The partition to be continued above the galleries to the roof, thus excluding all the dust raised by the public.
Space for students should be provided in the curators' rooms.
Storage should be AMPLE.
A museum of this size gives twice as much area for exhibition purposes as that offered by ALL the cases in the present museum.
Athenaeum Club, December 8, 1872.
Dear Sir,
I regret that your letter has but just come into my hands, so that my reply cannot be in time for your meeting, which, I understand you to say, was to be held yesterday.
I have no hesitation whatever in expressing the opinion that, except in the case of large and wealthy towns (and even in their case primarily), a Local Museum should be exactly what its name implies, namely "Local"—illustrating local Geology, local Botany, local Zoology, and local Archaeology.
Such a museum, if residents who are interested in these sciences take proper pains, may be brought to a great degree of perfection and be unique of its kind. It will tell both natives and strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great scientific interest and importance. Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindoo idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and conch shells—who shall describe the weary inutility of it? It is really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look for the objects of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know is that their "America is here," as Wilhelm Meister has it.
Yours faithfully,