Abstract
IT is keeping within the truth to say that in Great Britain and Ireland a new museum is born every three weeks, roughly twenty in a year, or two hundred since Sir Henry Miers's report to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees was published in 1928. That is an index to the enthusiasm of groups of people aware that there are hidden things the public ought to see; but, alas, it is no index to the foresight of the enthusiasts, for the history of museums indicates that many of the new foundations, without endowments or any guarantee of permanent backing, will sooner or later drop out of the running and disappear. The death-rate of museums all but keeps up with the birth-rate; but the spectacle of the lingering death of the idea embodied in a collection which has outlived its interest does infinite harm to the museum movement.
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Organization and Development of Museums. Nature 143, 447–449 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143447a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143447a0