 a factory, a business block, or even a municipal building. A museum 

 building should be a liberal education in itself, ever speaking in no un- 

 certain tones to the community in which it stands. 



In regard to the decoration of halls we shall all agree that there 

 should be few mouldings and practically no decoration in the unoccupied 

 hall, since it can rarely be seen what the hall will ultimately be used for. 

 But in the completed hall appropriate decoration, or exhibits used for 

 decoration, will surely add to the harmony and artistic effect, as well as 

 to the educational value of the objects shown. 



As a case in point let me cite the Hall of Armor in the Metropolitan 

 Museum where the objects shown are comparatively small. When the 



