54 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Both these ideals are realised, I find, at West Ham. Here
in the Museum you will find, not a miscellaneous collection of
curios from all parts of the world—isolated objects that would
make no appeal to the inhabitants of the district; but you
will find interesting specimens illustrating the natural history
and antiquities of the locality and the county of which it is a
part. You will find too a wonderful pictorial survey of Essex—
which makes this Club and Museum an example to other
Museums in the country. Very few Museums have taken such
an important part in the life of the locality, and evidences of its
educational value are to be found not only in the cases of ex-
hibits, but in the fact that a great deal of research work has
been carried on. In these two directions the Museum stands
pre-eminent. In another, it is almost a unique example in
the country of real co-operation between the Club and the local
authority with which it is associated. When you think that
a Museum such as the one which exists here could not
have been initiated and maintained by the Borough of West
Ham without the co-operation of the Field Club, and the Club
could not have carried on the Museum without the co-operation
of the Borough, you get the real reason why it has been such
a phenomenal success. And this result has been achieved in
more than one direction. In the wonderful Museum in Epping
Forest the same thing has been done by the co-operation of the
Field Club with the Corporation of the City of London. We
may search the country in vain for any such splendid example.
Then again, it was a very happy union when the Club was
able to do educational work in and through this Institute.
Let me add that I know of no other Club in the country
that has been more consistent in carrying out its definite, and
well defined and realisable ideals. No other Museum has kept
more strictly to the subjects which it set out to illustrate, and
whose educational work along those lines has been more helpful
to the district in which it is situated.
Again, you have this other example of co-operation. The
work has been done by the individual with the co-operation
of the Club itself. The Museum has been almost entirely main-
tained, looked after and arranged by members of the Club.
I do not know of any other Museum that is kept up by the co-
operative work in its administration. I think it is a great record.