MUSEUM ARCHITECTURE. Both art and scientific museums have the primary purpose of displaying collections of objects; consequently, certain features of architectural planning are common to both. Essentially, the plan of each must provide for the free and comfortable circulation of the public, an easy access to the various sections of the building and a coherent ar rangement of rooms and galleries. An adequate lighting system and an appropriate setting for the objects displayed must also be provided. It should be remembered that whereas in the plan of a museum of science the principal object is the logical sequence of exhibition groups, in a museum of art, the paintings and sculpture displayed require, in addition, a setting that will contribute to the awakening of a powerful and lasting impression in the spectator.
The art museum is the modern development of the private art collections of older times. When, in due course, the State became the owner of s u c h collections—by request, purchase or the fortunes of polit ical upheavals—and when the democratic spirit of the i9th cen tury impelled the owners of pri vate collections to offer their treasures to public view, the orig inal housing of these works of art was soon found to be inadequate, both for the increasing size of the collections and for their suit able display. The problem then confronting the architect was how to design buildings in which art collections could be enjoyed by the public, without making too great a demand on the exigencies of space. In many cases, existing buildings that no longer served their original purposes, were resorted to, the interiors being remodelled to meet the new requirements. Of this type are museums such as the Cluny, Carnavalet and Louvre in Paris, most of the Italian museums, the Belvedere in Vienna, and the museum of Nurem berg. Historical reconstitutions of interiors sometimes devel oped themselves, as though out of the abundance of arts and crafts materials such as were possessed by museums like the Cluny, in Paris, and the municipal museums in Florence, Venice, Belgium and Holland; sometimes they were designed intentionally, s in the museums of Munich, Darmstadt and Nuremberg; the Ryks museum, Amsterdam; Carnavalet, Paris; and the Markisches museum, Berlin. They were found not only to make a special appeal to the public, but also to add a new interest to the works exhibited.
The museum of the 19th century was usually two storeys high, with services in the basement, and with an entrance hall leading to a monumental stairway. On the entrance floor were the col lections of sculpture, though these were occasionally placed in a courtyard covered by a glass roof, and the collections of medals, furniture, pottery and textiles, all lighted by windows. The main floor was devoted to the picture galleries, uniformly lighted by skylights; the circulation flowed, usually, from room to room. The general architecture of the building was often in the Greek tradition, in homage to the century of Phidias. Representative museums of this type are : the old museum of Berlin, by Schenkel (1824), the Glyptothek at Munich, by Von Klenze (183o), the British museum, by Sir Charles Barry (1825-27), the National Gallery in London (1838), Dresden museum (185o), and the group of art and scientific museums at Vienna and Marseilles, France. This type is also the basis, in the United States, for such museums as the original unit of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, by Hunt, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, by McKim, Meade and White, the Museum of Toledo, and the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.
One of the principal innovations of late years in museum planning is the provision of smaller rooms, suitable to the display of various works of art, classified according to the periods of their production. This feature is exemplified in the museums of Munich and Darmstadt (Alfred Messel, archi tect), and, in the United States, by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Paul Cret and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary, architects). In these museums, the formality of composition desirable for a pub lic building is combined with some informality in the treatment of certain portions, thus allowing for the varied fenestrations belong ing to the period rooms, and for picturesque courtyards for out door displays. Some recent museums provide also a covered court yard, treated as an indoor garden, where visitors can find relaxa tion after their tour of the exhibition rooms, as in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Freer Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., by Charles Platt. Other features which have developed in the best museum arrangements are : the displaying of selected exhibits in the main galleries and the relega tion of exhibits of a merely historical or technical interest for students to special study-rooms; the equipment of services for storage; and the accommodations for educational work in lecture rooms, libraries, etc. These principles of museum planning are applicable to small town museums and private galleries, as well as to large State institutions. The various methods of lighting art galleries have excited wide controversy. Bad lighting may distort the room or make it necessary for the visitor, in order to avoid a glare, to remain at a fixed distance from a picture.
Architecturally, the scientific museum makes much simpler demands than the art museum, the essentials of its plan being provisions for easy circulation, convenient and logical grouping of sections and good lighting. The problem of lighting is the most difficult to solve, owing to the prevalence of glass specimen cases, which, if the proper lighting is not effected, cause a glare that prevents a view of the contents. An interesting arrangement of zoological galleries has been made by Messel in the rear galleries of the Darmstadt museum. The National Museum (Hornblower and Marshall, architects) in Washington, D.C., also has a simple and effective plan; the entrance, in a rotunda, gives access to the three principal sections—biology, anthropology and geology—while minor galleries connect the branches of the "T." The Field Museum of Natural History, recently completed in Chicago (Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, architects, 1927), is one of the largest, occupying a rec tangle of about 35o by 700 feet. Its floor space has been utilized intensively, and in it every effort is being made to present the specimens realistically by means of habitat groups whose settings and arrangements are not only accurate but works of art. In Europe alone there are more than 2,000 scientific museums, few of which, however, rise to architectural distinction.