Museums and the State

Abstract

THE leading article in NATURE of March 11 on “The State and the National Museums” directs attention to a reform the need for which has been increasingly felt by those especially interested in our great national museums. Your summary of their haphazard history explains why their relation to the Government is out of date; why between them there is an overlap which, despite the advantage of competition, causes waste and inconvenience and is a hindrance to efficiency; and why our Museum of Natural Science is administered by a board of trustees planned—so far as it was planned and has not been a fortuitous aggregate of distinguished men—in reference to the library and departments at Bloomsbury. The titles of the museums are a product of this erratic growth and misleading to the public; the Natural History Museum is actually the British Museum of Natural Science, since, according to recent usage (cf. e.g. Webster's Dictionary), natural history is restricted to zoology, or perhaps to biology, while the adjacent museum is the British Museum of Physical Science.