Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/62

42 connection with any work of art is almost as vital as the loss of the object itself.

Another room which should be easily accessible, not only to the staff but to the public, is the library. No museum officials can be expected to properly carry on their work unless they can be provided with certain readily obtainable text and reference books. Wherever it is possible there should also be a good collection of photographs which will be of the utmost assistance in determining attributions.

An important part of the function of the museum is coming to be the extension of the work of the staff to include lectures for the public. For this there must be provided at least one lecture room in the museum and preferably two. These rooms can also be used for meetings of outside organizations interested in the history of art, and by providing such space the museum becomes the centre for clubs studying this subject.

One of the best equipped lecture rooms in connection with a museum is the one at the Ethnographical Museum in Hamburg. This building has four wings which come together around two courts, forming an obtuse angle on the front. The entrance and vestibule are at this angle and the main galleries of the museum go out on either side. There is a central wing between these two