ADVANCE TO MUSEUMS

Evening Star, Issue 22463, 7 October 1936, Page 15

ADVANCE TO MUSEUMS

— STRONG MOVEMENTS OVERSEAS GOVERNMENTS GIVE FINANCIAL SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL CONNECTION DEVELOPED The great advances being made overseas in the museum movement, the development of galleries dealing with local history, and the expansion on the educational side to link up with the primary schools were interestingly commented on this morning by Mr H. D. Skinner, assistant curator of the Otago Museum, who returned yesterday from a 10-months’ tour of Great Britain and Northern Europe, under a travelling grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The Carnegie Corporation is now sponsoring the museum movement, not only in the United States, but in Great Britain and the Empire. This undertaking by the Corporation is only one indication of the general advance apparent in the whole museum movement. The great museums well known to everyone remain great, or have grown greater still. Such are the British Museum, the Natural History Section, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In addition to these general museums there has been a very great increase in the number of museums devoted to special subjects. Thus the Science Museum in South Kensington, which is, in essence, a technological museum dealing with machinery in all its aspects, is now becoming tne most popular of all the London museums, being visited by 1,500,000 last year. The attraction there has been the splendid scries of working models of all the most famous engines and machines in history. The youthful student of aeronautics can see models of Leonardo’s flying machines, and all of the great successes in that field. He can even see many of the great machines themselves. The same is true of all the other fields of mechanical engineering. The essential engine parts of the Turbinea, the first turbine steamer, and the most recent development in steam and Diesel propelling navigational machinery are also fully represented. Another museum thronged ■with visitors has been recently opened beside the Science Museum—the Museum of Practical Geology. The number of visitors is not available, but must approach that of the Science Museum. ( INDUSTRIAL DISPLAYS. Present-day industries are being more and more fully and attractively represented in public museums and galleries in Britain and on the Continent. At Edinburg the Scottish Industrial Exhibition was being held at the Royal Scottish Museum, and there was a most attractive display, particularly in the field of textiles. The newest Scottish manufactures were to be seen at their best, each exhibit being fully; labelled and with the name of the producing firm. Ceramics, hardware, woodware, and leather were also represented. At Gothenburg a most attractive museum in this field was visited, and acquaintance was made with the present-aay industries of Sweden. A splendid new gallery was in course of construction For the display of the industrial products of Gothenburg. The museum was crowded by the general public and by students of art and industrial design. Another very notable advance in the museum movement has been on the side of local museums. In these material of general interest only is rigidly excluded, and the history,_ geology, flora, and fauna of local districts are treated exclusively. In such museums which are springing up everywhere in England, local history usually receives fuller treatment than any other section. The commonest type of exhibit is a series of period rooms. At Hull, a street of 150 years ago has been reconstructed. It contains at present about 20 shop fronts, which were removed from some part of the city and concentrated in a new museum housed in a converted warehouse. Mr Sheppard, the curator of this and half a dozen other highly interesting museums_ in Hull, is now assembling the appropriate contents for each of these shops. TEACHING ORGANISATION. ' A very close connection is at present developing between tbe primary schools and the public museums, and this was one of the subjects to which Mr Skinner paid particular attention. An example of organisation existing on this side of museum work is supplied by the Public Museum at Manchester, on the staff of which are five teachers, whose salaries are paid by the local educational authority. In this way more than 90,000 children pass through the rooms and galleries of this museum every year. Finance for this great extension of museum activities is found _ almost everywhere through the contributions of local municipal bodies. Extensions of galleries or new buildings are often —perhaps usually—provided by private endowment or through collecting carried out by scientific or historical societies. But it is found everywhere that the large funds requisite for carrying on such institutions can come only from the central government or from municipal bodies. To win and assure such support the museums have first to provide educational exhibits of the most attractive kind. DISPLAYS OF MAORI MATERIAL. Mr Skinner was specially interested in New Zealand material of all kinds in tiieso overseas museums. Although there is a considerable amount, there is not enough to justify the broad scientific treatment of any New Zealand subject away from New Zealand itself. No one, for instance, would dream of writing on Maori art, Maori material, or any other aspect of Maori material culture without making the New Zealand museums the basis of his work. In Berlin was seen the finest collection of Maori wood carving on a large scale, exceeding that of any other museum outside New Zealand. However, it is not very well shown. The whole museum movement in Germany lias been greatly handicapped by the financial troubles of post-war times. In the suburb of Dablcni was seen the beginning of a great rebuilding scheme to which nothing had been done for more than a dozen years. The completed parts of a great group of projected buildings stood out in the middle ot ploughed fields, and there seemed to bo no prospect of their completion. There wore to be seen a number of treasures, including many fine Maori pieces for which there was no room -for display in the public galF-ics of the old museum in .Saarlander Strasse. _ This street was formerly known ns Kaiser Willie!in Strasse, but. as with many other .si reefs, the pro-Hitler nomenclature Inn! been changed. Tbe only side ol the museum which receives any Government support at present in Ger-

many is that which deals with the local German history. Of course, the British Museum collection of smaller Maori material, much of it very beautifully decorated, is lar finer than any to be seen elsewhere, ami in some respects excels the collections available in New Zealand.