Museum Needs Modernization
I felt obliged to report to the President further that in my opinion he would have no chance of acquiring a permanent Director by calling an anthropologist of position from another institution, unless the Museum had first been modernized and placed in efficient condition.
It had been understood that my acceptance of the directorship would not commit me to any long continued term, and it was with some personal regret that I made a report which I felt might commit me for a longer time than I had contemplated; that is, for the length of time which would be required for this reorganization.
Staff Reports Plan
The staff have now, after long study, reported a plan for extensive rearrangement of the collection which promises to make it admirably adapted for purposes of promoting research study and teaching. This plan will be based upon a change throughout the Museum from the artistic to a scientific arrangement, and will involve the installation in an accessible manner, of material for class room, laboratory, and research specimens, together with offices in which visiting scientists may assemble specimens which cannot be submitted to student handling. It is believed, too, that the rearrangements, and the adoption of sequence in the display collections, will make them more intelligible and accessible to everyone. But perhaps the most important single change will be the installation of synoptic collections in which the development of the methods of life in each of the many cultures of the world can be systematically displayed. The staff propose to devote one large room to a general synoptic room covering the whole world. In addition, they will install at the entrance to each room, synoptic cases which will display in more detail the development of cultures in the section of the human race to which that room is devoted. The generosity of a few friends has already enabled us to start on the process of reorganization.
Library is Close Quarters
The cramped and insufficient space to which our very excellent library was confined has been nearly doubled by the removal of partitions and the addition to it of considerable adjoining space. Adequate lighting, seats, and tables, are being provided and will permit us to extend the privilege of access to the stacks to graduate students as well as to the officers of the institution. Provision has been made for the casing necessary to the development of the synoptic collections. Telephonic facilities have been increased. Bids for installation of an elevator have been called for, and its installation will remove one of the greatest sources of delay and undue fatigue in our work.
Staff Now at Work
The staff are already at work over the selection and arrangements of specimens for the new installations, and have started upon the laborious task of labelling which must go on synchronously. Recent developments in typewriters, which have made it possible to produce effective labels by their use, will greatly reduce the cost of the labelling, but the amount of work involved in the production of a great many thousand labels, each one of which must be at once concise, full, and intelligible, can probably be appreciated only by those who have undertaken it.
It will be possible to provide assistance for the first part of all this work during the immediate future, but for the latter part of it and for many other needs of the Museum, we shall still be obliged to look to the future.
We think that when all these changes have been completed, we shall have supplied the Division with an unequaled teaching implement which will enable them to make Harvard even more definitely the chief center of anthropological study and instruction on this continent.