The Public and the Museum

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 175, 27 July 1938, Page 3

The Public and the Museum

CHANGING TENDENCIES BRING NEW INTEREST “It is the deadness that the directors are striving to bring to life to interest the public,” said Mr D. W. McKenzie, of the staff of the Dominion Museum in the course of a talk at the Feilding Civic Club luncheon yesterday on the subject of “The Public and the Museum.” Among the general public museum spelt dust and under the old order of things that was so, said Mr. McKenzie, who went on in a most interesting discourse to tell how it was proposed to bring that deadness, so long associated with museums in New Zealand, to life. Museums were repositories for extremely valuable things—relics, not only of scientific importance but actually ol vital importance from tho view-point of human education and understanding. New Zealand had lagged behind European countries in the improvements that had been made towards giving life and lustre to the exhibits in museums. The reason for that was on account of the lack of funds. Steps were now being taken to catch up on the great changes that had taken place in the general idea of the arrangement of the exhibits for while museums were scientific institutions with research officers turning out standard scientific research works, that, aspect of its place in the community had been placed in the background., European countries had made great strides in the direction of capturing public interest in museums by making the exhibits appear more lifo-like. The old idea, taking sea shells as an example, was to gro* 1 1 the members of the sea shell family in one compreheu sive exhibit. That was all very nice from the purely student and scientific point of view, but from the public viewpoint—well who of the general public could manifest an interest in a vast collection of shells? No, the old idea would never appeal to the public so today the policy was to pick out the really important aspects of sea-shell life and present them as a single study for public view. After all the public was not so much interested in an unending collection of shells as it was with particular and striking exhibits or features of such sea life. Actually the idea was to display what the public wanted while the remainder of the exhibits were kept underground for the stud An*. Again tho idea was to do away with the exhibits of stuffed animals and replace such antiquated exhibits with habitat groups—; life-like scenes of animals in their natural surroundings. For this purpose the plan was to stage tho exhibits in rooms set back from tho wall behind a glass front of rather large dimensions. The hall was darkened while the exhibits were lighted, so that the visitor came upon a succession of new and colourful scenes, depicting animal life in natural surroundings. In the case of the lion, for instance, there would be groups set in jungle surroundings with a background painted by a-n artist and which background blended imperceptibly with the setting, one not knowing where the painted scene ended and where the setting commenced. The old business of stuffing a lion skin and exhibiting that as a representative of the species had given way to entirely new ideas about sueh exhibits. First the skeleton was built up and then the bones were covered with clay skilfully applied so as to represent the flesh. In this work every detail was attended to, even down to the muscles and the finished job represented a lion without it 3 skin. The next stage was to tako a mould of the lion and from these moulds were built up replicas, the materials used being of the very lightest, so light that one could life the finished model with a finger. Once the mould was obtained the original was thrown aside and then the models from the moulds were dressed in the skins so that an almost perfect and life-like lion was the result. Science and art combined to produce these results and they were infintely better than the old idea of a stuffed exhibit. Wax leaves and wax flowers, all cast from originals, were used to provide the appropriate furnishings for the outdoor scenes and here again it was difficult to tell tho real from the artificial. Mr. McKenzie said that American museums were going in for the habitat groujis on an enormous scale, giving to the exhibits that air of reality that made a tremendous appeal to the public. Some idea of the amount of work involved in providing somo of these groups would be gathered from the fact that one particularly largo underwater group in one of the American museums took 18 years to complete. Now Zealand would have to go in for the same class of work. The exhibits of our museums must be recast on modern lines. In some of the latest museum exhibitions they had installed infra-ray lighting directed on to groups and so arranged that when a person approached a group lie crossed the infra-ray and set in motion a record which commenced to tell him about the exhibit. One scene was that of a dining room—nothing uausual about it but for tho fact that the visitor was to see it as a cat secs it. Here science had provided tho individual to see something from the viewpoint of a cat. These new methods were necessary in order to make museums useful to the public. In regard to children special efforts wre being made to claim their interest. Not only was the idea to bring the children to tho museum but to bring the museum to the schools. The idea was not to teach but to infect the children with curiosity by concentrated attention. Each day 150 children visited the Dominion Museum in Wellington and here they were divided up and taken in charge by members of the staff. The matter of bringing the museum to the schools was being developed upon the methods employed abroad but owing to lack of finance this work was somewhat restricted. What was done in this connection was to send out boxes of cx-

hibits with explanatory notes and these were changed regularly every fortnight. Another project was the installation of country museums at favourable centres. Exhibits would be sent out in boxes aud regularly changed but hern again finance was wanting to make it really effective. Mr. McKenzie paid a tribute to tho work of the Carnegie Corporation which had done much to enable the development of museum work and study in New Zealand. Museums are of great service to the public and it was hoped that under the new order of things greater public interest would be aroused. He wa* anxious to extend the country service to Feilding but in the meantime this was not possible on the score of expense owing to lack of adequate funds. Officers of the museum staff were only too pleased to give talks and to show pictures of museum exhibits. “The service is yours for the asking,” he concluded. (Applause.)

The thanks of the meeting wer accorded the speaker on the motion o Mr. E. Fair.

Mr. McKenzie visited the High School yesterday afternoon and addressed the ‘ Feilding W.E.A. last evening.