Welsh Journals

THE COUNTY MUSEUM INTRODUCTION This article aims to give some account of the attempts that have been made in the immediate past to obtain a county museum for Cardigan- shire. Since another attempt to set up such a museum is now in progress it is meet that the need for a county museum, its nature and function, should be examined. What, for example, is the reaction of national institutions to their smaller sub-national counterparts ? In view of the excellence of the national collections is a local museum necessary ? If, as present day museum philosophy implies, the edu- cational function of any museum is its chief justification, what part could a local museum play in the general educative process in Cardigan- shire ? Granting the success of the present attempts to set up a museum, the next stage would be a formulation of policy and a definition of the authority responsible for its administration. What should that policy be and what is the general legal position as far as museum administrat- ion is concerned and the local problems that would arise ? These are all pertinent questions which are discussed very briefly in this article. No claim is made for the originality of the answers except where they are applied to a county museum serving Cardiganshire. HISTORICAL The idea of a museum for Cardiganshire is not a recent one. As long ago as 1915 it was stated that for some little time the advisability of starting a local museum at Cardigan has been discussed, and the movement has lately taken more definite shape'. The chief protagonist of the idea at that time appears to have been Professor E. Tyrrell Green. On 28 June 1915 he addressed a meeting at the Guildhall, Cardigan, on behalf of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, with the object of explaining the aims and objects the society had in view'. According to the speaker, the first object of the museum would be the preservation of objects of antiquity, which otherwise might leave the county and be removed from their natural setting. Its second object would be the education of the people in the neigh- bourhood'. Nothing seems to have come of the scheme, although the reception accorded to it was enthusiastic and promises of material support were forthcoming.1 At that time the idea of a county museum' in the modern sense