A. H. Lane-Fox [Pitt Rivers], ‘The Arrangement of Museums’

The subject brought forward by Lord Wharncliffe a few days ago in the House of Lords forms part of a much larger question which sooner or later must occupy the attention it deserves, viz., the best means of collecting and arranging museums for the purposes of instruction. The principles which are recognised as applicable to education in general apply equally to the arrangement of museums in so far as their educational functions are concerned, and consist, not in overwhelming the student with an immense accumulation of facts, but in presenting to his mind only such facts as are important or typical, and in the order in which it is intended they should be remembered. The long rooms in the Exhibition buildings at South Kensington are admirably adapted for the extension of a system.