MUSEUMS are institutions for the preser vation, study and display of natural objects, or of those made by man, while as a sequence of study comes the publication of information thus derived. The word museum originally signified merely a grove or other locality sacred to the Muses, but with the development of the museum the word has undergone a parallel course of evolution until it has come to have its present meaning. The next use of the term was for an institution devoted to the study of philosophy, literature and art, but not including the preser vation and display of objects; in this sense it was applied to the famous Museum of Ptolemy Soter at Alexandria. • While this was in the nature of a university, there is some reason to believe that collections of plants and animals were attached to the institution so that it may be regarded as the prototype of the more modern botanical and zoological garden. In modern sense public museums are of compara tively recent establishment, and as educational factors, of later date than art galleries and libraries, although like these having their be ginnings in the gratification of the desires of private individuals. The origin of the art museum is to be found in the collections of statuary, paintings and other works of art, made by kings, nobles and men of wealth; the germs of the modern museum of natural his tory were the cabinets of miscellaneous curi osities brought together by students, merchants, or men of leisure. Many of these collections subsequently developed into important public museums, the most striking example, and the one most frequently cited, being the British Museum (q.v.), which was the final outgrowth of the cabinet and library of Sir Hans Sloane. In the United States the Museum of Compara tive Zoology, at Cambridge, Mass., has grown from the collection made by Louis Agassiz (q.v.) for his own use, until it has become one of the most important museums in this country. Even the United States National Museum, if not the direct outgrowth of a private collection, was indirectly due to the labors of individuals, for its nucleus is to be found in the specimens gathered by the National Institution (later the National Institute), a body organized with the avowed purpose of directing the bequest of James Smithson (q.v.) and engaging in pur suits in accordance with its terms.
The lineal successors of the cabinets of pri vate collectors were the museums of scientific societies where specimens were gathered for purposes of study and display, and while these still exist they have largely given place to mu seums supported by the State or municipality. Private collections are more numerous than ever, but these are rarely formed with any in tention of displaying their contents to the public, although there are some notable excep tions, as in the museum of the Hon. Walter Rothschild at Tring. Ultimately, however, a large proportion of these private collections find their way to public museums through the liberality of their owners, or by bequest.
Another step toward the establishment of public museums was the formation of collec tions of objects of more or less popular inter est and their exhibition to the public on the payment of a fee. Notable examples of these abroad were those of Sir Ashton Lever and Charles Bullock, which flourished in London during the latter portion of the 18th century and first part of the 19th. It is interesting to note that one of the earliest cabinets formed in the United States, that of- Mr. Arnold, of Norwalk, Conn., was sold to Sir Ashton Lever, while later on the "Leverian Museum') was sold and its specimens scattered among the great museums of Europe.
Early American Museums.—In this country the principal recent museums of this character were the Boston Museum and Barnum's Mu seum in New York, in both of which the idea of amusement predominated, the first named being a rather incongruous introduction to a theatre. Both, however, contained some really valuable specimens of natural history and Bar num was among the first to exhibit living fishes. Of a very much earlier date and more scien tific in their aims were the museums conducted by Charles Willson Peale and his son, Rem brandt Peale, in Philadelphia, established in 1785 as the Philadelphia Museum, and from 1822 to 1828 installed in Independence Halt. This museum is of particular interest from the fact that many of Peale's ideas as to the ar rangement and educational value of museum collections were in advance of his time. In his use of painted backgrounds and the addition of nests and eggs to the exhibits of mounted birds we have the germ of the elaborate habitat groups shown in modern museums.