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Document Type

Research

Abstract

What is it that makes the museum a success? I believe this question may be satisfactorily answered by a careful study of the people who visit museums. Go to some good museum and stroll quietly about among the groups of spectators and listen to their remarks; note carefully the types of exhibits that attract their attention, occasion their comment, and hold their interest. If you are interested and wish to follow up your investigation, go again and as often as you are able. You may thereby get some suggestions for building a museum for the public that never would occur to you otherwise. If you are connected with a museum and have been rash enough to make exhibits of your own it is possible that your pet ideas may receive a distinct shock from the frank criticism of some innocent spectator. Nevertheless, heed well what you may hear, for it is the impression that an exhibit makes on the spectator that counts. No matter how well a group is executed, if it does not tell this spectator the story it was designed to tell, it is a failure.

Publication Date

1919

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

26

Issue

1

First Page

85

Last Page

91

Copyright

©1919 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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