Development of local museums [Dorset address]

Taken from Pitt-Rivers: 1884 Address delivered at the Opening of the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester January 7 1884. J Foster, Dorchester, UK

...

I cannot do better perhaps than state briefly the result of my own experience in Museum work. For more than thirty years a good deal of my time has been employed in getting together a Museum intended to illustrate the development of the arts of life. During this time I have had opportunities of conversing with scientific men and ascertaining their views on the subject of Museums, and of observing the effect of my own arrangement in rendering the objects of the Museum comprehensible to the public. The remarks which I have to make may be divided under two heads, embracing the two principal functions which a Local Museum may be expected to serve. Firstly, its utility in subordination to the interests of science in general as a means of aiding scientific men in their researches, and secondly, its utility as a means of instruction in the town or district in which it is established. All museum space is necessarily limited, and ... the attention of the curators will have to be drawn, not merely to the collection of useful specimens, but quite as much to the exclusion of objects which serve neither of the two purposes which I have named. ...

Speaking then, firstly, of the uses of a local museum in subordination to the interests of science, it is obvious that the collections should be confined to things which emanate from the particular district in which the museum is situated. It is the chief work of scientific men to trace out the varieties and distribution, either of species or breeds in natural history, or of phases in the primitive arts of human life, and for such a purpose a local museum should be such a one as they can come to with the certainty of finding the particular specimens for which the district is peculiar. The work of collecting materials for scientific generalisation is enormous, far beyond the possibilities of any single individual, and a local museum should therefore take a definite place in the division of labour which the necessity of science demands. ... But it is evident from the very nature of a local museum as thus arranged, that it cannot suffice for the purposes of general scientific education. Its collections, being partial and limited to one district, tell only a small part of the story of each race or species, and fail entirely to present to the student those lessons of evolution and continuous development which it is the chief object of scientific training to inculcate. I would suggest, therefore, that to remedy this defect and render the museum an effective instrument of education in its own district, the local collections should be supplemented by educational series, in which the development of each subject, be they one or many, should be traced up continuously from their commencement and include all the varieties that are to be found in different parts of the world ... In my museum at South Kensington, to which I have alluded, I have series showing the spread and gradual improvement of various kinds of savage and other weapons and their geographical distribution, others by which gradual changes in the forms of implements are traced from the Stone Age through the Bronze into the Iron Age. Another series includes a collection of weaving implements. In another the development of musical instruments is traced directly from the twang of the bow through various forms of stringed instruments until it terminates in our modern violin. In another series the art of ship-building is traced from the log float ... to the raft, and on to the dug out outrigger canoe into ships with planks or beams sewn together, where the Viking ship finds a definite place assigned to it in the continuity of the series, and so on to the most advanced forms of craft which navigate our seas as the present time. In another place emblems of religious worship are placed together by which are shown the extraordinary resemblance, if not identity, of systems which are not supposed to have much connection with each other. ... If it is objected that local museums cannot get together materials for so many subjects, I can only say that my museum was formed at a time when my means of collecting were very small, and that it never cost me more than £300 a year at most. What success has been attributed to it has arisen from the same object being kept constantly in view during many years, and from its having been always under the direction of one mind, which is preferable to having too many cooks in a matter of this kind. As to the results, I have never heard any dissent expressed from the general opinion of visitors that more is to be learnt of the history of the various arts represented in a few hours from a museum so arranged than it would be possible to obtain with much study from museums arranged on the ordinary plan.  ... an educational museum should consist of selected specimens put together to show the final result of these studies, and arranged in such order and with such careful ticketing that almost those who run may read. ... [Pitt-Rivers discusses the importance of 'eye-training' and the role museum displays could play in this training] I determined to try the experiment at my own country place of endeavouring to get together a little museum that would interest the people about. Rushmore, I am sorry to say, is in rather an out-of-the-way part of the country, being ten miles from any station or town. The villagers are few and far between, and the population scanty; many of them have never been out of their own district, and nearly all are engaged in agriculture. I accordingly withdrew from my museum in London everything which related to agriculture and peasant handicraft, agricultural implements of various kinds, models of ploughs and country carts of different nations, household utensils, country pottery, cottage furniture, peasant costume, jewellery, and so forth, and put them into three rooms of a house near Farnham, which had been originally built as a gipsy school, but long since disused for that purpose. I opened it to the public on Sunday afternoons, hardly expecting, however, that the villagers would take much interest in it. To my surprise the old soldier whom I placed in charge of the collection soon informed me that on Sunday afternoons as many as 100 people at a time sometimes came there from all parts of the neighbourhood, so much so that he had to regulate the circulation through the rooms to prevent crowding. I also went there myself and noticed that they took far more interest than is usually the case in towns, enquiring the use of the implements, or criticising the varieties, and, in some cases, themselves giving much valuable information which will be of benefit to the museum as it increases. I am convinced from this that if it is desired to interest the people of the district and cause them to understand the object for which the collections are made, the best way will be to select for the series the history of some trade or occupation that is established in the place, and which the majority of the inhabitants know something about. By this means, having acquired a thorough knowledge of the history of their own trade or occupation, they may be led on to make researchers into the history of other trades, customs, and institutions. I don't know how any one can doubt the importance of popularising scientific studies, and teaching the people in any way that they can be got at, especially at a time when the reins of power are being so rapidly placed in the hands of uneducated men. ... (The address was frequently and loudly applauded during its delivery)

[Transcribed by AP in June 2010 as part of the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project]