Welsh Journals

The Regional Museum and Education. During the nineteenth century a large number of municipal and local museums were established in this country. Many of them grew out of collections which had been made by certain individuals, who had perhaps spent some time abroad. Around these nuclei there gradually accumulated an incongruous assemblage of such things as old spears, stuffed birds, a few pieces of ancient armour, a mummified cat, a shark's jaw, a collection of foreign shells, etc. It was often difficult to understand what principles had guided the collectors, and for what purpose the objects had been assembled. The museum frequently consisted of a collection of curiosities," often with a tendency to the bizarre and gruesome, and generally without any apparent unifying principle. During the present century, and especially since the war, a marked change of attitude has taken place both on the part of scien- tific workers and the general public. Museums are no longer required to astonish or shock their visitors. They have been given a much more important role, are are now beginning to play an increasingly large part in the education of young and old. A few of the largest museums may endeavour to illustrate by means of their collections the lives of tribes in all parts of the world. The space, which has been allotted for this purpose to the ethnogra- phical department in the British Museum, is very inadequate and most local museums realise that for them, with their much more limited resources, such an aim would be impossible of fulfilment. The modern tendency is for the latter to concentrate on a restricted objective. Many are trying to form collections to illustrate their own region, its characteristics, resources and productions, and its develop- ment through the centuries with the changes of its customs and modes of life. Such museums will probably make collections of the local rocks and minerals, of the flora and fauna. They will have maps illustrating the geological structure and topography of the countryside, its climate and the exploitation of its soil. In the cases will be collections of artifacts, such as tools, weapons, clothing, uten- sils, etc., belonging to the prehistoric and historic periods. By means of maps and diagrams attempts can be made to reconstruct the conditions of the region, and to indicate the distribution of human