ABSTRACT
In two areas of museum activity, education and the exhibition of contemporary art, programs developed for reasons that were both altruistic and practical. Developments in both areas are an index of changes in the goals and methods of museum philanthropy since the 1870's. Although nineteenth-century philanthropists and museum directors spoke about educating the public and improving the aesthetic quality of manufactured goods, they did not believe that art education needed much of a helping hand. Moreover, the social aspects of museum policy seemed to betray the rhetoric museum leaders had borrowed from Dewey and Barnes. The birth of public museums coincided with the decline of private patronage for contemporary artists in Europe and America—a development noted by observers at the time who were both favorable and opposed to it. Contemporary art still presented a problem in the 1920's, even though it was hard to escape the fact that there was contemporary European and American work worthy of permanent exhibition.
