Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/42

the ground floor are for study and the visitor who wishes to see the exhibition collections must climb a flight of glaring white steps. How much better it would be to have an attractive vista of exhibition rooms opening out from the entrance hall and to hide the stairs somewhere in the ends of the wings where they need not be either costly or very large. By providing an elevator for the public and staircases six or eight feet wide, it would be possible to take care of even a rather large crowd. [In this connection let it be noted that there is an art in building stairs of the right proportion. The measure of the rise and tread of the stairs in the Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, is the most perfect so far as the author's experience goes.] Except for the one large staircase opposite the main entrance in the Metropolitan Museum, the wings are provided with staircases of normal size which are neither costly to build nor tiresome in appearance. Aside from all this the heating of a building which has huge stairways is always difficult. Elevators for the public are expensive. There must be licensed operators constantly in attendance and liability insurance must be carried. But if such an elevator is not provided there must be some means of taking lame persons or invalids over the stairs, in freight elevators if necessary.