340 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts mid Letters. 
not without weight; but the objects of museums of art and of 
natural history differ and this variance has been well expressed 
by an art museum man in a definition that ran about as fol¬ 
lows: “The object of a museum of art is to afford thoughtful 
pleasure; that of a museum of natural history to afford pleas¬ 
urable thought.” Under the terms of this concept we presume 
no one, not even an artist, will presume to interdict the use of 
labels in natural history museums. 
Various attempts have been made to harmonize labels with 
their surroundings, such as printing in gold and in aluminum 
on black; printing on thin tissue paper which when specially 
applied to the background is itself invisible, leaving only the 
letters as if directly printed on the back of the case; hand print¬ 
ing on glass, etc. These various devices have their applicability 
under varying circumstances and may tend toward a more ar¬ 
tistic ensemble without detracting from the legibility of the 
labels, but I have known of instances where the curator frankly 
avowed that he did not expect his labels to be read! 
A label must of course tell what the object is, preferably giv¬ 
ing precedence to the common over the technical name. It 
must give the prevenience of the object and if it be one having 
sex, state which; if subject to seasonal variation, the date when 
taken should be given. These are essentials that must be on 
all labels. Other features such as geographical distribution, 
food, (if an animal), migration periods, if a migratory bird, 
use, if a human artifact or useful object, etc., may be given or 
omitted as determined by the size allowed. Tor large speci¬ 
mens, classificatory divisions, and set groups, where larger la¬ 
bels are permissible, they should answer the questions that 
would likely occur to an intelligent, non-scientific person and 
should contain such other matter as the curator thinks should 
be known. By anticipating the natural queries as to how large 
a mastodon is, how long ago the Mesohippus lived, etc., the visi¬ 
tor may be beguiled into reading something more technical than 
he otherwise would; but by all means the label should avoid the 
use of technical terms where possible. The writer should re¬ 
member that his readers are mostly untechnical, and he can tell 
