MODERN MUSEUM PLANNING Originally museums were thought of, planned, and built as storehouses for specimens, but with the recent, almost complete constructive educational programme extending to the schools and many types of civic organizations. It supplies loan collections of specimens, sends out lecturers, furnishes motion pictures and other lecture material for outside use. It organizes and conducts excursions to nearby points where nature may be closely studied, and it even permits the public to engage in certain collecting and excavating projects. Within its own building it maintains an effi cient guide service to its collections, appointing certain hours for children and young people. Its lecture halls and auditoriums fur nish opportunities for talks illustrated by the surrounding museum material. Chamber music, organ recitals and theatrical produc tions have all been provided by museums. Organizations working along similar lines are encouraged to use museum facilities and many types of nature, art and hobby clubs, have been promoted by museums. The active modern museum presents to its public a constantly changing panorama of exhibits drawn from its own collections and from the many types of loan material which are circulated nationally.
reversal of plan and scope, specimens now may even hold a rela tively unimportant position as compared with other activities. Educational functions now tend to predominate and the curio type of collection is rapidly being replaced with material capable of instructing the museum visitor along sound cultural and prac tical lines. Carefully selected series of specimens illustrating the essential facts to be brought out have taken the place of closely packed rows of science museum material and of galleries of paint ings hung row above row. The excess material, of little interest
to the casual visitor, but often of value to the serious student, is segregated into well organized study or reserve collections, which may be examined on request.
The modern museum no longer restricts its activities to inter esting the casual visitor who comes to its doors but organizes a Additions, as they become possible, are made with little disturb ance of the original building. Wings or other prolongations provide additional exhibition space and make possible an increase in the number of activities. These principles may be applied as readily to the very small museum as to the institution starting with a sub stantial building fund In the case of a small museum a single façade may be completed, including the main entrance and making available one or two exhibition halls, moderate office space and service facilities. All furniture and cases are movable and parti tions are of temporary nature wherever possible, so that adjust rnents to changing conditions can be made easily.
Although excellent results are obtained with artificial lighting, museums are usually planned to utilize all daylight available. Careful experiments have shown that certain types of side and top lighting or combinations of the two meet practically every requirement. However, artificial lighting of the indirect variety makes it possible for a museum to be open in the evenings.
extensive series of publications, for which printing plants are in stalled. Photographic record work requires special equipment and many museums are prepared to sell at small cost a photograph of any object in their collections. Large museums find it economical to build their own exhibition cases and furniture and install wood working shops for the purpose. Art museums have facilities for restoring paintings, casting and cleaning sculpture and renovating other objects. Science museums require taxidermists' shops and model making plants.