Furthermore, if we would correctly understand the life of the great masses of the people, a life that is only indirectly reflected in the higher forms of literature, of which it nevertheless is the ultimate source, we must enter not only cathedrals and castles, but also the burghers' houses and the peasants' cottages, study the manners and customs of the inhabitants, watch these at their work and their play, observe their furniture, clothing, arms, implements. It seems to me that nobody can examine carefully even the small model of the Viking-boat that we have been fortunate enough to secure, without realizing what a sturdy and intelligent race these hardy seamen were, that could fashion out of oaken planks, seventy-five feet long and eight inches thick, almost without iron, seaworthy boats as graceful as a modern yacht.
While the Germanic Museum was thus first planned merely as an aid to the ordinary class-room instruction as then organized, later reflection led to the enlargement of its scope so as to comprise Germanic culture in its various developments in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, England, Denmark, and Scandinavia. Such a museum, it was thought, would have an important place in a system of museums of the humanities, by the side of the Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Semitic Museum, that were already in existence. A museum of just such scope did not, as far as we know, exist anywhere, for even the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg is in the main a German Museum.
It was thought, however, that this country, of all countries, should possess a Germanic Museum in the wider sense of the word, since the great majority of the American people are of Germanic origin, and it is here that in modern times descendants of all Germanic tribes have met on a common ground and carried on the work of civilization side by side. That the collection so far is really German and not Germanic is not due to any change in the plans, but to the practical necessity of limiting acquisitions for a time to one or two lines, along which, with the means at hand, fairly satisfactory results could be obtained, instead of collecting a number of miscellaneous objects.
Our project therefore was extensive, but our means were as
