Abstract
ON May 17 the House of Lords, again prompted by Lord Sudeley, asked the Government to encourage the educational use of museums, and the Govern ment, by the mouth of Lord Hylton, expressed the willingness of the Treasury “to consider in a very sympathetic spirit any further requests” for the appointment of guide-lecturers, also its own “desire to encourage all steps that can be taken to develop the sale of” photographs and other reproductions of objects in the national museums. Fair words ! And progress has been made since the debate initiated by Lord Sudeley fourteen months ago. How does the Government translate word into act? It has just cut down the grant for the production of these popular publications, and, if its threat to reimpose admission by payment be enforced, it will deal a severe blow at the whole business and at the usefulness of the guide-lecturers. Never was anything so ridiculous per petrated in the name of economy. That the sale of publications is a source of income is admitted by the Treasury. At the British Museum (Bloomsbury) an advanced policy has raised the receipts under this head from 3400l. in 1920–1921 to 62001. in 1921–1922, thus more than paying for the whole cost of guide-lecturers. The introduction of pay-days will in evitably check this sale, and what will it bring in The average receipts from admission at the Victoria and Albert Museum during the twelve years the system was in force were about 650. per annum. At the Natural History Museum an expensive stall has just been fitted and saleswomen engaged, and now the authorities expect to have to spend 250l. on turn stiles and to lose 400l. on sales. One after the other the leaders of industry tell us that the secret of recuperation is more production; yet the Govern ment, when it has a paying business, proposes to economise by checking production.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 109, 688–690 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109688a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109688a0