Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/46

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THE MUSEUM

this way without gaining something. The objection that passers-by interfere with those who wish to remain and look at the objects is hardly valid. If the visitor can be so easily disturbed he will gain little from his visit. On the other hand, corridors make a museum doubly hard to guard. Where one room opens into another, half as many guards are necessary as where each room opens only into a corridor, for if it is possible for a man to stand in one room and see into one or two other rooms he can do his duty much better than where he has to go to the door of a room in order to see what is happening within it. Some sort of access must be provided, but the clever architect will carefully study the problem of corridor space.

GALLERIES

The tendency nowadays is to provide a series of exhibition rooms where only the finest objects are displayed and a second series of study rooms, where the reserve collection is kept. Long experience, especially with archaeological material, has led Museum Directors to feel that a quantity of specimens illustrating any one class of objects failed to interest the public and that it is only by making a selection that they are able to appeal to the general visitor. It is often hard to draw the line between material which is important his-