SCHOOL MUSEUMS[8]

Having lately been asked by Dr. Warre, Head Master of Eton, to give him some assistance in the fitting up, arrangement, and management of the museum about to be inaugurated at that College, I put down some notes which he was pleased to think might be of use in pointing out the lines that should be followed with most advantage. As these notes are equally applicable to other school museums, I venture to publish them for the information of those who may be in a position to profit by them, premising that they are mere outlines, which are susceptible of much elaboration in detail, and of some modifications, according to special circumstances.

The subjects best adapted for such a museum are zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology.

Everything in the museum should have some distinct object, coming under one or other of the above subjects, and under one or other of the series defined below, _and everything else should be rigorously excluded_. The curator’s business will be quite as much to keep useless specimens out of the museum as to acquire those that are useful.

The two series or categories under which the admissible specimens should come are the following:--(1) Specimens illustrating the teaching of the natural history subjects adopted in the school, arranged in the order in which the subjects are, or ought to be, taught. (2) Some special sets of specimens of a nature to attract boys to the study of such branches of natural history as readily lie in the path of their ordinary life, especially their school life, and to teach them some of the common objects they see around them.

The specimens of the first class should be all good of their kind, carefully prepared and displayed, and fully labelled. They should also be so arranged that they can be seen and studied without being removed from their position in the case or in any way disturbed or damaged. It would be best that they should never be taken out of the museum, but if it is necessary to remove them for the purpose of demonstration at lectures or classes, special provision should be made by which a whole tray or case can be moved together, with due precautions against disturbing the individual specimens. As a rule, the teachers should either bring the classes into the museum for demonstrations, or they should rely upon a different set of specimens kept in store in the classrooms, and only brought out when required, and which may be handled and examined without fear of injury. Really good permanent preparations may be looked at, but not touched except by very skilled hands.

In zoology the collection should consist of illustrations of the principal modifications of animal forms, living and extinct, a few selected typical examples of each being given, showing the anatomy and development as well as the external form. The series now in the course of arrangement in the Central Hall of the Natural History branch of the British Museum in the Cromwell Road may, as far as it is complete, be taken as a guide, but for a school museum it will not be necessary to enter so fully into detail as in that series.

In botany there should be a general morphological collection, showing the main modifications of the different organs in the greater groups into which the vegetable kingdom is divided, and illustrating the terms used in describing these modifications. Such a collection may also be seen (although still far from complete) in the same institution.

For a teaching collection of minerals, an admirable model has for several years past been exhibited in the Mineralogical Gallery of the Natural History Museum, being, in fact, the various paragraphs of Mr. Fletcher’s _Introduction to the Study of Minerals_ cut up, and with each statement illustrated by a choice specimen.

The geological collection would best be limited mainly to a series illustrating the rocks and characteristic fossils of the British Isles, arranged stratigraphically. There would be no difficulty in making such a series on any scale, according to the space available, and if well selected and arranged, it would be extremely instructive and form a complete epitome of the whole subject. It should be placed in a continuous series along one side of the room, beginning with the oldest and ending with the most recent formations. It might be preceded by some general specimens illustrating the various kinds of rock structures, etc.

Mineral and fossil specimens are generally to be procured as wanted from the dealers, and as they require little or no preparation, collections illustrating these subjects can be quickly made, if money is available for the purpose. This is not, however, the case with zoological and botanical specimens, most of which require labour, skill, and knowledge to be expended upon their preparation before they can be preserved in such a manner as to make them available for permanent instruction.

We will next proceed to consider what objects may be included under the second head, many of which need not be constantly exhibited, but may be preserved in drawers for special study. These may be--

(1) A well-named collection of the commoner British insects, especially those of the neighbourhood in which the school is situated, with their larvæ, which should (if means will allow) be mounted on models of the plants upon which they feed. All should have their localities and the date of capture carefully recorded. These are best kept in a cabinet, with glass-topped drawers, with a stop behind, so as to allow them to be pulled out for inspection, but not entirely removed. Such a collection, formed of specimens prepared and presented by Lord Walsingham, can now be seen in the British Room of the Natural History Museum.

(2) A similar collection of British shells, especially the land and freshwater shells of the neighbourhood.

(3) If space and means allow, a collection of British birds, especially the best-known and more interesting species. Rare and occasional visitors, reckoned in the books as British, which are the most expensive and difficult to procure, are the least important for such a collection. Variations in plumage in young and old, and at different seasons, should be shown in some common species. Every specimen must be good and well mounted, or it is not worth placing in the museum.

(4) The principal British mammals of smaller size, especially the bats, shrews, and mice.

(5) The British reptiles, Amphibia, and commoner fishes, so shown that their distinctive characters may be recognised.

(6) A collection, as complete as may be, of British plants, or at all events of the plants of the neighbourhood. By far the best way of preserving and exhibiting such a collection is in glazed frames, movably hinged upon an upright stand, as may be seen in the Botanical Gallery of the Natural History Museum. A collection arranged in this manner should find a place in every school museum of natural history.

(7) A collection of the fossils found in the quarries of the neighbourhood, should there be any.

Every collection or series should be kept perfectly distinct from and independent of the others, and its nature and object clearly indicated by a conspicuous label.

The exhibited specimens should be arranged in upright wall-cases or in table-cases on the floor of the room. For the latter a high slope is preferable, and in all the exhibition space should not extend too high or too low for comfortable inspection. Between three to six or seven feet from the floor should be the limits for the exhibition of small objects. The three feet nearest the floor may be enclosed with wooden doors forming cupboards or fitted with drawers. Glass in this situation is liable to be broken by the feet or knees.

The museum should have a permanent curator--a man of general scientific attainments, and who is specially acquainted with, and devoted to, museum work, and who might also be one of the teachers, if too much of his time is not so occupied. But, as he is not likely to have special knowledge of more than one branch of natural history, the teachers of the other branches represented in the museum would probably each give advice and assistance with regard to his own department. It is also probable that some of the boys may be sufficiently interested in the work to render valuable aid in collecting and preparing specimens.

If ethnographical, archæological, historical, or art collections be also part of the general museum scheme, they should be kept quite distinct from the natural history collections, preferably in another room.

Above all things, let the following words of Agassiz be remembered: “The value of a museum does not consist so much in the number as in the order and arrangement of the specimens contained in it.”