CHAPTER IV
The Formation of Collections
ACCORDING to the American system, a museum is an outgrowth of the educational need of the community and does not come into existence necessarily because of an already formed collection waiting to be housed. This condition renders a museum director's problem much more difficult than that faced by his European confrère who, almost invariably, finds himself in charge of an already formed collection. The American museum director must first of all make a careful plan by which he will be guided in the future for the scope and the direction of the activity of his museum. Where the people of a city need art, they often do not know what kind of art is going to be best for them, and the museum director must help them to choose wisely. The first necessity, therefore, that confronts the committee and director in planning a new museum is to study the needs of the city in which the museum is to be placed. If, for instance, there is already in existence in the city
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