20 



FIFTY YEARS OF MVSECM WORK 



mammals, during the ten years that have elapsed since the Story of 

 Museum Groups was written. The most noteworthy among them are 

 those prepared by Mr. John Rowley in the California Academy of 

 Sciences, showing the characteristic large mammals of California. Not 

 only are these groups not restricted in size but they have the great ad- 

 vantage of being installed in a hall planned and built for their display, 

 points wherein Mr. Rowley has worked under conditions more favorable 

 than those enjoyed by his predecessors. 



Fishes, for reasons stated, still remain among the most difficult 

 subjects for groups, but have been treated with good success both at the 

 American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum — and 

 have been used in marine groups at the Brooklyn Museum. Marine 

 groups of invertebrates, brought to a high degree of beauty and perfec- 

 tion under Dr. Miner, of the American Museum, really need to be 

 considered by themselves as, of necessity, the animals are reproductions 

 in wax and glass. 



It is, too, a question if man, as a subject of groups, should not be 

 treated apart since he calls for quite different handling from his four- 

 footed relatives and must necessarily always appear in effigy. Single 

 figures have been in use for many years for the display of costumes or 

 illustrations of racial characters, but the United States National Mu- 

 seum was the first, to the best of my knowledge, to make "ethnic groups " 

 a feature of its exhibits. 



The Public Museum, Milwaukee, has placed on exhibition a number 

 of groups illustrating the habits and habitats of the races of men found in 

 North America, and in the State Museum at Albany has been installed a 

 remarkably fine series of six groups devoted to special ceremonies of the 

 Iroquois. Our own artistic and elaborate groups [American Museum] 

 depict the daily life of the Hopi and Arapaho Indians while the 

 Navajo Group includes a special ceremony, all carried out amid their 

 natural surroundings. 



A problem in connection with insects is to prevent the subjects 

 from being overshadowed by their surroundings, but they have been 

 grouped in various ways, from the small, square glass case, which may 

 be likened to the original bird groups, to the fairly large and very suc- 

 cessful life history groups recently (1925) installed in the American 

 Museum of Natural History. 



m . ^ im P° rt ^ce now accorded groups is shown by the consideration 



ZZ f T P g ^ mUSeUmS and if due P^vimoa has not been 

 made for them in some recent buildings it is due to the unfortunate 



