20 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
The late Sir Wm. Flower, whose life was devoted to the
highest type of museum work, pointed out, in his famous British
Association address, that a museum should have a two-fold
object—Research and Instruction.20 The part devoted to
research would be consulted only by those favoured few who had
ability and opportunity for enlarging the bounds of knowledge,
and consequently this portion need not be exhibited, but should
be reserved for secluded study by the specialist. Such an
arrangement is, perhaps, hardly applicable to a small museum
like ours at Stratford; yet even there we are following, to some
extent, the lines indicated, inasmuch as specimens prominently
displayed to the public are such as should attract the general
visitor, whilst the local collection for consultation by the serious
student is preserved in cabinets, though those are accessible to all.
My friend, Dr. Bather, in a valuable address delivered a
short time ago to the Museums Association at Aberdeen, took a
wider view of museum organisation, and held that a typical
museum has three functions—Investigation, Instruction and
Inspiration.21 As an aid to investigation the Museum is con-
sulted by the specialist who is occupied in original research ; as a
means of instruction it is used by the ordinary student, the
amateur and the collector ; as an aid to inspiration it appeals to
the lay public, the rank outsider, the man in the street. Our
Essex Museum, though appealing to the ordinary student, is
largely concerned with the last of these functions—it seeks to
attract and elevate the general public of West Ham. Oar
purpose, to borrow Dr. Bather's words, is "not to turn every
member of the gaping crowd into a doctor of science, but to
awaken their imagination and interest, and to give to a street-
bred folk some feeling for the nature it has well-nigh forgotten..
The love of nature is the essential thing; the questioning of her
will follow."
It may, perhaps, be said that theoretically we need three
museums, one for each type of visitor—the specialist, the student
and the stranger. The first and the second type of museum may-
be united, so may the second and third, but the first and third
types are generally as little disposed to union as oil and water.
20 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1889, reprinted in Essays on Museums.
London : 1898, p. 1.
21 Rep. Mus. Assoc. Aberdeen meeting, 1903. See also his paper on "The Functions
of Museums," in the Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1304, p. 210.