Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/195

MUSEUM. 159 MUSEUM. instead of to a favored few. Dr. Goode summed up the objects of museums as record, research, and publication; the preservation of material, its study, and the publication of information in the sliaj)e of books, and the spread of knowledge by the display of specimens. In a broad way nuiseums may be divided into nuiseums of nat- ural history and museums of anthropologj', the former including all natural objects, the latter man and his works. Following Dr. Goode, they may be classified under the following heads: museums of art, natural histor.v, history, anthro- jiology, technology, and commerce. Or, follow- ing the same authority, museums nuiy be classed according to their purposes as national, local, provincial, or city; college, or school; pro- fessional, or class museums, and museums of special research. The collection of art museums in modern times began in Italy, where in the fourteenth century the rulers and the nobility began to make collec- tions of coins and gems. Busts and statues were added later, and it was not until the seventeenth century that pictures and drawings w-ere also introduced. The oldest important collections on record are those brought together by Cosmo de' Medici (1389-1404), which form the' basis of the present Florentine collections, of which the most important are the Uffizi and Pitti galleries, and the Museo Nazionale. The Vatican (q.v.) col- lections trace their origin to Pope Julius II. (150.3-1.3) ; besides these the principal museimis of Rome are the JIuseo Nazionale and the Mu- seum of the Latcran. Probably the equal of these in the wealth and diversity of its collec- tion is the Louvre (q.v.), the National Museum of France, situated in Paris, which also contains the Musee de Cluny. and the Luxembourg (q.v.). The most important provincial cities of France also have museums, devoted chieHy to painting. In Germany the chief collections are the Royal Museums of Berlin, Dresden, and Munich, and the Germanic JIuseum at Nuremberg. In Eng- land the British ^Museum (q.v.) is by far of the greatest importance. Austria has the Imperial museums of Vienna. The cities of Italy, notably Venice, ililan, and Naples, have nation- al or municipal nuiseums of importance. The Prado Museum in iladrid is the most im- portant in Spain, which has some provincial museums, not.ably at Seville. The chief museum in Russia is the flermitage at Saint Petersburg. In the LTnited States the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ; the Boston jluseum of Fine Arts; and the Corcoran Gallery. Wa.shington, are among the more noteworthy. The United States is perhaps the only great nation without a na- tional gallery. The museum of natural history covers a wide field and includes many branches, any one of which is capable of separate treatment. Thus there are museums of zoiilogy. botany, geology, paleontology and mineralogy, or paleontology may be included as a part of a zoological, geo- logical, or anatomical museum. The natural his- tory collections of the British ^Museum constitute the largest and most celebrated iiiuseum of nat- ural history in the world, while other famous eolleetions are those of the .Tardin <les Plantes, Paris, and those of Vienna, Leydcn. and Berlin. The must important museums of natural history in the I'nited States, all of which have been ex- tended beyond the province indicated by the name, are the collections of the Smithsonian In- stitution at Washington, the American Mu.seura of Natural History in New York, and the Muse- um of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. Historical museums are for the preservation of objects illustrating the history of any country, place, or jieriod, or the development of some spe- cial subject, and here it may trespass on the province of the niu.seum of art or of technology. Historical collections form a branch of the United States National Museum, but there are many local collections. The National Museum, Munich, is an example of a general liistorical museum ; the Cluny iluseum, Paris, is devoted to a single period; the Naples Museum tells the story of Pompeii; while the Guiniet Museum, Paris, illustrates the history of religious cere- monial, and the Museum of Artillerj-, Paris, traces the development of weapons from the rude axe of the Stone Age to the modern rapid-fire gun. Anthropological museums, in the widest sense, treat of the history of man and his relations to the universe about him. This calls for illustra- tions of his various activities, so that an anthro- pological museum may comprise art and histor- ical collections, although these are usually treated separately. The phj'sical characteristics of man, his clothing, weapons, ceremonial objects, household furniture, methods of transportation and of shelter are the subjects most commonly illustrated. Ethnology is that branch of anthro- pology which deals with the characteristics, occu- pations, arts, and industries of the races of men as distinguished from one another. Archaeology treats of the history of ancient man, and sections of a large museum or an entire niirseum may be devoted to the illustration of either of these sub- jects. The Department of Anthropology of the United States National Museum is very exten- sive, and so is that of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The Peabody !Mii- .seum of Archa!ology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass., is particularly rich in American antiqui- ties, and .so is the Archa>ological Museum of the LTniversity of Pennsylvania. Abroad there are important anthropological museums in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; the Trocadero. Paris; and the Pitt Rivers collection at Oxford, the latter being specially arranged to illustrate the develop- ment of the arts. Technological museums deal with various phases of the industrial arts. They display speci- mens of the raw materials that enter into the composition of a given product, trace the various processes to which these are subjected, show the tools or machineri- by which they are manipu- lated, and finally the finished object or substance. The subjects for technological museums are al- most endless; ship-buililing. spinning and weav- ing, dyestuffs. drugs, foods, and electric appa- ratus naturally suggest themselves. The South Kensington IIuseuiii (now the Victoria and Albert). London, contains the largest techno- logical collections of any institution. This is now under the charge of the National Board of Educa- tion, and its influence is not confined to London, for a part of its work consists in lending care- fully selected collections to local niuseums and technical schools in other portions of Great Britain. In .America, the United States National ^luscnm and the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, have important technolocicnl sections, the former having much material illustrating the