FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



21 



limitations in structural conditions or to the conservatism of architects. 

 That "habitat groups" will form an essential feature of every important 

 museum seems undoubted, but the question arises, though it is pro- 

 pounded very timidly, if there is not some danger lest the matter of 

 groups be overdone. Not every animal is worthy of inclusion in a 

 habitat group and while it is the duty of a museum to present to the 

 public Nature in her fairest forms, yet this should not be done to the 

 exclusion of other important matters. Finally, it must not be thought 

 that "habitat groups" are confined to the United States though that 

 is the place of their origin and they are more numerous in our museums 

 than elsewhere — there are fine groups abroad, notably in the museum at 

 Upsala, and there will be more in the years to come. 



Still more important has been the introduction and development of 

 electric lighting, without which the proper display of such groups as are 

 now found in our museums would not be possible. 



What may be termed habitat groups in miniature are those used 

 with much success by Mr. Figgins in which the back of the case is a 

 colored, photographic transparency of the locality where the birds were 

 taken. As a variant of this, Mr. Frank C. Baker, when at the Chicago 

 Academy of Sciences, used greatly enlarged photographic curved back- 

 grounds for the insects of the vicinity of Chicago. 



For many years the attitude of the public towards the U. S. National 

 Museum and Government institutions in general seemed to be that of the 

 Congressman in "Sam Slick," whose motto was dulceest pro patria mori, 

 which he translated: mori, the more I get, pro patria, from my country, 

 dulce est, the sweeter it is. Not only are there greater restrictions in the 

 use of funds in a government institution than in one under private con- 

 trol, but it is more difficult for such an institution to obtain funds from 

 private sources. But there has been a wonderful change in the point 

 of view during the past twenty years, and of late gifts have flowed into 

 the U. S. National Museum in an ever-increasing stream, the value of 

 art objects alone, presented during the decade ending 1920, amounting to 

 $6,000,000.00. 



Congress was, and is, strangely illiberal in providing, or rather in not 

 providing, either by direct purchase or by expeditions, funds for the acqui- 

 sition of specimens by the National Museum, and only for a short time 

 was even so small an amount as $10,000 allowed for these purposes. 

 The principal additions to the museum collections have been, as noted, 

 through gifts from private individuals. 



Aside from regular museum work, the various exhibitions and ex- 

 positions in which the United States Government took an active part, 



