Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/194

* MXTSEUM. 158 MUSEUM. the account of the skins of what are now sup- posed to have been gorilhis brought home by Hanno and presented by liini to the Temple of Astartc iu Carthage, iluscunis of art and of natural history had their origin in collections made by the rich and powerful without at first a more" definite purpose than to gratify their own pleasure or curiosity. Somewhat later men of science gathered material to further their owTi special lines of research, and many of these pri- vate collections eventually developed into public museums. Thus .some of the national museums of Europe had their beginnings in collections made by former sovereigns, while the British Jluscum grew out of the cabinet and library of Sir Hans Sloane. The Ashmolean Museum, at O.xford. England, was the result of the labors of Elias .shmole, who began collecting in 1607, while the Museum of the Royal College of Sur- geons, London, is based on the anatomical ma- terial gathered by the famous surgeon John Hunter, and the llunterian Museum of the Uni- versity of (ilasgow was founded by his brother, William Hunter. It may be of interest to note that the exploration of America did much to promote the growth of nuiscums and that the cabinets of Sloane and Ashmole, particularly the latter, comprised many specimens from the New World. Incidentally, too. public houses may be credited with some slight share in the develop- ment of museums ; for. in England at least, they formed small collections of curiosities to attract visitors, and Artedi, in his work on fishes, men- tions thn'C taverns where he had seen specimens of .meriean fishes. Directly relate<l to these, and representing another stage in the develop- ment of nuiseums. was the establishment of mis- cellaneous collections, more or less .scientific in their nature, to which visitors were admitted ujion the payment of a fee. President Adams miintions a collection of this sort in Norwalk, Conn., formed by a ilr. Arnold prior to the Kevohition. but the best of the type in this country were those of the Pealcs in Philadelphia and Haltimore. Two noteworthy foreign collec- tions were those formed by Sir Ashton Lever, at Manchester, in 177"). and by William Bullock somewhat later at Liverpool. These were event- ually taken to London, where they nourished at (litTcrent |)eri<ids, and their importance may be inferred from the fact that when these collections were sold variois foreign museums sent repre- sentatives to attend the sale. Such large private establishments were the iiinnediate precursors of onr present State or governmental instititions. These represent the general acknowledgment of the value of museums, and are held to mark a stage in the progress of civilization beyond that of the art gallery or library, since the develop- ment of science is far later than that of art or literature. Great public museums are of comparatively reeent date, for while Bacon in his Yrir Atlantis nnllines such an institution, the estalilishment of the British Museum in I7.">3 was the first realiza- tion of this idea. In 17Sfl Krancc transformed a royal into a national collection by opening the Louvre to the public, but the I'nited States did not formally establish a nafiomil nuiseum until 1^7(1. although it practically came into existence in IS4fi. when the .Smithsonian Institution was made the custodian of the national collections. The intluenec of the many expositions held dur- ing the latter half of the nineteenth century on museums has been very gi'cat : the construction of a. building for the United States National Jluseum was a direct result of the Centennial E.xposition of 1870, and the Eield Columbian Museum, Chicago, owes its origin to the exhibi- tion of 1893. The South Kensington Museum in London, the Ethnological iluseum of the Troca- dero in Paris, and the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum are lai'gely due to similar causes. The development of museums has not merely been in their size and number. l)ut in their scope anil fiuu-tions as well. Originally the s|)eeimen3 exliihited, especially in museums of natural his- tory, comprised the greater or more important portion of the collections, and were mainly for the benefit of men of science. The modern plan is to restrict the number of pieces on exhibition and to select for this purpose those of the great- est educational value: the bulk of material J3 ])laced in the reserve series, and is kept thus not merel.v for study, but for its better preservation, since light is one of the greatest enemies of museum specimens. The constantly increasing size of collections has had sometliing to do in shaping this policy, but it is largely the result of a recognition of the fact that, so far as the general public was concerned, the educational in- liucnce of nuiseums depended more on the quality of the things exhibited than on quantity. This has led to careful study of the best methods of arranging and labeling objects on exhibition anil so dis]ilaying them that they may at- tract and interest even the casual visitor. No man probably had more to do with bringing aluiut this state of atVairs than Hie late Sir William Flower. Director of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and subsequently of ; the British Museum, while in the United States Dr. G. Brown Goode (q.v.) stands preeminent among those who have been most instrumental in making museums instructive to the jniblic. There has been a corresponding evolution in the publications issued by museums, in making them of interest to the general public and not restrict- ing them to papers of a technical nature. We have seen that private collections were formed not only for the preservation of material, but for its study, and this led to the publication of information thus acquired. The germ of museum ])ublieations. however, is to be found in the illus- trated descrijitive catalogue of small private 'cabinets.' The oldest of these works is that issued by Gesiier in I'lti.i. describing one of the first systematic collections, that of .lohann Kent- mann of Dresden. Public museums liavc followed the same path as private collectors; and while, like individuals, their )mblieation was at first through the medium of scientific societies, the tendency is for museums to become their own ])ublishers. As the transfer of great collections from private to public ownersliip made them accessible to a greater number of students than before, this in turn has led to Hie issuing of memoirs by other than regular members of their staff. Many museums also issue guidebooks, hand-books, or. articles of a somewhat popular nature relating to their collections, and in line ' with this are courses of lectures on to])ics illus- trated in the various departments of the institu- tion. The steady trend of museum development has been in the line of extending their educational influence and making them of value to the many