Museums of education, their history and use

Front matter

L 801 .P6 Copy 1

THEIR HISTORY AND USE

By BENJAMIN R. ANDREWS

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introduction i

1. The Modern Museum

Chapter I Introduction

I. The Modern Museum

We are finding it increasingly useful to collect in permanent storehouses ^nd exhibition halls objects of significance in human affairs. The art museum was the first modern expression of this idea ; natural science collections have multiplied in recent decades ; and the objective materials of industry, commerce, and the various fields of thought and activity are now often brought together for useful ends. The object aimed at is to bring to a focus these significant things, as books are brought together in libraries, and accelerate the transfer of general experience and knowledge to the individual. Library and museum, indeed, serve one purpose and it is accident, or at most, convenience, that has made them separate institutions, the one conserving the bulky material things of knowledge and the other protecting the convenient symbolic records in book form. The obvious work of the museum is to provide objects for public inspection; but since it deals with objects which as knowledge are often ambiguous and on a lower level of elaboration than printed books, its staff must include scientists able to put meanings upon objects, arrange them in orderly system for observation, and write systematic accounts of them ; hence, the association of laboratories with museums, and the latters' encouragement of original studies both by their staff and by outside scholars. In other words, museum 195] I economy involves not only exhibition, but scientific research and study ; and for this double purpose, the modern museum, theoretically at least, administers "study collections" and "exhibit collections." The "study" division includes material still unclassified, but refers especially to the long series of systematic collections, of interest only to the scholar for reference and so best arranged in compact form with working space at hand; the exhibit collections are those arranged for popular inspection and they vary from systematic collections and special groups showing historical and scientific relationships, which prove thought-provoking to the "educated visitor," to striking unit-presentations of one sort or another, which are attractive and intelligible to the "average visitor" who is impelled by curiosity and is simply seeking mental recreation.

The final justification of museum collections goes back to the utility of objects versus symbols-of-objects in knowledge, and that cannot be determined here. Certain utilities of objects, however, obviously cannot be served by the second-hand symbolism of books. On the one hand, in gaining nev; knowledge, objects are absolutely necessary at the sources of our ideas of the material world; and science often requires that objects so studied be preserved as a record of results and to permit a repetition of the investigation. On the other hand, in transmitting knowledge, objects are often useful in adding clearness to ideas, as illustrated by the use of the objective in children's education, or by the adult's recourse to the object in place of a verbal or pictorial description; the objective also adds an appeal to the feelings and so possesses a dynamic power for action — for example, contrast the force of an argument for schoolroom decoration with the efifect of an inspection of materials for such decoration, in securing action from a school committee. At any rate, objects must always underly books as the guarantee of knowledge which concerns the material world ; and in transmitting knowledge, despite the convenience of books, recourse will often be had to the object for illustration and efifect.

The collections of a museum are specialized according to its particular aim. Objects of a common significance, as related to the fine arts, to natural science or some division of it, to anthropology, to industry, to medicine or some other art, are brought together and form a museum illustrating the special field concerned. Within the museum, systematic classification — scientific, historical, or otherwise — proceeds further and makes the objects available for the purpose set, whether of inspection or of research. This general statement may serve to emphasize the fact that the museum is not as it was once, a confused array of objects brought together as fancy or curiosity dictated, but that it is coming into new efficiency by a limitation of the field of the individual museum, and by attention on the one hand to its unique scientific purpose of organizing -knowledge which has not yet reached the level of the compiled book, and on the other to the arrangement of exhibits specially designed for popular instruction and enjoyment.

II. The Museum of Education

The educational museum, or museum of education, of which this study treats, is one of these specialized museums, which includes collections solely of objects related to education and which is administered primarily to be of service to persons engaged in education. Such museums first appeared about half a century ago, and probably a hundred or more of them have been organized in various parts of the world. Recently, renewed interest has been shown in the educational museum in this country, as, for example, in the movement to establish such museums in the cities of St. Louis and New York, and in certain states, and in the tendency to form collections of similar material in certain American universities. An attempt to bring together experience regarding these museums seems therefore timely.

We may define the educational museum as an institution that contains objective collections which have an illustrative, comparative, or critical relation to the schools and to school work, or which are concerned with education as a profession, a science, or a social institution. The mention of two confusions in the use of the term "educational museum," will make its proper significance more clear. A common statement is that some great public museum, like the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, is an "educational museum"; the reference in such a case is plainly to the general educational aim of the museum, not to its contents, which are in no way directly connected with education. In the sense that it is exerting an educational influence, any museum might be called "educational." Clearness is therefore served by keeping the name "educational museum" for specialized collections of objects related to education and by remembering that it is sometimes used as a descriptive term, but not accurately as a title, for general museums of science, of art, and for other museums which are educational in purpose.

The other confusion in terms is more serious. Museums located in a school or organized as an adjunct to a system of schools, and aiming to aid school instruction directly and immediately, are sometimes called "educational museums." Their contents are certainly "objects related to education"; but since their collections are designed as a supplementary agency in actual work, they may better be called "school museums." They can be sharply distinguished from the "educational museum" of which this study treats: the school museum is itself didactic, it exists for the pupil directly ; it includes only the means of teaching, that is, the apparatus, appliances, and materials of teaching brought together for use in actual instruction. Distinguished from the school museum is the type of museum which is related to education as an institution, a profession, or a science, rather than to actual teaching; which exists not for the pupil but for the teacher, the person interested in school administration, the student of education, and the general public ; the collections of which illustrate not only the means and appliances of education (and these not to be used in teaching but to be studied and considered for themselves) but in addition, it may be, the methods of education, its results, its organization and administration, its housing and equipment, its history, and whatever other phases of education may find suitable expression in objective exhibits. This then is a museum of education or an educational museum : a collection of objects systematically arranged according to museum methods, which are intended to advance education, whether in the training of teachers and their professional improvement, or by aiding those charged with the administration of schools, or by assisting in the researches of the scholar or by enlightening the public. Its service is epitomized in this: an educational museum educates regarding education. This study deals with educational museums, and more than once it will be necessary to recur to the distinction pointedout between the school museum, containing collections for actual use in teaching, and the educational museum, representing education in its institutional, professional, and scientific aspects.

III. Outline of Problem

This study presents, first, brief references to the educational museums and permanent exhibitions of the United States (including one Canadian museum), together with a particular sketch of one such museum with which the writer has been connected. This first section is based on detailed data regarding American museums of education which form a separate study as yet unpublished. The second part of the present study is a survey by tabulated information of the chief educational museums of the world, outside of the United States. Its third and concluding section is a discussion of the educational museum, and a suggested program for its development.^

* Acknowledgment should be made at the outset of the writer's debt in the second part of the study to the monographs by Rektor Hubner, Director of the Breslau Educational Museum, on the German and the non-German educational museums (see bibliography). The writer began to collect information from printed sources and by correspondence in 1904, intending to write historical accounts of educational museums at home and abroad. The work was considerably advanced when Hiibner's studies appeared. It was then determined to utilize Hiibner's data and that gathered by the writer in sketching the educational museum movement as a whole. This forms part two of this study.

Chapter II Educational Museums In The United States

A brief statement will be made in turn of (i) the educational museum in connection with the United States Bureau of Education; (2) state educational museums of the United States and the Provincial Educational Museum at Toronto; (3) city educational museums of the United States; (4) university educational museums, with a statement at length of the museum of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City; and (5) miscellaneous educational museums.

I. Museum of United States Bureau of Education

In the discussion preliminary to the establishment of the United States Bureau of Education at Washington, a museum was suggested as one feature;^ "a. library and cabinet of education" was proposed by the first commissioner, Henry Barnard;^ the second commissioner. General Eaton, established the library and repeatedly sought special government support for the projected museum which he conceived of as related to a possible chain of other educational museums in the capital cities and large centers of the country;^ the exhibits, domestic and foreign, received after the Centennial Exposition of 1876, began the museum, and through similar and other accessions it had grown to several thousand items from which some 2500 objects and series were culled for exhibit at the Bureau's building in 1886;* additional accessions soon crowded the rooms beyond resemblance to a museum, and in 1906 the objects were all put into storage to await suitable quarters and sufficient funds for organizing a museum proper to the Bureau. Judged by fugitive data,

^ National Teachers Association, Proceedings, etc., 1865, Barnard, Hartford, 1865, p. 299 ff., especially p. 307.

* Barnard's American Journal of Education, XVIII, 1869, p. 192.

' Report of Commissioner of Education, Washington, 1870, p. 7. Other reports of Commissioner Eaton, e. g., his last: Report 1884-85, pp. cccxiicccxvii.

6 [200 the collections were unsystematic; appliances for instruction were more prominent than samples of pupils' work; secondaryeducation was represented more than elementary, and especially numerous was the apparatus for the teaching of chemistry and physics. The Bureau has made significant exhibits at many international expositions; but these have not been put on permanent display at Washington. The educational library of the Bureau numbers about 60,000 volumes, including 40,000 books on education, and is now growing into new importance.^

II. State Educational Museums

A state exhibit of the schools and their work has been established at the capitals of at least ten of the American states, although there is at present no state educational museum in the sense of a separate institution carrying on aggressive work. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Louisiana have included an exhibit of the state's educational resources as an integral part of the state museum of arts and sciences which has been established at many of the American state capitals; and of these the New Jersey educational exhibit dates from 1895 ^"^ i^ P^''^ goes back to 1876; Massachusetts, from 1894 to 1899 had as a separate institution a state educational museum, but it seems to have failed from lack of funds, quarters and wise plans ; the New York State Education Department has a state educational exhibit in the capitol corridors at Albany, and the South Dakota Historical Society has a similar exhibit at Pierre ; there are also small exhibits in connection with the office of the State Superintendent of Education at Charleston, West Virginia ; Columbia, Missouri ; Bismark, North Dakota ; and Salem, Oregon. The Education Department of Arkansas has planned such an exhibit ; and Maine has a statute provision by which a collection of educational objects and books may be made if at no expense, and this has resulted in a text-book collection. All these exhibits arose through an attempt to make permanent the state's educational exhibit displayed at some exposition — four following the Chicago Exposition of 1893; one, the Buffalo Exposition of 1901 ; and five, the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. In general, these exhibits consist

'Letter, from Commissioner Harris, May 10, 1906; and personal information, from Bureau, March 1907.

of samples of pupils' work, especially written material, art and manual training samples; photographs of school buildings, interiors, and school groups; statistical charts; and in some cases, collections of apparatus and appliances for teaching, although this latter class of exhibits is less prominent than in museums abroad. Nineteen of twenty-eight states answering report, in addition to the state collections just mentioned, more or less extensive educational exhibits of a permanent nature in one or more normal schools or colleges in the state, formed apparently to aid in the professional training of teachers. Of forty states answering, thirty-six report that temporary educational exhibits of pupils' work are held at teachers' institutes, association meetings, and on other similar occasions, thus evidencing a sort of temporary museum activity. Twelve states report educational libraries : in five, as part of the state library — Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Washington ; in seven, at the office of the superintendent of public instruction — Maine, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Utah. The New York state educational library is the largest, with about 10,000 volumes, and those of Illinois and Rhode Island are noteworthy.

The Educational Museum at the Ontario Provincial Education Department, Toronto, must be credited as the first educational museum of the world. Its beginning dates from 1845 when Edgerton Ryerson, Provincial Superintendent of Education, then in Europe, was granted iioo to purchase samples of "school models," copies of which he had seen in American schools and which he thought Canadian manufacturers could duplicate.^ The collection of school aids grew and became the basis of the "Depository" or government sales-bureau of school requisites, text-books and library books, established in 1850, and which continued until 1881.^ Meantime, in 1853, the "Canadian Museum" was authorized and the educational collection seems to have become one of its sections when it was opened in 1856 f indeed, this provincial museum of arts and sciences was long known in its entirety

' Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada, Toronto, V, 237-249, especially 241. 'Ibid., X, 190-201. ^ Ibid., XII, 97-99 and 100-137; XIII, 191-192; X, 169.

as the "Educational Museum," until 1897, when the name 'Trovincial Museum" was assumed. At about the latter date, the last purely educational exhibits were retired from the museum. The educational collections at Toronto realized certain important resuhs: they distinctly improved the teaching equipment of the schools of the province both through force of example and by the direct agency of the government in selling to the schools duplicates of the exhibits shown; they led, within ten years, to Canadian manufacture of teaching materials, school desks, and other requisites, so that the "depository" and sales-bureau of the government could later be dispensed with ; they influenced American schools through the visits of various American teachers, especially through the stimulus given Principal Sheldon of the Oswego Normal School who inspected the Toronto collections about i860 and as a consequence initiated the "Oswego movement," so-called, in American education.^ Whenever educational museums are mentioned, the museum at Toronto and the wisdom of Edgerton Ryerson who conceived this first educational museum may well be held in honor.

III. City Educational Museums

St. Louis organized a combined educational and school museum after the Exposition in 1904, which while making rapid progress as a central loaning bureau and exhibit room for numerous and varied collections of illustrative material for use in teaching, has also maintained exhibits of local education and of foreign schools for the professional benefit of the city's teachers.-

New York City projected an educational museum in 1905 and later plans were drawn up which included a permanent exhibit of the work of local schools, a display of schoolroom equipment

*U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular No. 8, 1891, p. 63; "Historical Sketches Referring to the first Quarter Century of the State Normal and Training School at Oswego, New York," Oswego, 1888, pp. 3, 138; Barnard's American Journal of Education, XII, 642.

'Public School Messenger (Official Publication of the Department of Instruction), St. Louis, Sept. 28 and Dec. 29, 1905; Jan. 18, 1907. Circular, "Department of Instruction, Educational Museum, St. Louis, April, 1906." Fifty-first Annual Report of Board of Education, St. Louis, 1905, St. Louis, 1906, p. 256.

lo Teachers College Record [204

and illustrative apparatus and material, an historical exhibit, selected work from schools of other cities, selected seasonal exhibits to illustrate parts of the course of study in the city schools — all lines for the professional betterment of teachers — and collections of slides, stereoscopic views and pictures for loan. The exhibit of local education is ready at hand in the St. Louis Exposition exhibit, and a beginning with the slide collection has been made, but further progress awaits the securing of suitable rooms.

In two other cities, New Haven, Conn,, and Reading, Pa., some beginnings toward a museum of local education have been made and in Louisville, Ky., one has been considered. In some twenty-five other cities (of the 130 cities over 10,000 in population from which information was secured) there seem to have been in existence in 1906 less extensive permanent exhibitions of local education, and in seventeen other cities there has been manifested some evidence of interest in such a permanent exhibit. Returned material from the St. Louis or Portland Exposition was influential toward the permanent local exhibition in twenty-seven of the forty-seven cities referred to. These local exhibitions seem to be composed almost exclusively of samples of pupils' work from local schools, and these represent present conditions only ; in the case of New York and St. Louis, historical sequences and comparative exhibits from outside are contemplated.

The New York museum is to be located in the Board of Education building; the St. Louis museum has quarters in two school buildings ; of the other city exhibitions, nine are in school buildings ; thirteen, in the office of the superintendent of schools ; three, in the rooms of the board of education ; two in the public library ; two, in the city museum ; one, in the department of school supplies ; and in the remaining cases the location is not yet determied upon, or was not learned. Of 125 cities answering, 105 report that temporary exhibits of local school work are held each year; and in several cases, notably Syracuse, Kansas City and Grand Rapids, by virtue of its general character and central location, this annual exhibit approaches in significance to permanent museum work.

Of 126 cities replying, eighty-eight (69.8%) report the local public library as making an effort to provide an educational library, or at least educational books, for teachers; in seventy-

205] Mnscunis of Education 11

nine cities (63.2%) there is some soft of an educational library at the office of the superintendent of schools or in connection with the public schools ; putting both items together, of the cities reporting, all but fourteen (89%) report at least the nucleus of an educational library either as part of the public library or in connection with the schools. Data about the latter only was secured : of seventy-four, eleven contain less than 100 volumes ; twenty-eight have from 100 to 500 volumes ; fifteen from 500 to 1000 volumes; only 20 (or 26%) have over 1000 volumes. The largest is the notable Philadelphia Pedagogical Library, of 8300 volumes,

IV. Educational Museums of Universities

The departments of education in several American universities have considered collections representing education as necessary, along with educational libraries, in furnishing illustrations of fact and theory for courses of instruction and objective source material for graduate research study. Six universities may be mentioned particularly: California, Clark, Harvard, Illinois, Indiana and Teachers College, Columbia University.

1. The University of California (Berkeley) has a collection based on the state educational exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition which includes samples of pupils' work, teaching equipment, and illustrations of school architecture.

2. The Clark University collection (Worcester, Mass.) includes samples of teaching equipment and exhibits of school hygiene and school architecture, secured to illustrate courses of instruction. More recent additions have been: "(a) things made by children spontaneously in wood, paper, iron, tin and what not; (h) children's drawings; and (c) far more important, illustrative material in the form of diagrams and charts, of which our collection is pretty large." Of these (a) and (&) are records of educational investigations. It should be added that the collections are not organized as an exhibit.^

3. Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.), while not maintaining a museum, possesses "exhibits prepared by Massachusetts towns for expositions," and in addition "a considerable collection

' Clark University, Third Report of the President, April, 1893, pp. 136- 140. Letter from G. Stanley Hall, President, April 13, 1907.

of pupils' work from individual schools which supplies illustrative material for the use of our students. This material is renewed from time to time ; as fast as it becomes historical it is our intention to remove it to the historical section such as it is."^

4. The University of Illinois (Champaign) , about 1900, began plans for a "pedagogical museum and library," and by 1906 the museum included : ( i ) apparatus and requisites for the teaching of drawing, nature study, object lessons, manual training and physics; (2) samples of pupils' work in manual training, drawing, writing, language work, arithmetic and geography; (3) plans and photographs of school buildings; (4) blanks and administrative forms from 100 city school systems; (5) other miscellaneous exhibits. The following statement regarding the purpose of such a museum is significant : "One great need of the prospective teacher is to become familiar with the furniture of his profession. In his preparation he has used apparatus more elaborate and expensive than he can hope to secure for his school use, and he is unfamiliar with any other. In the case of text-books and general supplies, he is ignorant of much that is good. By such a collection these defects in preparation could be remedied."^

5. Indiana University (Bloomington), in 1895-6, started a "pedagogical museum" which was designed "to include text-books, children's literature, all kinds of teaching apparatus, samples of school work, records of pedagogical investigations, charts exhibiting facts in the history of education and comparative pedagogy, school furniture, building plans and building materials and instruments for anthropometric and school hygienic tests. It was to be international. We have made beginnings in all these lines but our collection is not extensive. The project has been at a standstill as far as the collection is concerned for three years." The director of the department of education writes further : "As far as courses of instruction are concerned, the use of this material is something like that of a reference book, occasionally very valuable. It is not so important as the library or the practice or model school, which might be regarded as the

^Letter from Professor Hanus, Harvard University, April 17, 1907.

"Letters from Edv^^in G. Dexter, Head of Department of Education, University of Illinois, 1906 and 1907. Circular letter dated "Urbana, Illinois, March 5, 1902." Register, University of Illinois, 1905-6.

best part of the museum ; but it is a valuable supplement. It supplies a real need and should be established by both university departments and normal schools as soon as the library and practice school are practically efficient."^

In all these universities there are, besides educational libraries, collections of printed educational material, as courses of study, catalogues, and text-books, which may be regarded as proper museum material, whether located in a museum or library. Still other universities, among them Cornell University, University of Alabama, University of Iowa, University of Utah, and University of Idaho, have made some beginnings toward museums of education. There remains the description at length of the museum at Teachers College, Columbia University, and following this a brief section on miscellaneous educational museums of the United States.

6. Teachers College, Columbia University

The Educational Museum of Teachers College dates from the ^'Children's Industrial Exhibition" which was held in 1886 by the "Industrial Education Association," an organization for promoting manual and industrial education, the forerunner of the New York College for Training Teachers (1888), which in 1891 became Teachers College. The Children's Industrial Exhibition of 1886 had two purposes : to call attention to the whole subject of manual training, and to ascertain the kind of manual instruction already being given. Exhibits were assembled from seventy different cities and institutions, including ten large city systems. There were seven thousand visitors ; excursions of superintendents and teachers came from nearby cities; several foreign educators studied it ; and the metropolitan press showed keen interest — illustrated articles were printed, and there was extensive editorial comment commending the exhibition and inquiring why manual work had not yet been introduced into the New York schools. The New York Sun said editorially a few days later : "The society (Industrial Education Association) did more for the accomplishment of its purpose by its recent exhibition of the practical fruits of manual training than it can hope to do by any

* Letter from Indiana University, Department of Education, February, 1906, and letter from Professor John A. Bergstrom, April 12, 1907. Indiana University Bulletin, May, 1004, p. 134.

amount of talking." The exhibition committee notes other specific results : "The association has been asked to train teachers of manual training ... a wholesome reflex influence is reported in the cities which sent exhibits" ; and "a permanent museum of articles illustrating the range and methods of industrial education is also projected." The exhibition cost $2,488.53, which was met partly by admission fees and partly by subscriptions.^

From the Children's Industrial Exhibition until the present time, the museum idea has not lapsed at Teachers College. Its history divides naturally into two parts: before 1899, the year when the first curator was appointed, and since 1899.

I. The Museum, 1886-1899. During this first period we will treat of the museum under four topics : A. The first museum room and its contents; B. Portable exhibits; C. Annual exhibitions ; D. Special exhibitions.

A. — The First Museum Room : The Industrial Education Association in occupying its first building, 9 University Place, New York, in the fall of 1886, set aside a large room on the second floor for the projected museum. Here certain exhibits from the Children's Exhibition were placed, including twelve separate exhibits of drawing, together with specimens of carpentry, joinery, lathe and forge work, representing the work of four city systems, and five additional institutions. Other exhibits were secured from time to time. From 1888 to 1891 the annual circular of the college describes the museum as containing "educational materials from manual training and normal schools," and, together with the growing library, as being at the disposal of college students. The value of the museum to the educational public must have been considerable. The college at that time was constantly visited by teachers and school superintendents, and by foreign educators, all interested in the "new education." The young institution, with its needs outstripping its resources,

* "Second Annual Report of Industrial Education Association," for 1886, New York, p. 19. "Catalogue, Children's Industrial Exhibition, under the auspices of Industrial Education Association, March 31st — April 6th, 1886, Cosmopolitan Hall, Broadway and 41st St., New York City." [It is noteworthy that of 54 exhibits from near New York, only two were of public schools ; of the remaining 52, 32 were charitable institutions. For meritorious work exhibited, there were awarded nine firstclass medals, 25 second class, 49 third class, and 86 fourth class.]

could not long assign one of its best rooms to museum purposes ; the "museum room" was almost at once demanded for manual training instruction, and was later divided into three class rooms. Still the "museum" persisted. Exhibits were placed about the walls of various class rooms and corridors, and in a limited number of display cases. Its systematic development was hampered by the lack of a curator, and, indeed, by any central responsibility. On the other hand, decentralized efforts resulted in many museums, rather than one museum : each of several departments of Teachers College — manual training, art, domestic science, domestic art, and natural science — gradually collected objective materials to illustrate college courses, samples of pupils' work from schools, types of equipment for teaching, etc. These departmental collections, if gathered together in one place, would, at any time, have made an impressive "museum of education." From 1886 to 1899, ^"*^ indeed to the present, they represent in good part the museum idea at Teachers College. However, the plan of a central museum room had not been given up. In 1893 exhibits were obtained at the Chicago Exposition as "the nucleus for a museum ;"^ and it was planned to have a special museum room when the new college buildings on Morningside Heights should be occupied, in 1894. Unexpected growth in other departments, however, postponed the provision of a special room until 1901. In summary of the museum itself down to 1899, we may note that a special museum room with growing collections, largely of manual training, was opened in 1886 ; that while a distinctive room was not long maintained, the collections were kept up ; further, that each of several departments developed specialized collections ; and, finally, that the plan of a centralized museum of education in the college was simply in abeyance. We will now turn to other features of museum work in this period.