Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/208

178 a new department who has no previous training in this work will always find himself welcome to such advice, help or encouragement as he needs from the older institutions. Every museum with a print collection should provide a laboratory for the curator, equipped with a very large table (say, 4×8 feet), sheets of heavy plate glass of varying sizes, slightly larger than the standard sizes of his mounts, a flat-bottomed sink (not iron) at least 3×5 feet, with running water, a large-sized pasteboard cutter, and some sort of apparatus for cutting the bevelled edge of his mounts.

—In exhibiting prints, small rooms with side-light are the most desirable. Artificial light should be avoided wherever possible, but may sometimes be used as a compromise if the prints could not otherwise be shown. Top-light is very disagreeable and should be avoided, as in making the necessary close observation of the print the visitor gets in his own light. Some museums prefer to show the prints in individual frames. These are generally uniform in design, adapted to the three standard sizes of mats, and fitted with removable backs. An exhibition is easily changed in this manner and looks very well when hung. If the walls of the print room are of rough plaster, which is undesirable, wires become necessary, and if wires are used