On the measures required for the efficient working of the India Museum and Library with suggestions for the foundation, in connection with them, of an Indian institute for enquiry, lecture, and teaching

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Contents

t> f;

Pace Part L— ORGANIZATION AND PROPOSED MEASURES.

Preldonabt Reicabks ..-.-••.•I

Part II. — Summary of the Work hitherto accomplished for the Promotion of Science, Art, and Literature

A. — Work carried out in India.

2. Museums, libraries, records, botanical gardens, and observatories - 26

3. Exhibitions - - - - - - 28

4. Schools of art, engineering colleges, &c. • - - - 28

5. Promotion of literature - - - - - 29 B. — Work referring to science, art, and literature at the India Office.

1. Department of the Reporter on the Products of India - - 29

2. The Library - - - - - - 30

3. The Geographical department - - - - - 30

4. Miscellaneous grants, &c. - - - - 30

Part III. — ^Description of the various Modes of utilizing the Museum and Library Collections

I. — ^Promotion of original investigation.

(a.) Proper exhibition of articles or specimens - - - 31

(ft.) Preservation of the articles - - - - 32

(c.) Accessibility and easy reference to each individual article - 32

(d,) Classification and preparation of systematic catalogues - - 32 (e,) Maintenance of ihe collections up to the level of existing

knowledge - - - - - 34

(/.) Opportunities for experimental investigation - - - 34 II. — ^Exposition of the results of scientific inquiry.

A. — ^The country and its resources.

1. The physical features of India - - - 36

2. The natural features and products of India - - - 38

3. Economic view of India - - - - 39 B. — ^The people of India and their moral and material condition - 41

4. Ethnological view - - - * - - - 42

5. Domestic and social economy - - - 43

6. Historical and administrative view - - - - 44 III. — ^Dissemination of information - - - - - - 45

Appendix A, — ^Extract from Part I. of Memoir on the Industrial Survey of India referring

to the establishment of Trade Museums - - - - - 47

Appendix B. — Sketch of a plan for an Oriental Museum proposed to be established at the India House, submitted to the Court of Directors of the East India Company by Sir Charles Wilkins in 1799 55

Appendix C. — ^Letters on the subject of International Exhibitions, reprinted from the ^' Times '* of 28th and dOth December 1872, and 9th June 1874 - - - - - 57

(9SS5f

Part I. ORGANIZATION AND PROPOSED MEAStlRES

Preliminary Remarks.

The promotion of the literature, arts, and sciences of India by England had its origin in the acquisition of the Province of Bengal. Policy required a knowledge of the laws and institutions of the country : its administration coidd not be conducted in an eflicient manner without geographical knowledge, nor its commerce promoted without a knowledge of its products and their uses. When, under Warren Hastings, the Gtovemment of the Company's territories assumed a more regular shape, it was foimd necessary to make use to a great extent of the agencies left by the previous Governments, and to assimilate, in some measure, the collection of revenue and the administration of justice to the use and wont of the country. This of necessity gave a powerftd impulse to the study of its literature, which contained the authoritative exposition of the native organization. The study of Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic thus assumed an urgent practical importance, and the first Indian statesmen were also the first Incfian linguists. Under their auspices the new studies grew rapidly. It suffices to mention the names of Sir William Jones and of Oolebrooke to (^ up the memory of the great achievements in Oriental research then accomplished, of the priceless literary treasures then for the first time disclosed to Europe, and of the surprising influence which all these new discoveries exercised on the stream of European thought. A new epoch in the study of history, archaeology, mythology, and of linguistic science began from that date, and since then the collection, investigation, and description of all Indian antiquities have gone on with unflagging zeal, whilst at the same time the exploration of the countiy in a geographical, scientific, and commercial sense has more than kept pace with the politi<^ establishment of England as the paramount power over the whole of the country.

The necessity for having some permanent repository in which the rapidly accumulating literary, artistic, commercial, and scientific collections could be preserved and rendered permanently useful was very soon felt. In 1798 the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company passed a resolution to devote a portion of their house in Leadenhall Street fpr the establishment of a Museum, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Wilkins thereupon submitted a plan for its organization.* In connexion with the Museum, a Library was also founded. This was to include Oriental manuscripts, coins, medals, &c., and such publications on Asiatic subjects as should be deemed useful for reference, including aU works and maps published imder the auspices of the Company. In 1800 Mr. Wilkins was appointed librarian, and charged with the foundation of the Museum. The Museum began, though slowly, to acquire a character suitable to its purpose. Br. Horsfield, when its curator, as the successor of Sir Charles Wilkins, commenced the formation of the Natural History Collection, but the commercial representation of the productions of India

in the Museum dates mainly from the Great Exhibition of 1861. A considerable

* Appendix B., p. 55, gives Ihe minute by Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Wilkins, submitted to the Ck>urt of Directors on this subject in 1799.

proportion of the articles then sent from India were ayaUable for this purpose, and formed under the skilled hands of Dr. Eorbes Boyle the Industrial Section of the Museum as it existed at the old East India House. Further steps in the same direction, by uutiatiitg a systematic use of the Museum as an instrument for the promotion of the commercial relations between England and India, have been taken under the present Director of the Museum, the Reporter on the Products of India. On the breaking up of the East India Company, both the Museum and Library were in 1860 removed from Leadenhall Street, and temporarily accommodated, — ^the former in Eife House, and the latter in the offices of ttie late Board of Control in Cannon Row. Since 1869 both have been transferred to their present position in the new India Office. The collections which had accumulated from that time up to the period of the abolition of the Company in 1867 formed an admirable representation of the condition and past history of India. The Library, as regards its manuscript collections, stands foremost amongst all oriental coUections ; and the various Museum collections exhibited an admirable epitome of India, — ^illustrating the topography and history of the country ; its people and their customs, manners, trades, and religions ; its antiquities, agriculture^ manu- £actures, mineral resources, and natural history.

Since the removal from the old East India House, however, the condition of the Museum and Library collections has ever been unsatisfactory. The arrangements made for them had from the first the character of a makeshift, while tibie scantiness and inconvenience of the existing accommodation have in every way acted injuriously.

In the first place, not only has the growth of the collections been checked, bat their preservation even has been endangered. The collections are to a considerable extent the result of private donations. Many of them, thus obtained, it has been impossible to exhibit from insufficiency of space, and it has been necessary simply to store them. It is evident that the n^lect thus shown to the fruits of long labours must often have been resented by the donors, and that this has discouraged many persons who otherwise would have taken a pride in helping to render the Museum in every way a complete representation of India. But not only have the collections not increased as they should have done,-— rthey have to a certain extent deteriorated in value.

Besides, it is obvious that the usefulness of a collection is not to be measured solely by the number of its specimens, that is, by its mere materials. It depends greatly upon the manner in which these resources are applied for the furtherance of the purposes of the institution ; and upon the facilities given to scientific investigators and to the general pubUc for making use of the accumulated materials for research and information ; but the same causes which arrested the growth of the collections have also prevented their systematic utilization. The preparation of natural history catalogues — of the greatest use to the scientific world — ^had to be discontinued. Even with r^ard to such portions of the collections as were actually exhibited, the temporary nature of the arrangements, and the cramped and unsuitable space, have prevented the carrying out of any systematic classification, or the preparation of catalogues possessing a permanent value. The Library in certain respects is in even a worse position than the Museum. like the Museum it is situated in the attics of a high building, badly ventilated, and exposed to excessive heat, dust, and soot, and every bit of space available for extensions has been all but filled up. Under existing conditions it is impossible to carry out a subject-matter arrangement, a point of vital importance for the proper utilization of the literary treasures contained in it.

Thus it has come to pass that the collections which Gk>vemment held in trust for the fulfilment of a public purpose have been virtually placed under conditions in which this purpose either could not be carried out at sdl, or only could be carried out with a small amount of efficiency. Instead of keeping up a living institution, actively promoting the ends indicated by its founders, continuing its traditions, and answering the expectations of the public, little could be done beyond keeping the collections int^t until some future opportunity would allow of a development of their latent capabilities. The repeated representations of the Asiatic and Zoological Societies, and of many individual investigators, foreign as well as Engli&h, who have been debarred from consulting collections whichi though known to exist, were inaooessible, prove the injurioTis effect of this state of matters in so &jr as they attest the disappointment of those abeady acquainted with the value of the information which has thus been practically withheld. The more important effect on the general public, who are virtuaUy shut out from l^e only popular source*of information on Indian subjects which is accessible in this counlsy, is not one which manifests itself in complaints, but which may nevertheless be traced in the prevailing ignorance of and want of interest in many Indian questions, — an ignorance and want of interest which a well-organized museum and library might have gone fax to remove.

It must be remarked that this interruption in the activity of the Museum happened at a period when museums everywhere were entering upon a wider sphere of action ; and when, instead of being institutions specially devoted to scientific investigation and the promotion of research, they had begun to be made use of as instruments for directly influencing the practical life of nations by spreading information on current economic, domestic, or social questions. The new direction given to the activity of museums was traced out for them by exhibitions. This practical tendency is becoming more and more apparent, and the opinion gains ground that many of the objects which were originally aimed at by exhibitions may be mudi better attained by more permanent and more systematically conducted institutions such as museums.

It is a tendency moreover which is entirely in accordance with the current of modem thought and practice throughout the whole field of its relations with external nature, and which is as p6rceptible in the case of research and discovery, as it is in the mode of imparting information to the public at large.

The characteristic of the modem methods in aU these respects is to increase the direct contact with nature, and to develop the power of personal observation and the art of drawing correct inferences from the observed &.cts, — to acquire, in short, the power of using facts instead of cultivating a mere aptitude for receiving the impressions and ideas of others.

This method, which is the foundation of the whole of the natural sciences, and which has long guided all scientific investigations, has been extended to otiier fields. In general literature — scientific, historic, or artistic, — ^the same increased perception of, and desire for, reality becomes apparent. Proof of this is afforded not only by the extended use of pictorial and graphic illustration, but even by a marked change in the very style of literary composition. Thus in historical writing, the extraordinary development of biographi^ analysiis and of descriptive power offers a substitute for reality by presenting its image re-constnicted by imagination. The same spirit has vivified the whole system of education, and to its influence must be attributed the more and more extended use of '^ objectlessons " in primary education, and of laboratories and museums in the higher education.

It seems natural that the same method which already tends to prevail in education, i.^., in the training and instruction of those preparing for practical life, shoiQd also be applied for communicating information to those who have already entered upon practical life, that is, to the active classes of the community.

At present, literature is the almost exclusive vehicle for this purpose, though the insuflBlciency of the merely literary method with regard to most of the objects on which popular information bears is recognised. It is here that museums step in, and by placing the example at the side of the explanation fsu^ilitate the acquirement of the iostruction conveyed by both. It is the most teUing manner in which information can be conveyed both to the popular and to the traiaed mind, imparting to knowledge that precision and vividness which no mere description can give. This is the direction already entered on by artistic and technical museums, intended to demonstrate, and make available to the public at large, appUed art and applied science. The usefulness of such a course is apparent as regards commercial, economic, or any other questions of general interest, supplying to the discussion a firm basis in the shape of an actual representation of the subject

A 2 involved in it. Some . of the existing musenms, as well as some 6f the past exhibitions, afford good indications of the proper methods to be used for all these purposes. Distinctly traceable and practically tangible results can thus be achieved through the instrumentality of museums, apart from their influence on general culture. A wide field of fdture progress lies before them, and rich and manifold results may be expected from increased efforts in this direction.

Throughout the management of the India Museum, the constantly expanding ideas as to the functions of museums in general, and as to their mode of action, have never been lost sight of ; and advantage has been taken of every opportunity of making the resources of the Museum bear on issues of practical importance to India and to England, as far as it was possible to do so under the very unfavourable conditions before referred to. The arrangement of the economical collections already effected at the Museum ; the special and loan collections ; and the lectures from time to time delivered, are examples of actual work in this direction. But the straitened space, and the straitened means in every way, which precluded the execution of any comprehensive scheme, are reasons why the work accomplished by the Museum should not be measured merely by the results which have thus far become apparent. The activity of the Museum since its removal from the old East India House has been to a great extent prospective, that is, tending towards the preparation of future means of action by maturing plans and elaborating methods for the better utilization of the collections, so as to be ready to put these plans into practice the moment the favourable opportunity arrived.

One important conclusion was arrived at during these preparatory studies, namely, that the majority of the conductors of museums are but imperfectly aware of the extraordinary power and wide applicability of the instrument placed in their hands. By tracing the principles of arrangement and the methods of action which have already led to the success of existing institutions, by supplementing these with suggestions derived from exhibitions or from other sources of information, and by combining the various suggestions and methods already practically tested, into one comprehensive scheme, an efficiency scarcely yet realized may be attained in the accomplishment of the various piurposes of a museum, and this to a great extent merely by the proper handling of existing resources.

Principles.

Before attempting to describe the features of such a scheme, as applied to the proposed India Museum, it may be useful to give here an example of one kind of operation which might be very advantageously extended to sdmost all classes of objects. This example is afforded by the scheme sanctioned by the Secretary of State in Council, and to a great extent already carried out, for the extension of a knowledge of the textile manufactures of India.

This scheme consists in the preparation and distribution in this country and in India of identical sets of trade collections, embracing, in the shape of actual specimens or of fac-simile illustrations, the whole range of the Indian textile fabrics, arranged according to their special uses and their mode of manufacture. The niunber of specimens contained in each of the sets already issued amounts to 700, and in the sets imder preparation, and of which a considerable portion has already been distributed, to upwards of 1,400, for which a sum amounting to nearly 3,000i. has been subscribed by the chief seats of commerce in this country. Full information about each of the classes into which the collection is divided is supplied by the work on the " Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of Lidia,'* which was issued some years ago, and which thus stands in the place of a catalogue raisorm^.

The advantages of the plan followed in the preparation of these textile coUections are very great. This plan is applicable to almost all classes of collections, and it has been made the basis of the proposals, now before Grovemment, for the organizatioii of trade museums throughout India. Its essence consists (1) in the preparation of standard collections, illustrating some special point, and composed of well-selected typical specimens, systematically arranged and fully described, and (2) in the mechanical reproduction and multiplication of the collections so prepared. The eflFect of such a system on the practical influence of museums is similar to that produced by printing upon the usefulness of a manuscript. As many copies can be struck off as there are places in need of information, and thus the effort which produces the standard collection is rendered useful to the country at large, so that the influence of museums ceases to be local and becomes national.

This one example is sufficient to show, that in attempting to realize the probable effects which a well-organized India Museum may be expected to produce, there lies at the root of the question a conception of the functions of a museum which differs from that commonly entertained and acted on. This conception consists in considering the Museum not as a mere store of various more or less interesting or curious specimens, from which casual visitors, or even students are left to extract what information thev may, but as a mdchine speciaUy designed for the accomplishment of certain well-defined objects. It may be asserted that from the want of a clear insight into their purpose and possible uses, collections which might be made to illustrate questions of practical and scientific importance, remain mere assemblages of specimens, unconnected by any thread of purpose or meaning, and of littie use to anyone but a few specialists who possess the knowledge and the time requisite for utilizing them.

Special fitness for special ends is the characteristic of every properly designed mechanism. Therefore, in organizing a museum, it is necessary to anticipate clearly and to take separately into accoimt the various forms of usefulness which it can exercise, the various classes of people who will appeal to it for information, the special character of the information which will meet the wants of each class, and the mode of arrangement which will render that information most readily intelligible. Thus, although the general purpose of the Museum will remain the same throughout the whole field of its influence, special measures must be adopted to further each special object, and the efficiency of the institution as a whole will only be the sum of the special effects thus produced. The general purpose of an India Museum is apparent, — ^it is to supply accurate information with regard to all the features of India capable of being illustrated by its contents. In order to accomplish this fimction with efficiency — that is, in order to supply the maximum amount of information to the largest number of people in the shape most convenient for them— certain principles must be kept in view, which are indispensable conditions of success, and which might be called obvious if they were not too frequently ignored.

(a.) Sbpaeatb Rbpeesentation of the different Features of the

Country.

The first requirement of a museum arranged with a view to efficiency is specialization of its contents. The key to the kind of specialization required is afforded by the reflection that all the ipf ormation supplied by a museum is more or less akin to direct personal experience. A museum, indeed, is intended in some measure to supply the place of personal observation or experience by exhibiting in a small compass the same material sources of information which may be gathered with trouble in the country itself. Now it is obvious that if a merchant, a manufacturer, a scientific man, or an artist visit a country, each will look on it from a different point of view, and direct his attention to different objects, or if two or qll of them are attracted by the same object, it will be as a rule by a different quality of it. The merchant will have the interests of commerce in view, and will study articles which, in the condition in which he can obtain them, are capable of immediate use, and have attained or msay attain a place in the market of the world, and he will also study the various material wants and habits of the people which are a guide to him regarding the articles he can dispose of in the country. The mcM^ufactur^r will with preference direct his attention to artides or products which, in order to fit them for use, require some further manipulation or transformation, and he will note the concurrence of the natural and economic conditions farourable for production. The scientific man, again, will he interested in all articles, useM or not, ii they illustrate some natural order or species, or exemplify the working of some natural law ; and the ardst will he attracted by all objects natural or artificial, provided they suggest some artistic combination of form or colour, or illustrate some style of art or some original mode of its practical application.

In the same manner, different features of the country and of the people will attract the attention of the statesnian, the agriculturist, the engineer, the medical man, or the historian. As the general public which may be expected to resort to the Museum for information consists of such various classes of individuals, each 'having a special purpose in view, the usefulness of the Museum will depend on its success in presenting to each visitor the kind of articles and the kind of information which he himself would have sought out if he had had the opportunity of investigating the country itself. In none of the exhibitions which have taken place, nor in any of the existing museums, has this principle been systematically acted on, although it is one wbich would facilitate to an extraordinary extent the utilization of collections for practical purposes. The system here advocated leads to the division of the collections into groups, each illustrating the country from a special point of view, and each being as nearly as possible a complete picture without reference to other groups. It is in fact doing, once for all, the work which every visitor resorting to a museum for a special purpose has to perform for himself, but at such an expense of time and research as few can afford.

This specialization of the collections makes them not only readily available for reference, but it also presents the most philosophic view of the country. Fart III., p. 31, contains the details of the classification which will meet most of the requirements here alluded to. The leading idea in this classification is to separate the picture of the country from the picture of the people according to the following scheme : —

A. THE COUNTRY AND ITS EESOTJEOES.

1. Physical Eeatukbs.

a. boundaries cmd qd/mmistratwe

dwisions.

b. Orographff.

c. JBydrography.

d. Meteorology.

a. Geology emd Mineralogy.

b. Soil.

c. Flora.

d. FoAi/na.

3. Economic View.

a. Batjo produce^ mining, agricul-

ture, forestry, ^c.

b. MaMjffactwres.

c« Tools, machinery, processes.

d. Xfocomotion by land a/nd water.

e. Sarbours, lighthouses, docks,

warehouses, fern's and markets.

f . Currency, banks, SfC.

g« Coins, weights, cmd measures.

B. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR MORAL AND MATERIAL CONDITION.

4. Ethnological View.

a. jRaces.

b. Castes and religious sects.

c. Population and vit(d statistics.

5. Domestic and Social Economy.

a. Food and cooking.

b. Souses and buildings.

Q. Clothing and personal decoroUioUm

d. Manners and customs.

e. Health a/nd sanitation, t. Education.

g. Religion.

h. Fine and decorative art.

i. Science and literature.

6. HiSTOEICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE

View.

a. FhUology.

b. ArchiBology.

Q. Mythology.

d. Sistorical geography.

e. Political and adndnistratioe

history.

f. Current administration.

The mam diyisions are thus subdiyided into smaller groups of subjects, many of tiiem requiring separate representation. Thus, for instance, the second group which gives the Natural Eeatures of India is subdivided into sections referring separately to the Geology and Mineralogy, to the Soil, to the Mora, and to the Eauna. The economic view, again, will be subdivided according as the information bears more particularly on Production or on Commerce. Production must take special account of each of the separate industries, agricultural, mining, and manufacturing, whilst Commerce, being universal in its operations, embraces in one view all the marketable products and the means of their distribution. Similar subdivisions it will be seen occur iq the other groups, all guided by the same principle of special usefulness to special classes of individuals.

(ft.) The speciax Aebangbment of bach Group.

The second principle which must be kept in view is a corollary from the first. The specialization applies not only to the selection of the articles, but also to their arrangement. Each group wiU require its own special method of arrangement, derived from the leadmg idea which it is intended to ropresent, bringing out all the characteristic features in their most natural connexion, or in that connexion which is most familiar, and which approaches most nearly to the daily experience and the mental associations of the class for whose benefit the group is designed. The point here touched upon is one of vital importance, but it is even less attended to, and its advantages less recognised than aro those resulting from the simple specialization of the collections. Most of the advantages of specialization, however, may be lost, if the collection is classified and arranged according to some inappropriate or merely empirical method.

A well-arranged museum should be articulate, should speak a language of its own, using for the purpose objects or their images iastead of verbal designations, but always leading to obvious conclusions.

In like manner as the letters of the alphabet, if differontiy arranged, produce different words, or as the same words, if combiaed in a differont order, express a diff eront meaniog, so the same set of specimens may be used for illustrating differont features of the country, that is, the succession of the specimens will impart a view which will differ according to the variation in the principle of arrangement.

A good example of the influence of arrange ment on the signifi ^nce of each single specimen may be given by comparing ihe commercial llMiAthei mafmfciCturtnff view, embraced in group 3, with the view of domestic economy-y embraced in group 5. A considerable number of articles will recur in every one of the three views, but in each a differont phase in the life of the article wiU be illustrated — ^the mode of growth or production in the first, its commeroial distribution in the second, and the manner of its consumption in the third. In each the article will appear in a different connexion with other articles. The leading idea of the first view is jnvdtiction, — ^the article therefore will be associated with all other articles produced in the same manner, with the tools, appliances, and machinery illustrating the process of production, with specimens showing the successive stages of growth or manufacture, and with other objects showing the range of the raw materials, the concurrence of which is in some way or other required for the production of the article. In the commeroial view market value is the leading idea. The Indian article will be shown in connexion with other articles embraced in the same trade classification, with specimens showing all its varieties recognised in the markets of the world, with others illustrating the mode of its commeroial valuation, as well as with articles of the same kind produced in other coimtries and competing with it. In the domestic view, fimotion is the leading idea. The article will, therefore, be classed with others put to some domestic use, and will be accompanied by specimens or illustrations showing the manner in which it is used and the purposes it fulfils. It will also be desirable in many cases to exhibit the article amid its usual domestic surroundings.