Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/530

 dorsey] MUSEUMS OF CENTRAL EUROPE 47 l

also it was noted that ample provision had been made for the han- dling and assorting of extensive collections. Numerous work- rooms with abundant light are or should be an essential feature of every museum building.

The cases used for specimens in most of the European museums do not reach the standard of museum requirements of today. Except in the London Natural History Museum, and in Vienna, Berlin, and Dresden, no serious thought or care appears to have been bestowed on either the size and construction of the cases or the arrangement of the specimens. The actual installa- tion of the specimens themselves seems to be much better in the Vienna museum than in any other which was visited.

The iron cases of Dresden and Berlin, of which we hear, much, are rather ungainly, lacking in the beautiful finish which can be obtained in wooden cases. Furthermore, these iron cases are cumbersome, of enormous weight, and possess, so far as can be determined, no merit not possessed by the wooden cases of the South Kensington and Natural History museums of London. In Vienna there was seen a modification of the Berlin iron case, that is, a case with an iron frame enclosed in wooden panels. In case construction the great desideratum, of course, is to utilize a minimum amount of wood or iron, and to employ plates of glass of the largest practicable dimensions. Such a case should be as free from iron trimmings and locks as possible ; in other words the case should obtrude itself upon the public as little as may be. Black seems to be the favorite color both for the inside and the outside of cases devoted to anthropological collections, and in the majority of museums visited either all or parts of the cases are ebonized.

Very few of the collections of European museums are ade- quately labeled, and in none of the museums, except perhaps the British Natural History Museum, is there any uniform system of labeling throughout the entire department. In most of the museums the labels are hand-printed. Many of the museums

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