Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/238

208 ordinary cleaning, receiving and shipping of all objects. He should be responsible for janitors and custodians and arrange to hire and discharge them. Where the museum plant is a large one this officer is absolutely indispensable. He relieves the director of certain responsibilities and is personally accountable to him for the safety of all museum objects. In a smaller museum the responsibility may be differently shared. The gallery man may be given charge of receiving and shipping, the engineer take care of heating, lighting and ventilating, and the head custodian take entire charge of galleries. This brings much more detail back into the hands of the director and makes him responsible for the safety of the objects, as is the director of a European museum. On this point it is interesting to note that whereas in America the responsibility for safety from fire and theft is vested in the superintendent of buildings, abroad it is vested in the director himself.

Next to the superintendent the most important man in this section of the staff is the engineer. He must have a thorough knowledge of his boilers and will undoubtedly be able to take charge of the small repairs that are constantly needed in connection with heating, lighting and ventilating apparatus. There are very few museums now equipped with a heating system requiring constant