OVERSEAS MUSEUMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1936, Page 13

OVERSEAS MUSEUMS

GREAT ADVANCE MADE

EDUCATIONAL ASPEC«T

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day.

The great advance overseas in the museum movement,'. the development of galleries dealing with local history, and the expansion of the educational side to link up with primary schools were commented upon by Mr. H. D. Skinner, assistant curator of the Otago Museum, who" returned yesterday from a tour of Britain and the Continent. In the local museum movement the history of the "geology, flora, and fauna of local districts were treated exclusively, he said. Such museums were springing up everywhere in England, the commonest type being a series of period rooms. Thus at Hull a city street \of 150 years ago was reconstructed.

Mr. Skinner paid particular attention to the close connection developing between primary schools and the public museums. At the Manchester Museum there was a staff of five teachers paid by the local educational authority and over 90,000 children passed through its rooms and galleries annually. Finance for this great extension of museum activities was found through contributions of local bodies.