CHAPTER XXIII. EDUCATIONAL WORK OF AMERICAN MUSEUMS. By PAUL MARSHALL REA, Secretary of the American Association of Museums; Director of the Charleston (S. C.) Museum. CONTENTS.-Introduction-Museums essentially educational-An educational experiment-Extension work of art museums-Branch museums-Endowments for educational work-Museum extension in Pennsylvania-Administrative relations with schools-Museum work for the blind-University museums of culture-Children's museums-Special museums-Vocational training-Conclusion. INTRODUCTION. The report of the Commissioner of Education for 1913 included a chapter on the educational work of American museums.1 As this was intended to be the first of a series of annual reviews, the subject was approached from the historical and statistical side. It was shown that those museums that derive their financial support to a large extent from municipal appropriation have been the leaders in developing educational work, although they comprise but 15 per cent of all the museums of the United States. Leadership in this direction is the natural effect of the obligation to serve the general public imposed by receipt of tax funds. So successful and important have these educational activities become that they are now essential functions of the public museum, and are undertaken more and more extensively by privately endowed museums. Few of the museums supported by colleges or by societies and associations as an incidental feature of their work are participating in this great development. This condition is due in part to lack of funds, and in part to ineffective organization, as was pointed out in this report last year. It is a great misfortune that nearly 75 per cent of all museums in the United States belong to this group, but the phenomenal success and expansion of those museums that are able to develop their educational possibilities leads to the hope that the leaven may in some way spread through the whole lump. It is the purpose of this and subsequent reports to describe recent developments in the educational work of museums, and to record the extent to which the various methods are employed. The author 1 Rea, P. M., Educational work of American museums. Rep. of Commis. Educ., 1913, Vol. I, ch. 13, pp. 299-311. 73226° -ED 1914-VOL 1-32 497 has been aided in the preparation of this chapter by 70 museums, which have supplied information regarding their educational activities, and by Mr. Henry W. Kent, secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who has kindly given the use of special information obtained from 30 museums of art. MUSEUMS ESSENTIALLY EDUCATIONAL. That museums have not been more generally recognized as essentially educational institutions is due to the fact that they have existed in the past too largely for the benefit of limited and favored classes—. art museums for artists and wealthy patrons of art; natural-history museums for specialists in narrow systematic fields. In order to make museums of broad educational value it is necessary not merely to install the exhibits in a manner intelligible to the general public, but to make access easy, and to advertise. It is no more reasonable to expect ideas to find their way unaided to the masses of the people than to expect goods to sell themselves. No museum fulfills its educational function by merely maintaining its exhibition collections, however well they may be installed. It must carry its wares to the people, if it would reach more than a small percentage of them. It is true that traveling exhibits and lectures outside the museum are merely samples of what the museum can do better within the walls of its rich storehouse, and the public should be led to appreciate that "extension work" is but an indication of the welcome, pleasure, and instruction to be found in visiting the museum. It will always be possible, however, to reach more people with extension work than can be brought into the museum as regular visitors. Thus personal contact will replace the former aloofness of the museum, and its influence will become a factor in the lives of thousands to whom it must otherwise remain a stranger, while many will profit even more abundantly by becoming regular visitors. It is gratifying to find that many museums stress the educational value of their exhibits, but still more gratifying to find that many are making it their business to carry the museum to the people whenever necessary. AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT. One of the most interesting features of the educational work of museums during the past year is a concerted experiment in the use of museum objects in teaching the history of civilization, participated in by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Children's Museum in Brooklyn, the Children's Museum in Boston, and the Worcester Art Museum. This experiment is the result of a series of very interesting efforts to utilize museum material more effectively in education. The move ment began in 1900 when a meeting arranged by Miss A. B. Thompson and a few others was held at the rooms of the Twentieth Century Club in Boston to consider ways and means by which teachers might be enabled to study the abundant material in museums and thereby enrich their teaching. At this meeting a petition to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was drawn up reciting that archæology and the history of art are in themselves important subjects and are important departments of history; that they elucidate and illustrate text and reinforce the teaching of literature; that college entrance requirements specify that Greek and Roman history are to be taught with "due reference to art;" that medieval and modern history are equally capable of enrichment through due recognition of the works of art their epochs have produced; and that no adequate courses of instruction in these subjects are now open to teachers. In view of these facts, the museum was petitioned (1) to lead the way in outlining a general course of study on these subjects illustrative of the development of European and American civilizations, and (2) to allow teachers to form themselves into classes for the purpose of pursuing courses of study in the museum under teachers selected by the museum. The petition was favorably received by the Museum of Fine Arts, and from 1901 to 1904 ten courses of from 10 to 15 lectures each were given on Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman art; Greek vases; Renaissance sculpture; and Renaissance and pre-Renaissance paintings. The classes of teachers attending these courses wore organized by a committee consisting of Miss A. B. Thompson, Miss L. W. Case, Miss E. de C. Heath, and Miss A. D. Slocum.1 In 1904 the organization of teachers' classes was transferred from this committee to Simmons College, which cooperated with the museum in this work from 1904 until 1907.2 In November, 1907, the Museum of Fine Arts took over the entire management of this work, with the assistance of an advisory committee on education appointed by the trustees of the museum.3 Miss Anna D. Slocum was a member of the Woman's Education Association of Boston, as well as of the advisory committee on education, and, having conceived plans that she considered too new and toɔ untried to bring before the advisory committee, submitted them to the Woman's Education Association. They were received with approval, and in March, 1911, the association authorized its standing committee on public schools to undertake their development. This committee ultimately placed a subcommittee in charge of the work. 1 For the work of this committee, see addresses by Miss Anna Boynton Thompson and others in report of the proceedings of a meeting called by the committee of lectures on museum collections, Boston, Mass., April 30, 1904. 2 See Annual Reports Simmons College, 1904, 1905, and Simmons College Catalogues, 1905, 1906, 1907. * See report of the president in Annual Report, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997. 1 The subcommittee reported at the end of the year that at its request a course of eight lectures on textiles had been given in the textile study room of the Museum of Fine Arts for the benefit of teachers from the Girls' High School of Practical Arts, the Trade School for Girls, and instructors from Simmons College. This course was given by Miss Flint, and considered (1) tapestry weaving, (2) rugs, (3) shuttle weaving to the fifteenth century, (4) shuttle weaving from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the introduction of power machinery, (5) point lace, (6) bobbin lace, (7) embroideries, (8) printed materials. A second course of four lectures in Egyptian, Greek, and Japanese costumes was also successfully conducted, while under the auspices of the subcommittee Mr. Louis Earle Rowe, of the Museum of Fine Arts, lectured at the summer session of the State Normal School at Hyannis on the museum of fine arts as an aid to the school-teacher. In continuing the plans of Miss Slocum the subcommittee of the Woman's Education Association invited the cooperation of the American Museum of Natural History, the Children's Museum of Brooklyn, and the Children's Museum of Boston in carrying on the concerted experiment which is the immediate subject of this report. Miss Slocum, as a member of the American Association of Museums, arranged for the results of this experiment to be presented in the form of papers at the meeting of the association in May, 1914. Before this experiment was concluded Miss Slocum learned of the lectures being given by the Worcester Art Museum and secured a report on its work for presentation with the other reports at the meeting of the American Association of Museums. It will be noted that up to this point this movement had been concerned solely with the utilization of material in museums of fine art. Miss Slocum considers that the plan of starting the course in the development of civilization still further back, with illustrations of primitive life, is the especial contribution of Mrs. Agnes L.Vaughan, and that her work as assistant in the department of public education places the American Museum of Natural History in the lead in this movement among museums of science. It is to be regretted that space forbids a full presentation of the work done during the past year by the several museums which cooperated in the experiment reported upon in full at the 1914 meeting of the American Association of Museums.2 The essential idea underlying this experiment is the feeling that children in the elementary grades need to appreciate more fully the early beginnings of civilization and their relation to modern conditions. In developing this idea the American Museum of Natural History in New York 1Fortieth Annual Report of the Woman's Education Association, Boston, 1912, pp. 12-16. |
