Excerpt from The Museum as an Educator Like everything else, the museum is an evolution. In its infancy it was little more than a collection, open to a few spec ialists but barred against the general public. The first exhibi tion marked an era in education. Of course, its promotors had no idea of this; they enjoyed looking at the specimens, they were good-natured and wanted to share their pleasure with Other people; that was all. The means at their disposal were inadequate; some dark iittle rooms, shelves and cases which, fortunately, concealed more than they revealed. Compare this, for instance, with the American Museum of Natural History at New York. It is planned to covcr four city blocks and already occupies a great part of two. Four stories are devoted to mag nificent exhibition halls, nearly two miles of them, where every case is as nearly perfect as science and art can make it. In truth, the very richness of the place is bewildering; wiser per sons go only to one hall, or two. Everywhere you see groups of visitors, quiet people, some fashionably dressed, but there is a good sprinkling of workmen with now and then a bare-footed boy; teachers lead their classes from one object to another; students work with note-book and pencil; here a school boy hangs over some case and perhaps you may see him comparing specimens which he has brought In these halls the museumhas gathered the work of hundreds of skilled men, it has ex pended years of anxious thought and study and millions of dollars. They are strictly and solely educative. The rooms are not a gift to science; they are a gift from science to educa tion and the world, and for this science has enlisted art, in genuity, money, anything and everything that makes to her end - teaching. Any one who imagines that the naturalist needs these cases for his work has simply no conception of scientific methods. The study collections are out of sight, in laboratories and store-rooms on the top floor; plain cabinets and drawers contain far more specimens than the public cases, but but they are arranged compactly, for reference. There is no attempt to make things attractive; the naturalist wants well preserved specimens, but an unmounted skin is better for his purpose than a mounted one and a tightly-closing insect-box than a glass-covered one. The American Museum is doing splendid scientific work, but not because it has exhibition rooms. It is significant, however, that this and other large institutions give more money to the educational branch than they do to the scientific one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.