36 



FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



hall was installed it was at once recognized that it was bare and un- 

 finished, a defect that was remedied by hanging the walls with large 

 tapestries that added to, instead of detracting from, the general effect. 

 It seems to me that it is not a question of no decoration, but rather of 

 appropriate decoration. 



As to the proposition that galleries should not be thoroughfares, it 

 may be said that few, if any, institutions have the necessary room to 

 carry this principle into effect, and even if corridors were provided, they 

 would not be allowed to stand empty and idle, but would surely be used 

 for exhibits of some kind. For it should be the aim of a museum to 

 utilize all its space to the best advantage, to teach something at every 

 step and turn, to have no blank pages in its book. For example, the 

 primary purpose of a doorway is to let people in and out of a building, 

 and yet again and again has the artist availed himself of his opportunity 

 to utilize a space where every one must pass. The very fact that mu- 

 seum halls are used, as a general rule, for corridors, offers an opportunity 

 that the museum may well embrace. I would reverse the plan of having 

 corridors apart from the main exhibition halls and let the halls serve as 

 corridors. Opening from them, I would have rooms for special collec- 

 tions of small objects or for the display of a few objects of particular im- 

 portance—a single statue or one or two paintings that should be seen by 

 themselves to be appreciated. 



In the main galleries the visitor gets his general impressions; in 

 the others he learns to appreciate the particular beauties of some master- 

 piece, and this he does under conditions of isolation, quiet and rest, re- 

 pose of body being added to peace of mind, 



There is another point to be considered : I fully agree with Dr. Boas 

 that the vast majority of museum visitors do not come as students with a 

 definite purpose in view, but to be amused or interested. To a great 

 extent, speaking of material on exhibition, the student is a negligible 

 quantity; the real problem is to catch the eye and arouse the interest 

 of the passer-by-the "man in the street" from whom ultimately the 

 support of our museums must come. Hence a museum should be so 

 arranged that he who runs may read, that the casual passer-by may be 

 attracted by some exhibit and thus gather some piece of information 

 that he was not looking for. 



None the less, in seeking to gratify the eye, we should not forget 

 that there is something beyond this. The friends of Art will hardlv 

 claim that it 1S her mission to gratify the eye alone; in these davs we 

 expect a little more of our goddesses than simply to look pretty. In our 



