Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/269

Rh organ is read by a very small number of the people to whom it is sent. We are trying more and more to make the collections in our museums tell their story and interest the public, and very soon we shall find that the bulletins also will be written with this special object in view and they will no longer be thrown away. In this respect, the museum is in the same position as the commercial house publishing its "house organ," and some of the methods adopted in the clever little magazines produced by some of these firms might well serve to assist the museum to perform its mission of educating through its bulletin. Many of the museums and art societies are sending out postcard notices to their members, giving a list of exhibitions and lectures, and these may be made very valuable; but a cleverly worded and well-designed paid advertisement in the newspapers would be still more efficacious.

Certain of our museums are undertaking advertising of a different form by conducting campaigns for civic betterment with headquarters at the museum. This is a perfectly legitimate method and brings a museum into close relation with the people of the city. Many museum officials who are imbued with traditions of scholarly aloofness look askance at such movements as city-beautiful campaigns and bird campaigns. These