MURAL PAINTING

france more than any other country has maintained a continuous and vigorous tradition of mural decoration in recent years, and this despite economic difficulties and the vagaries of modern art. the annual salons furnish an index to mural work though the final fruit docs not necessarily appear in them. french examples.—nearly every year murals have been among the most admired works of the salons. in r910 at the spring salon it was the “ luncheon ” by aman-jean, a large panel for a room in the museum of decorative art which attracted all visitors. the autumn salon of the same year was particularly rich in mural paintings. m. denis, who had already won with his decorations of the chapel of vesinet, the position of france’s leading decorator, left vacant by the death of puvis, exhibited a series called “ florentine evening,” in which he combined with the chaste dignity of puvis a florentine sensitiveness suggestive of fra angelico and botticelli. alongside these decorations hung four ingenious pancls by p. bonnard, with dancing figures in fanciful fountained courts and gardens and with fantastic irregular borders ornamented with sil- munsey—mural painting houetted monkeys and birds. at the spring salon of 1911 aman- jean’s exhibit of two more figured panels for the same museum: room was overshadowed by a great section of ceiling decoration for the theatre-frangais in which a. besnard gave a monu- mental presentation of the garden of eden with various sub- sidiary figures, genii and writers. even more admired, because of their simple subjects, lucid composition and idyllic charm, were three decorative paintings by denis: “‘ sunny sands,” ‘‘ sep- tember evening,’ and “ first steps.”? the following autumn salon contained two outstanding murals by j. flandrin, ‘‘ sum- mer ’ and ‘f fountain,” both calm and spacious, and modern in matter as well as manner. the spring salon of 1912 brought new jaurels to denis and aman-jean. the jatter eclipsed his previous works with a decoration for an amphitheatre of the new sorbonne, ‘‘ the elements,” elaborate in symbolism, clear in pictorial conception and accomplished in execution. denis filled his five staircase panels, ‘‘ the golden age,” with bathers, lovers, dancers, vintagers and the like in a vague enchanting paradise. in these panels he gave pictorial expression to what he has expressed in words: l’art est la sanctification de la nature. he revealed here his spiritual kinship to st. francis of assisi, whose fioretti he has feclingly illustrated. in the spring salons of 1913 and r9t4 aseries of decorations called ‘6 garden games ” drew attention to another able mural painter, j. p. laurens. in 1913 the theitre des champs-elysees opencd. of its extensive wall paintings the most important are by denis, though e. a. bourdelle, fe. vuillard, k. x. roussel, h. lebasque, and jacqueline marval also contributed. denis painted the frieze around the dome, consisting of four panels and four medallions. two of the panels, ‘‘ dance” and ‘* musical drama,” are each more than 50 ft. long, and the other two, “symphony ” and “ opera”? more than forty. while these four panels illustrate both the principal forms of music and the successive stages of its history its technical means are shown by four intervening medallions, ‘ orchestra,” ‘* choir,” ‘‘ organ,” and ‘ sonata.” of their relation to the large pancls it has aptly been said: ce sont comme des reflexions intimes entrecoupant les grandes affirmations publiques. the crowning panel directly above the stage, “‘ dance,” distinctly recalls ingres. after the interruption of mural painting by the war, the french began again with remarkable precision exactly where they had left off. if any effect of the war on mural painting, other than im- poverishment, was observable in the salons of 1919 and succeeding years, it was a greater emphasis on subject and a greater demand for religious paintings. as before denis was prominent. in the spring salon of 1919 he exhibited a glorious ‘‘ annunciation,” and in the autumn salon of that year a “‘ jesus at the house of mary and martha.’”’ another religious mural prominent in the autumn salon was the “ ex-voto to ste. genevieve "’ by g. desvallieres. the fol- lowing spring salon contained l. simon’s diptych for the church of notre-dame-du-travail in paris, conspicuous because it is one of the few successful decorations inspired by the war. the energetic ascent to calvary and the touching mass of the dead soldier are modern, but reflect the grand style of religious painting of the 17th century; this adherence to the traditions of religious painting ac- counts for the compact composition, which makes the diptych seem crowded to eyes accustomed to the usual loose composition of modern murals. the post-war spring salons were enriched by the decorations for the conseil d’etat at the palais royal by ii. martin. the paris exposition of modern decorative art of 1925 occasioned much mural painting, which was, however, not representative of all phases of contemporary work. p. bau- doiiin’s corporation de la fresque did many frescoes directly on the wall (instead of paintings on canvas attached to the wall, the now all but universal practice), among which ‘‘ the poct”’ by j. adler and “ music ” by l. toublanc on the cour bouchard were outstanding. h. marret was also represented by two frescoes on the exterior of the pavillon ruhlmann, though he commonly works on canvas; his principal contributions among many were four large paintings on the cour des meticrs (“ traffic,” “sports,” ‘street? and “architecture ”) and an “annunciation” in the village church, to the decoration of which desvallieres con- tributed a retable and denis a great calvary, which served to reaffirm his supremacy. deserving of mention also were the murals of g. l. jaulmes and j. dupas, who with his followers decorated the pavillon du collectioneur. mural painting courtesy of the new york cotton exchange view of the port of alexandria, egypt photographed in colour from the painting by ezra winter murkland—muscle shoals work in other countries.—compared with the french, the murals by artists of other european countries represented in the paris exposition were of minor importance; this corresponds to the minor importance of mural painting in those countrics. the fervent nationalism throughout eastern europe has given rise to ambitious patriotic decorations, such as those of a. mucha for prague, but not to mural painters of the first rank. east of france the most important figure of recent years was f. hodler (d. 1918), a swiss active also in germany. among his later works was the dignified “‘ unanimity ” for the rathaus at hanover, exhibited at the autumn salon of 19713. thus, while hodler may be considered an offshoot of the figure tradition of france, walser seems to be inspired by the luscious sign paintings of the tyrol. another interesting eddy somewhat like that of pre-raphaelitism, is occupied by b. goldschmitt, who completed in torr a droll cycle of frescoes representing the tyrolese legend of king laurin’s rose garden for the hotel king laurin at bolzano. the vigour of modern spanish painting is attested by its power to propagate itself across the atlantic whither two of its most representative mural series have migrated; the decorations by d. rivera for the ministry of education in mexico city and the 14 paintings of the provinces of spain by j. sorolla y bastida for the hispanic socicty in new york. an anglo-american tradition.—britain and america have co- operated to such an extent in mural painting that one may speak of an anglo-american tradition based partly on pre- raphaelitism, and point to the american, j. s. sargent (¢.v.), and the englishman, f. brangwyn (q.v.), asits exemplars. this anglo- american mural painting is the closest rival to that of the french school. it makes jess use of landscape and poetry than the french and greater use of man and his material achieve- ments. it is local and realistic where the french is idyllic. its abstract figures are usually allegorical rather than mythological. the last murals by sargent were those of the stairway and rotunda of the museum of fine arts, boston. the decoration of the missouri state capitol is the largest current effort in mural painting in america. the following list of painters besides brangwyn represented there is an indication of the size of the undertaking and of the number of mural painters in america: r. e. ball, t. p. barnett, o. e. berninghaus, a. blondheim, f. g. carpen- ter, c. hofbauer, r. kissack, r. e. miller, f. nuderscher, r. ott, h. reuterdahl, e. wuerpel and n. c. wyeth. the paintings of the wisconsin state capitol were undertaken about a decade earlier and represent the work of another group of artists mainly older: the sensitive and distinguished stylist, j. w. alexander, who died in 1915, h. ballin, e. h. blashfield, who has been the most prolific of american mural painters, kenyon cox (d. 1919), i. ik. garnsey, and f. d. millet. quaintly illustrative and very personal are the murals by violet oakley in the pennsylvania state capitol. (see also painting.) (] 45%) murkland, william urwick (1842-99), american divine, was born nov. 17 1842 in demerara, british guiana. when a child he moved with his parents to petersburg, va., and later to richmond. in 1857 he entered hampden-sidney col- lege, but on the outbreak of the civil war enlisted in the con- federate army. he was captured at laurel hill but was paroled, and returned to hampden-sidney college, where he graduated with first honours in 1862. having meanwhile been exchanged, he again entered the confederate army. after the close of the war he entered the union theological seminary of virginia. after his ordination as a presbyterian minister in 1869, he was pastor of centre church, cumberland co., va. in jan. 1870, he was called as assistant to the franklin street church, balti- more, md., and the following june was chosen pastor, which position he held until his death, may 13 1899. in 1890 he was a delegate to the world’s peace congress in london. dr. murk- land was one of the prominent figures in the presbyterian church in the united states. murmansk, russia, the russian port on the kola penin- sula, has been connected with leningrad (st. petersburg) by rail since 1917. the line runs across the base of the kola pen- insula and along the coast of the white sea, joining the lenin- grad-vologda line about 75 m. east of leningrad. owing to swampy ground, the line is almost unworkable in some parts 997 of the summer months. a british flotilla was stationed at mur- mansk in 1917, and after the russian collapse, in order to main- tain a hold on the coast, two cruisers and a battleship and 5,000 troops were sent in 1918. in that year n. tschaikowsky overthrew the rule of the soviets, and set up a provisional government with the help of the british forces; but after their evacuation in 1919 murmansk came again into bolshevik hands. murphy, john francis (1853-1921), american land- scape painter (see 19.38), died at new york city jan. 30 1921. murray, george gilbert aime (1866- +), british classical scholar, was born at sydney, n.s.w., jan. 2 1866, but left australia at the age of eleven. educated at merchant taylors’ school, london, and st. john’s college, oxford, he at once established his reputation as the most brilliant classical scholar of his day, winning the hertford and ireland scholar- ships (1885), the craven scholarship (1886), the prize for latin verse (1886) and the gaisford prizes for greek verse and prose (1886-7). he was elected to a fellowship at new college, oxford, in 1888, and next year to the professorship of greek at glasgow university, a position he held till 1899. in 1908 he was appointed regius professor of greek at oxford. in 1889 he had married lady mary howard, daughter of the oth earl of carlisle. professor murray’s sympathies were always strongly shown on the advanced radical side in politics. he was parlia- mentary candidate for oxford university at the general election of 1918 and at a by-election in 1919, but was unsuccessful. during the world war he prominently espoused the cause of conscientious objectors, and later identified himself with efforts to ameliorate economic conditions in the enemy countries. in 1923 he was elected president of the league of nations union. he published a history of ancient greek literature in 1897, but is more widely celebrated for his incomparable renderings of the plays of euripides into english verse. several of his versions were acted in england and america. he also published the rise of the greek epic (1907; 2nd ed., 1911, 3rd ed., 1924) and four stages of greek religion (1913). amongst his works on other subjects are the foreign policy of sir edward grey (1915); faith, war and policy (1918); religiogrammiatict (1918); and proe- lem of foreign policy (1921). see greek literature: ancient. murray, sir james augustus henry (1837-1015), british philologist (see 19.40), died at oxford july 26 1915, when the new english dictionary had reached its roth volume. murray, sir john (1841-1914), british geographer and oceanographer (see 19.42), was accidentally killed near kirklis- ton, scotland, march 16 1914. in conjunction with dr. johan hijort he published in 1912 the depths of the ocean. muscle shoals.—the section of the tennessee river, u.s.a., known as muscle shoals, extends from the head of brown’s island, a short distance below decatur to florence, ala., a dis- tance of 37 m., in the course of which the river falls 134 feet. scale of miles. go (2 3 4 § & the map shows the twenty-five mile stretch of the tennessce river immediately above florence, ala., embracing the shallower section of muscle shoals. (1) the small dam affording a navigation approach to the wilson dam. (2) the wilson dam, the largest masonry dam ever built. (3) the contemplated third dam, which, when built, will render navigation for commercial purposes feasible at all times. the depth of the channel varies considerably, but in places the minimum depth at low water is less than two feet, and com- mercial navigation at such jevels has never been practicable. as early as 1827 preliminary surveys were made by the u.s. govt. with a view to improvement, but nothing of permanent value was accomplished in the roth century. war development.—various proposals were made for power development between 1903 and 1912, but nothing definite was 998 attempted till the outbreak of the world war, when the urgent need for nitric acid for use in explosives induced the u.s. govt. to construct two large nitrate plants at sheffield near the lower end of the shoals, to be operated by hydroelectric power. plans were accordingly prepared in 1916 for a joint navigation-power scheme, involving the construction of three dams on the tennes- see river, and work was commenced early in 1918 on the major feature of the project, viz.: dam no. 2, officially known as the wilson dam. the work of construction was started immediately and the dam was completed in 1926. details of the dam.—lit is located a short distance above florence and is a monolithic concrete structure, 4,500 ft. in length, 95 {t. high from the river bed to the crest, 140 ft. high from foundation to the level of the operating bridge and 105 ft. thick at the base. the structure contains about 1,353,000 cu. yd. of masonry, making it the largest masonry dam in the world—the aswan dam on the nile, its nearest competitor, having 1,179,000 cu. yards. it is equipped on the north side with two navigation locks, each having a lift of 46 {t. 6 in. at mean stage, and on the south side is the power-house, forming an integral part and continuation of the dam itself. the latter contains a spillway section 2,660 ft. long in the shape of an overfall dam with a heavy concrete apron and 58 stcel floodgates to discharge excess water. each floodgate is 18 ft. high and weighs about 33 tons. these gates are capable of passing a flood of 900,000 cu. ft. per second. on the top of the structure is a concrete arch bridge, supporting the floodgates and carrying a highway and a standard gauge railway track. power installation.—the power-house is 1,250 ft. long, 160 ft. wide, and 134 ft. high, built of concrete with a steel trussed roof and designed for an ultimate installation of 18 hydroelectric units pro- viding 612,000 h.p., the installation in 1926 consisting of cight hydraulic turbines generating 260,000 horse-power. four units of this latter installation were placed in operation on oct. 1 1925, the resultant power being ieased to the alabama power co. under a temporary contract, terminable on four weeks’ notice. the water- power, when the full machinery has been installed and is utilising the natural flow of the river, will produce on an average 700,000,000 kw. hours of primary power per annum, 7.¢., power which is available every hour of the year, and 1,490,000,000 kw. hours of secondary power per annum, 7.¢., power that is available a portion of the year only. the total cost of the dam as it stands, including the present turbines, amounted to approximately $51,000,000, and at the peak of construction, 4,500 men were employed on the work. navigation problems.—dam no. 1, a small work also constructed by the federal govt., is situated three miles below the wilson dam. it is 300 ft. long, having a lock with a lift of 173 feet. its only purpose is to provide a navigation approach to the lower lock of the wilson dam. these two units of the combined navigation power scheme do not in themselves solve the navigation problem, inasmuch as the wilson dam only overcomes 96 ft. of the fall of the river at the shoals, and the navigation pool provided by it only extends about 15 m. up- stream. consequently it docs not eliminate the upper stretch of shoal water. to effect this object dam no. 3 was designed, located 14m. above the wilson dam. when constructed it will overcome about 40 ft. of the fall of the tennessee, provide above it a navigation pool some 84 m. in length and, combined with the wilson dam, will eliminate the muscle shoals as an obstacle to transportation. in march 1926 nothing had been done in regard to this dam beyond some preliminary surveys and borings, in nov. 1918, when the armistice was signed, the nitrate plants had not been completed. units, however, were realy to start operations in oct. 1918, temporary power being supplied by the alabama power co. from its plant on the warrior river, go m. south of muscle shoals, and the first ammonium nitrate was produced a fortnight after the armistice. by this time the emergency had passed and the final work was not done till the summer of 1919. they have not been operated since. their total construction cost amounted to $83,500,000. the future of the whole project was the subject of much discussion in con- gress. finally bids were asked for by the government. on july 8 1921 henry ford made an offer but no action was taken in regard to it and mr. ford subsequently withdrew his offer. no action had been taken by march 1926. museums (sce 19.60b).—the normal progress and develop- ment of museums in europe since 1910 was rudely interrupted and gravely affected by the war. from 1914 to 1918 no govern- ment was in a position to spend much money on acquisitions, and many of the usual channels of supply were cut off. staffs were depleted by the claims of war service; and although muscums continued to play a not unimportant part as an element of re- museums freshment in the strain of war, public interest was inevitably diverted from them. in addition, in certain cases, and notably in respect of the great museums and galleries of londor. and paris, special measures of precaution had to be taken, which con- stitute a remarkable chapter in their history. war precautions.—the record of these precautions would need an article by itself. it would relate the hurried removal from paris of a portion of the collections of the louvre and other museums (principally pictures, but including the venus of milo) at the critical time when a german occupation of paris seemed far from improbable; the measures taken to protect those which remained from the risks of bombardment; the further removals at the time of the german advance in the spring of 1918. in london it would have to record the protection by sandbags and by removal to basements of the chief treasures of the british nfuseum, the national gallery, the victoria and albert museum, the wallace collection and other galleries during the early months of the war; the closing of certain galleries in 1916 by the govt. on grounds of economy; and particularly the great re- movals at the beginning of 1918, when the principal contents of all the great london collections found refuge in an underground tube railway, in the national library of wales at aberystwyth and elsewhere. in italy it would have to tell of extensive re- movals and protections at venice and other northern towns. the experiences of belgium and of the towns of northeastern france would also have to be recorded. materials exist for such a record, and it is an episode in museum history of no little interest, one remarkable feature of which is the extremely slight injury caused by the hurried process of dismantling invaluable collections of most fragile objects. | tne functions of museums leaving aside, then, the special subject of museums in war time, the purpose of this article is to trace the principal features of the development of the museum service and especially to indicate the progress that has been made in making the museums perform more efficiently the services which they are intended to render to the public. ‘the main objects of museums are three- fold: (1) to preserve the historical and artistic relics of past ages —the acquisition of objects; (2) to render them readily accessible to scholars—adequate housing and the publication of catalogues and reproductions; (3) to educate the general public—arrange- ment, display, labelling, guide-books, cheap reproductions, lan- tern slides, lectures. museum extensions.—with regard to the first two of these heads there is not much to say. in spite of the grave financial difficulties in post-war europe, new museums have continued to be built, and old museums have been enlarged. among the more important may be mentioned the london museum, opened at kensington palace in 1912, and transferred to lancaster house in 1913; the museum of eastern art at cologne (1914); the well- come historical medical museum in london (1913); the new wing of the british museum (1914); the national museum of wales, founded at cardiff in 1912, of which a part has been opened; a new wing of the fitzwilliam museum, cambridge (1921); the museo petriano at the vatican and the museo nuovo on the capitol in rome (1925). a new science museum was in 1926 in process of erection at south kensington, and in the gal- leries vacated by it the war museum was temporarily and inadequately housed. paris has a bibliotheque et musee de la guerre, besides a special muscum at the invalides; in other countries more attention appears to have been paid to war libraries than to war museums. in russta several museums and institutions, principally of science but also of ethnology and russian mediaeval art, have been founded or extended since the revolution. in america, unhampered by war expenditure and enriched by the munificence of many private benefactors, new galleries have sprung up like mushrooms; and endowments on a large scale have been lavished, of which the most magnificent was the bequest of some {9,000,000 by mr. munsey to the metropolitan museum of new york. museums organisation of expeditions meanwhile, whether in new buildings or in old, the acquisition of fresh objects has gone on continuously. it is quite impossible to give particulars of even the most important; but mention should be made of one branch of collecting activity, namely, the organisation of expeditions by the greater museums for excavation and for natural history research. in this branch of museum work america, with its great pecuniary resources, has led the way. the american museum of natural history has continued to despatch expeditions to various parts of the world, the most notable being that to siberia, which made remarkable discoveries of the eggs of dinosaurs. the metropolitan museum of new york has continued its very thorough and elaborate work in egypt; the museum of the uni- versity of pennsylvania has had expeditions in egypt, palestine and mesopotamia; the field museum of natural history at chicago has made large collections of natural history and ethnography; the heye museum of the american indian inves- tigated sites in new mexico and elsewhere. these are but examples of the fruitful activity of american museums in this direction. european museums have not been in a position to do so much, nor has the direct conduct of excavations been a common form of activity on the part of continental museums, though, in ac- cordance with the national laws of antiquities, the museums of italy, greece and egypt have profited largely from the re- searches undertaken, whether by their own countrymen or others, in the soil of these countries. in england the british museum has undertaken archaeological excavations at carchem- ish in asia minor and in mesopotamia; and the natural history museum has taken part, in greater or less measure, in expeditions in australia, east africa and elsewhere. this is a form of activity which seems likely to increase, owing to the fact that several areas of great importance, especially for archaeology, have been made more accessible in consequence of the war. it has, moreover, stimulated public interest in such research, and may be reckoned as a contributing cause towards the development of public interest in museums generally, which is one of the notable characteristics of the period under review. it is, in fact, in the relation between the museum and the gen- eral public, and in the development of the museum as an instru- ment in the general education of the nation, that progress has been most marked; and in any consideration of the future of museums this is a point of prime importance. educational uses.—the earlier conception of a museum re- garded it asin the first place a storehouse of objects of antiquity for the benefit of the student, and in the second as an old curiosity shop for the amusement and edification of the intelligent visitor. its value as a means of education for the general public was not realised until late in the roth century. in great britain the recognition of this function at first took the form of a great improvement in the labelling of the collections and the provision of illustrated guide-books suitable for the intelligent reader who was not a specialist, and serviceable even outside the museum as handbooks to the subject with which they dealt. at the british museum this reform was mainly connected with the names of sir edward bond and sir edward maunde thompson; and sir william flower at the natural history museum was a strenuous advocate and exponent of the popularisation of museums. afuseum lectures —in america a new departure was made in the provision of oral instruction in the galleries by official guide- lecturers or docents, the example being set by boston in 1907. it was taken up in england in ro11, when the first official guide- lecturer was appointed at the british museum; it quickly took root there {and at the natural history museum, which is gov- erned by the same trustees); and thence, largely owing to the strenuous and persistent advocacy of lord sudeley, it spread to the other national museums and galleries, until now it can be said that the practice of itinerant lectures in the exhibition gal- leries by highly educated men and women, to chance audiences who assemble to hear them, is thoroughly established as a recognised branch of museum service. in smaller museums, 999 where the attendance is not sufficient to provide daily audiences for a lecturer, similar work is nevertheless frequently under- taken in the form of advertised courses of lectures. improved guide-books and reproductions —the educational value of museums has also been greatly increased by the develop- ment of methods of photographic reproduction. guide-books can be made more attractive by plentiful illustration; and photo- graphs, especially in the popular picture-postcard form, can be obtained very cheaply. these can be rendered far more useful for educational purposes if issued, as at the british museum since 1914, and subsequently elsewhere, in sets dealing with special subjects. fifteen postcards in monochrome, or six in colours, with a leaflet of information, can be sold profitably for a shilling, and furnish an interesting and attractive introduction to a sub- ject. the danger is lest the productivity of a museum should be diverted overmuch into these popular and profitable produc- tions, at the expense of those contributions to learning which every great museum is rightly expected to make. this development of the educational and popular sides of museum work is not by any means confinetl to the great metro- politan collections. it is characteristic of museum work as a whole throughout england and america. every active-minded curator is anxious to make his museum a living centre of intel- lectual interest; and the future of m seum development depends mainly on the answers to be give to the question, how can museums be made more serviceable to the nation? research and scholarship—a distinction must be drawn be- tween the great museums of the largest towns and the most important universities and the municipal museums of provincial towns in general. the former, while never forgetting the service which they owe to the general public, must not sacrifice to it their duty to scholars and researchers. for these, quantity is often as essential as quality. it is sometimes supposed that the great museums contain masses of objects with which they could well dispense, and which could more profitably be distributed among, or at least lent to, the smaller museums. it is, in fact, seldom and to a very small extent that this is true. the scholar who is investigating a particular subject needs to have under his eye, for examination and comparison, a great mass of material. he needs many editions of an author, many examples of the work of an artist, many specimens of greek vases or chinese porcelain, of birds, beasts, fishes, insects, fossils, minerals or flowers. his work would be ruined if he had to search for these in many different collections; and it would be exasperating to find that the objects which he had the right to expect to find in a particular museum had been scattered on loan among a score of provincial collections. what the curator of such a museum has to consider is, not whether he has in his collections a finer example of a certain: class, but whether a particular object is needed for the scientific study of the class to which it belongs. at times, no doubt, a specimen once useful may have lost its value and can be dis- pensed with, but this happens comparatively rarely. nor is there much danger lest the museum curator should be led away by the lust of acquisition. purchase grants are not so lavish that he can afford to buy anything that he does not really want; and in most great collections the demands for accommodation are so pressing that he will gladly dispense with anything that is really superfluous. tue ipeal musrums the need of great museums, then, is proper provision for (a) the student, (0) the general public. the difficulty here is mainly structural. there was a time—a time when most of the museums in europe were built-—-when there was no great difficulty in putting all the collections of antiquities on ex- hibition without overcrowding. that time is long past, and what is needed now is to apply to antiquities the method which has always been applied to books and prints and often to natural history specimens, namely, to exhibit only a small selection to the public, while providing facilities for students to examine the mass of the collections in convenient circumstances. i000 the ideal museum—an ideal realised in some of the latest— is a succession of public exhibition rooms in which a small num- ber of the best specimens are well spaced out and adequately labelled, and another series of rooms in which students can sit down to the examination of a large number of specimens, or the intensive study of a few, according to the need of their study. the general public will have a better chance of appreciating without fatigue the charms of greek vases or mediaeval enamels from 50 good specimens well displayed than from 1,000 ranged in serried rows of shelves. what most of the older museums need, and what architects have seldom been asked to provide, is ample storage accommodation. they would then be able to discharge the double duty—each so important—which rests upon them. provincial museums.—for the provincial museums the balance of responsibilities is different. although they can often give im- portant aid to research, their first duty is usually to the general public. here the educational function is paramount. few gen- eral laws can be laid down, because museums differ so greatly in their possessions and their opportunities. a provincial museum can seldom aim at universality, but it can do much by a wise cultivation of its own particular garden. one duty is incumbent on all, to create interest in, and to diffuse knowledge of, the localities in which they are situated. the history of the town, the records of its buildings and its eminent citizens, the geology, fauna and flora of the surrounding country, the principal arts and industries of the neighbourhood—these are subjects which all active museums now regard as their proper sphere, and which they strive to illustrate with all the materials that they can acquire. on these subjects they are entitled to aim at being ex- haustive. on more general subjects they can only hope to be able to give partial representations, and each must cut its coat according to its cloth. one general counsel can be given—to vary the exhibitions as much as possible, to seize opportunities of giving them topical interest, to add to their educational value by lectures, leaflets and photographs, and generally to cultivate an air of alertness and change rather than sameness and monotony. loan collections.—in this connection the question of loans is of importance. it is clear that provincial museums would be much assisted in provoking interest and in spreading education if their permanent resources were reinforced by temporary exhibitions of loan collections. it is here that a gap exists in the museum system which could be filled with great profit. it has already been indicated that not much help in this direction ts to be expected from the great national collections. local museums might help one another, to some extent, by temporary exchanges of exhibitions on subjects in which each happened to be strong. in some cases also permanent exchanges might be arranged. central depository.—but a very real service to the education of any country would be rendered by the creation of a strong central depository of loan collections. in england a service of this kind, designed in the interests of craftsmanship, was a prominent fea- ture of the original plan of the south kensington museum. in the department of classical archaeology, experiments in this direction have been made in england, ireland and america (see h. browne, our renaissance, 1917, pp. 184-281). but a stronger, better supplied, state-supported central organisation is required, which need not be costly, since it would receive sub- scriptions from the local institutions which had recourse to it. taking the country as a whole, there will be a great economy in a central circulating collection as compared with a large number of local museums, each trying to add to its permanent collections of non-local objects. the central collection would not need to indulge in expensive purchases, since it would not aim at acquir- ing objecis of the first rank; and it would receive such objects as the national museums were able legitimately to spare. the main needs of the museum service, then, certainly in england and in varying degrees also elsewhere, are: for the greater museums, restricted exhibition to the public and fuller accommodation for the student and for storage; for local muse- ums, centralisation, co-operation and devotion to the education (in the broadest sense) of the local public. music bibliography.—e.. pottier, le museedu louvre pendant la guerre 1914-8, printed by the societe des amis du louvre: maccoll, the wallace collection in war time (1920); ms. record at the british muscum; de filippi, italy's protection of art treasures and monu- menis during the war (1917); kerwyn de lettenhove, la guerre et les oeuvres d'art en belgique (1917). (f. g. ke.)