The Museum (Jackson)/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
The Architectural Plan
UNTIL our American Trustees realize that the architect is not an omniscient being, blunders are going to be made In our museums. So far, few architects have specialized in museum buildings and the subject is so vast that it cannot be mastered offhand. It is the part of the museum specialist, the director, to guide the architect in the development of the plans. American museums are at a disadvantage because the exact line of their growth cannot be forecasted, but the only way by which a museum can be thoroughly consistent and adapted to its uses, is by having an understanding first of exactly what those uses are to be! To meet this difficulty the Director should study the conditions, and consult with the Trustees in regard to the possibilities in the city in which the museum is located. Therefore, the first step in planning a new museum is not to open a competition for the design of the building, but to choose a Director. Who the architect is, matters very little after that, provided both he and the Director understand their business. The Historical Museum in Hamburg has recently begun a new building on the plans of which the Director and architect had worked for three consecutive years before a single stone was laid. The consequence is, that the plan is as nearly perfect as one can hope to find in this present day. Whether in this country we should have the patience to spend three years on plans or not is a question, but time should be allowed for the Director and building committee to see that the plan is complete in all its details and to make changes and revisions.
Turning now to a consideration of the separate points, we find that the exterior may safely be left to the architect, but only after the interior has been carefully planned out. In the building of the Rautenstrauch-Joerst Museum in Cologne [Foy, Dr. W., Ethnologia, Städtischen Rautenstrauch- Joerst Museum, Cöln; Leipzig, 1909. Museums Journal, vol. VI, p. 408, discussion of Dr. A. B. Meyers' paper on Museum Cases] the type of cases which would best display the objects was first considered, then the kind of light and size of room that would be most effective, and finally the exterior which would fit this interior. It matters little what style is adopted, provided that it does not interfere with the needs of the interior. The material of which the museum is built will depend largely on the amount of money at the disposal of the committee, but it must always be borne in mind that a third must be added to the contractor's price to cover possible changes and mistakes in estimates, and that the cost of proper installation is very high. It would be perfectly possible to build a museum of concrete or brick that would be better adapted to the collections than the usual marble structure and the saving in expense would be sufficient to insure adequate equipment for carrying on the work of the institution. This is a point too often neglected. Having spent several hundred thousand dollars on the shell, the Trustees find themselves unable to provide funds for the expensive installation which is needed by most art objects.
The museum Director working with the architect must consider the following points:
ENTRANCES
EMPEROR FREDERICK MUSEUM
is small and arranged for this contingency it may be permissible to expect to make one entrance serve both museum and lecture room. It must be borne in mind, however, that there are many occasions when it is advisable to use the lecture room at night, and if a separate entrance is provided, even if it is not always used, it is possible to do this without the expense of lighting and guarding the whole museum. A fourth entrance, which may have some connection with the last mentioned, should give access to the rooms of the staff. It should never be necessary for objects which are brought for the staff to examine to pass through the exhibition rooms. Even with every precaution in the way of checks it might be possible for a worthless object to be taken out of a checked bundle and some interesting and easily portable museum piece substituted. Again, on pay days, or when the museum is closed to the public, if there is no separate entrance to the rooms of the staff, it is necessary to admit free every person who says he wishes to speak to the Director, and then to provide him with an escort to see that he does not wander about the museum unattended. On the other hand, it does not do for the office of the staff to be accessible only to the public. It must be possible to have direct access to the galleries and exhibition halls. This can usually be arranged by placing the offices near the front door in such a way that a door leading from the vestibule gives direct access into one of the offices.The rooms then open, one into another, with possibly a private corridor, and this in turn opens into the museum. When the new museum buildings in Berlin are completed, the plan of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum will be much more rational in this respect. At present the only entrance is from the west and all the offices of the staff are in the east end of the building. Later it is planned to make accessible the doorway in the east end. which at present is blocked by the construction of the new building. Thus it will not be necessary for the public to pass through the museum, although it would be more convenient to do so. The National Museum in Munich has a large tower at the entrance and from the vestibule a special staircase leads to the Director's rooms. In this tower also are the library and a smoking room for the use of the staff. The grand staircase separates this tower from the main building. In this way the danger of fire, incident to the work of an office is removed from the museum building, and yet there is a ready means of access from each of the offices into all parts of the building.
If the plans for the new Historical Museum in Hamburg are ever carried out, the Director's offices there will be the best placed of any museum visited. The arrangement provides for a vestibule from which the public enters directly into the main corridor of the museum. To the left of the vestibule a door leads to the Director's offices and to the right to the lecture hall. Thus it is possible for visitors to be admitted at once to the presence of the Director and to leave again without even entering the main corridor of the building, at the same time using only one front door. The staff, on the other hand, can go from their office into the museum by going out another door which opens into the main corridor.
STAIRCASES
A Museum all on One Floor, the Glyptothek, Munich, Germany
tectural feature in these staircases. One of the worst examples of this fault is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. As we have saidelsewhere, the museum is so situated that it can never grow. Under the circumstances one would expect every available inch of space to be used for exhibition purposes, but, alas, two enormous staircases, one at either end of the building, absorb much useful exhibition space. Had the architect been willing to do without the huge structure in the front of the building he would have gained a large amount of space. The large staircase at the back of the building would have been quite sufficient for all ordinary purposes, especially when it is remembered that there are in addition three service staircases, any one of them large enough to amply take care of a good-sized crowd in case of fire or other danger. Two elevators add to the means of access from one floor to another. (See plan, page 17.) Many officials are looking toward the future for a type of museum building all on one floor, which shall be without stairs (cf. the Glyptothek, Munich). There is nothing more discouraging to the would-be museum visitor than to arrive inside the door and find himself confronted by a seemingly interminable flight of stairs which must be mounted before he attains his object. In the Boston Museum, for instance, the collections on the ground floor are for study and the visitor who wishes to see the exhibition collections must climb a flight of glaring white steps. How much better it would be to have an attractive vista of exhibition rooms opening out from the entrance hall and to hide the stairs somewhere in the ends of the wings where they need not be either costly or very large. By providing an elevator for the public and staircases six or eight feet wide, it would be possible to take care of even a rather large crowd. [In this connection let it be noted that there is an art in building stairs of the right proportion. The measure of the rise and tread of the stairs in the Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, is the most perfect so far as the author's experience goes.] Except for the one large staircase opposite the main entrance in the Metropolitan Museum, the wings are provided with staircases of normal size which are neither costly to build nor tiresome in appearance. Aside from all this the heating of a building which has huge stairways is always difficult. Elevators for the public are expensive. There must be licensed operators constantly in attendance and liability insurance must be carried. But if such an elevator is not provided there must be some means of taking lame persons or invalids over the stairs, in freight elevators if necessary.
CORRIDORS
this way without gaining something. The objection that passers-by interfere with those who wish to remain and look at the objects is hardly valid. If the visitor can be so easily disturbed he will gain little from his visit. On the other hand, corridors make a museum doubly hard to guard. Where one room opens into another, half as many guards are necessary as where each room opens only into a corridor, for if it is possible for a man to stand in one room and see into one or two other rooms he can do his duty much better than where he has to go to the door of a room in order to see what is happening within it. Some sort of access must be provided, but the clever architect will carefully study the problem of corridor space.
GALLERIES
The tendency nowadays is to provide a series of exhibition rooms where only the finest objects are displayed and a second series of study rooms, where the reserve collection is kept. Long experience, especially with archaeological material, has led Museum Directors to feel that a quantity of specimens illustrating any one class of objects failed to interest the public and that it is only by making a selection that they are able to appeal to the general visitor. It is often hard to draw the line between material which is important historically, and which the public should be induced to appreciate, and material which has no value except to the special student, particularly as it is usually the special student who is put in charge of the material. If one is to make a distinction, perhaps the easiest way to do it is by choosing for the public collections only material which has some artistic importance and leaving in the study series the replicas or less perfect specimens. With certain types of objects, as for instance, textiles, a changing exhibition is much to be preferred to the customary showing of all the pieces. This can easily be arranged and will take less space than if all pieces are exhibited. (See Chapter V.)
Starting then with this hypothesis, what are the rules in regard to proportion of rooms that must be considered? This is perhaps the most difficult point of all. No architect has yet succeeded in laying down rules which would always apply in regard to proportion, and much depends upon the material to be displayed in the rooms. Thus, for instance, rooms in which objects of various classes are displayed together according to period must partake somewhat of the general character of the century they represent. Should a museum be fortunate enough to possess actual interiors, special arrangement must, of course, be made for showing them. (cf. Zürich, museum; Stockholm, Northern Museum, and many others.) Galleries for sculpture require greater height than galleries for pictures. Where one is working with a collection already established it is much simpler to decide upon the necessary proportions of the rooms, but where the collections are yet to be made the only thing for the architect and Director to do is to arrange a sufficient diversity in the size and shape of their galleries to provide for all classes of material. The commonest mistake is that of making the side-lighted galleries too high and the top-lighted galleries too low. Among the best proportioned and best adapted rooms used for the exhibition of paintings are the new picture galleries of the Vatican. For very large top-lighted rooms those in the Brera, Nos. Ill, IV, V, in Milan are very attractive, though it would be impossible to use the same height here (26 feet, 9 inches to skylight, no inner ceiling light) as the light is so different, and rooms 46, 61, 63, 29, 34 in the Kaiser Friedrich are also very effective. A masterly discussion of the question of proportion will be found in the Boston Museum Communications to the Trustees, No. 111, The Museum Commission in Europe. Nowhere else has this matter been studied so profoundly and nowhere have the results been so carefully tabulated as here.
The question of proportion is intimately connected with the question of light, which leads us to our next subject.
LIGHT
Much the most important subject for consideration in the building of a museum is the relative advantage of top-light and side-light. Some twenty years ago no one would have considered for a moment the use of side-light in a museum. Now the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that there are some museum men who are unwilling to consider the use of top-light at all, except for modern painting. The usual reasoning is as follows. In the old days artists painted their pictures for rooms in palaces or churches or other places where side-light would be their portion. Now the artist must prepare for the fate which, if he is successful, awaits his pictures in the great exhibition halls all over the world. To put a modern picture, especially a large one, in an ordinary side-light, is to lose entirely the nuances desired by the artist. On the other hand, to put Italian primitives under a top-light is to lose much of their beauty. In this connection it is well to remember certain examples, as for instance Titian's Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, in the Academy in Venice. This picture has now been restored to its original place and nothing can exceed its charm when seen in the afternoon, with the western sun shedding a golden glow over the light in the room and rendering all the color in the picture luminous and gay.
If we are to give pictures their full value it is necessary to reproduce as nearly as possible the conditions under which they were painted or for which they were painted. Thus in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, the room which is devoted to the earliest Italian painting, although top-lighted, is so screened by glass as to give quite the effect of the dimly lighted church. Almost all early painting was intended for churches, and while it would be both unwise and stupid to try to reproduce the dimness of the church interior, it is also poor policy to provide too strong a light. We have all suffered in visiting churches for the purpose of seeing paintings, not only from the obstruction of candles, but also from the dimness of the light. In Italy, where the light is so strong outside, the windows in the churches are correspondingly small, and most of us have to accustom ourselves to the lack of light before we can begin to see the treasures that are hidden in this darkness. In France and Germany, on the other hand, where the light outside is never strong, the windows in the churches have become extraordinarily large, but they have been so filled with colored glass that the light within remains exceedingly dim. A British architect who has made a special study of museums both in this country and abroad, writes of "The excessive glare so loved by the American museum director" (American Museum Buildings, by Cecil Claude Brewer, F.R.I.B.A., Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3rd Series, vol. XX, No. 10). Yet an excess of light is much more to be desired than the reverse, for while the former can be controlled by curtains, louvres, and other devices, the latter cannot be increased without great difficulty once the building is completed.
More than one student of the subject has pointed out that top-light striking down on oil paintings has the disadvantage of falling upon the top surface of the painting, which when magnified is seen to be composed of little ridges. Top-light, instead of hitting the surface opposite the visitor, hits the upper part of the ridge and leaves the lower surface in darkness, thus giving improper values.
Top-light is unsatisfactory for rooms in which objects in cases are to be shown. If the cases are large, the reflection of the ceiling light in the glass seriously interferes with seeing the objects in the case. If, on the other hand, the objects are small and are placed in an ordinary desk case, the visitor in bending over the case finds his own image looking up at him from the glass, and it is only by a great effort that it is possible to see the objects on exhibition. Glass cases in general should be placed so that in looking at the objects the visitor should stand at right angles with the source of light. If the visitor is required to face the light, reflection takes place. If, on the other hand, the visitor's back is toward the light his own shadow obscures the objects.
The most difficult question to solve in an art museum is the light for sculpture. The consensus of opinion seems to be in favor of side-light. Let us consider some of the purposes for which sculpture is made. We have representation of religious personages; the decoration of gardens, including decorative monuments; grave sculptures; and portraits. In the first place let us consider what light there would be in a Greek or Roman temple. As we know, there were never any windows. All the light that entered came either from the great front door or, in some Roman structures, from a small aperture in the roof placed in the middle of the building and considerably in front of where the statue of the god would stand. In this way the top-light became in a measure side-light, through the distance that it had to fall. Of pieces intended for the decoration of gardens it is only necessary to say that the light in which they stood, though resembling in certain ways top-light, in that they stood in the open, was nevertheless modified by the presence of trees and shrubs which intercepted the direct rays of the light and made pleasing effects of shadow on and around the objects. Grave sculpture partakes of both these characters. Architectural sculpture, on the other hand, was never meant to be seen without some overhanging or projecting cornice which intercepted the rays of light sufficiently to give the shadow needed to show the modelling of the figures. Sculpture placed in a top-lighted room may lose much of the refinement the careful sculptor has given it. The shadows are all downward. Where it is necessary, however, to place sculpture in top-lighted rooms it is possible to arrange it in such a way that the figures, instead of standing directly underneath, will receive slanting rays. Who can doubt the beauty of the Fanciulla d'Anzio as she stands in the Terme Museum in Rome, with a softened side light falling upon her in such a way that the shadows play about all the lovely curves of her body? Another classic example is, of course, that of the Venus de Milo, who has stood for so many years in the side-lighted room at the end of the long gallery in the Louvre. Again, who will not agree that the ancient sculpture shown in that same long gallery is infinitely more attractive by reason of the light and shadow that plays upon it from the windows along the side, than the gallery of modern sculpture in the Luxembourg, where there is strong top-light? [On this subject see Light and Shade and their Application, by M. Luckiesh. (D. van Nostrand Co., N. Y., 1916.)]
In the consideration of side-light much has been said in regard to the necessity of using light only from the north. Any one who is familiar with the side-lighted cabinets in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum will admit the beauty and attractiveness of the south light which streams so warmly into the rooms where hang the paintings of the Dutch and German schools. The only advantage in north light is its convenience to the museum director and the custodians. A north light is always the same.
Direct sunlight is harmful to most classes of objects but cream-colored curtains can easily be provided, which, when drawn together, diffuse the light in the room, and when open are entirely unobjectionable, as they hang by the side of the window. (Compare Vatican picture gallery.) Light conditions vary so extraordinarily in different places that it is necessary in each case to experiment with the amount of light required. (See Communications to the Trustees, No. 4, Boston Museum Publications.)
The difference between top-light and side-light will never mean anything to the museum director who has not at some time studied the same picture under varying conditions. The writer once had the opportunity of seeing Correggio's Leda in the little side-lighted, white-washed room with the grisaille decorations by Tiepolo in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, where the wonderful charm of the color and the warm and lively composition were a joy to the beholder. A few weeks later the same picture was hung in its usual place in the top-lighted gallery No. 45. The drop in tone and the flatness of the color were very marked and the picture has lost immeasurably by the change. [On this subject see report of the Commission to Experiment upon Lighting of Rembrandt's Night Watch. (The Hague, 1902.) Abridged translation in Boston Museum of Fine Arts' Communication to the Trustees, vol. II.]
But when all has been said on both sides, we come back to the one matter of real importance which is that whether top-light or side-light is adopted, a proper diffusion of the light in the room is the one great desideratum. In order to obtain this, experiments must be made in side-lighted rooms with the height of the window sill from the floor, the size of the opening, and the proportion of glass to wall surface. In the same way with top-light, the height of the outer sky-light from the floor, the treatment of the space between outer and inner lights, the height of the inner glass ceiling, and the proportional size of this last must all be carefully studied, not only in already established and successful museums, but in the town and on the exact spot where the new gallery is to be located.
In general it may be said that if side-light is chosen for pictures and sculpture it should enter from a height, while for objects in cases and for prints a low side-light is preferable.
Intermediate between side-light and top-light is the clerestory system such as is used in the great hall of the Decorative Arts wing of the Metropolitan and in the basilica of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Here the light entering very high is reflected on the light walls of the upper part of the room until it becomes thoroughly diffused and loses definite direction. A successfully top-lighted room should have much the same characteristic; the wall surface needs to be lighted rather than the centre of the room and the problem is to so arrange the angle of light that in passing through both glass ceilings it becomes sufficiently diffused to give equal satisfaction in all parts of the room.
CEILINGS AND SKYLIGHTS
The great difficulty in museum rooms is to get the height necessary for proportion and good light without making the walls look too high and too dark at the top. After much experimentation, it has been discovered that a ceiling with a cove is best adapted for museum purposes. The cove makes a reflecting surface which sends the light directly onto the walls and diminishes the useless space above the hanging line. In the case of top-light, the cove ceiling is particularly important, for the dark pocket between the skylight and the walls is ugly and wasteful of light. In a side-lighted room, the cove may be much smaller than in a top-lighted room. It used to be thought necessary to make the ceiling glass the full width of the room, but now it has been found that the light is better and the whole effect more pleasing if the glass stops two to five feet from the side walls, according to the size and proportion of the gallery, and this space is filled by a cove. The ribs between the glass of the skylights should be as small as possible as each one casts a disagreeable shadow on walls and floor. By placing the glass at the bottom of these ribs rather than at the top this effect is minimized. In mild climates the ceiling light is sometimes omitted entirely but the attic space between the outer skylight and an inner glass ceiling is valuable in many ways, especially for ventilation. Excessive summer heat and winter cold are kept confined in the loft above the glass. A warning is necessary here in regard to the space above the ceiling light. It is one of the most important things in the whole museum that this should be accessible, decently finished and large enough to be ventilated and cleaned. The janitor should be able frequently to clean the ceiling lights, the electricians to work comfortably on the wires provided for artificial illumination which is now always above the ceiling light, and the beams and girders should be so placed that it is possible to provide curtains or shades or louvres to exclude too abundant light. Where the loft between the two glasses is small, the heat accumulates in this space in summer and it requires a very efficient system of ventilation to take care of it, but where the loft is large enough, it is easy to arrange openings provided with louvre vents in opposite walls so that a direct draft can be obtained. The dust that enters in this way is a serious matter but the heat in the galleries is worse, and, as the glass of the ceiling lights is usually set with felt, the dust that seeps through can be taken care of. Such extreme measures, of course, call for more constant cleaning, but the safety of the objects and the comfort of the guards and visitors will be sufficient to offset this. A fine wire screen placed on the inside of these openings will keep out birds and insects. In winter, of course, these louvre vents can be replaced by solid doors which will keep out the cold.
Museums in the north must contend with winter snows. It is hard to keep skylights from leaking if snow is allowed to stay upon them, aside from the darkness of the galleries. Shovelling off the snow is a difficult process because of the danger of breaking glass. Steam pipes should be provided running just under the glass. When snow has fallen the steam should be turned on very slowly and the snow gradually melted away. Heat too rapidly applied will cause the glass to crack. A certain American museum has arranged a sprinkler system for use on the outer roof in case of excessive heat in summer. It has not been working long enough to permit a satisfactory judgment of its efficiency. The same system was tried in Nuremberg but failed because the water poured on the hot glass caused it to crack. A skillful and prodigal use of water might, however, prove effective.
For various types of skylight the reader is referred to plates in the Museum of Fine Arts Communications to the Trustees, No. III, The Museum Commission in Europe, and to J. Guadet, Eléments et Théorie de L'Architecture, Tome II, Livre VII, Chapter VII; Dr. Heinrich Wagner, Handbuch der Architektur, IV Theil, 6 Halbband, 4 Heft, "Museen."
The monitor or lantern light has been developed in England with much satisfaction and was
 |
|
| Double Glazed Ordinary Skylight |
Vertical Monitor |
Types of Top-Lighted Galleries
studied very thoroughly by the late Professor Lichtwark of Hamburg who adapted it in various forms for use on the new Kunsthalle in that city. It has the advantage of not becoming clogged with snow in winter, of being easy to ventilate and of reducing the glare of light on the floor in the middle of the room. Architecturally it has a certain disadvantage in that it stands rather high above the surrounding roof of the building and must either be treated frankly as an architectural feature or screened behind some form of balustrade. Where practical it is very satisfactory and simple to work with.
OFFICES OF THE STAFF, LIBRARY AND LECTURE ROOMS
One of the commonest mistakes made in the planning of a museum is disregarding the fact that there will be a large amount of office work requiring a series of staff rooms. The staff do not need to occupy rooms of the height and proportion usually assigned to galleries, and it is, therefore, a waste of space to put the offices on the main gallery floor unless they are arranged with a mezzanine. There should be, even in the smallest museum, an office for the Director reached through one for the stenographer, and, as the building increases in size, provision for an assistant director, a bursar, a membership clerk, etc., etc. Small rooms are adequate and greatly to be preferred to one large room where many people work together.
An important point in connection with the offices must be the provision for the records of the museum. For them a fire-proof closet or vault should be built, unless the museum is able to provide safes, as the loss of the documents in connection with any work of art is almost as vital as the loss of the object itself.
Another room which should be easily accessible, not only to the staff but to the public, is the library. No museum officials can be expected to properly carry on their work unless they can be provided with certain readily obtainable text and reference books. Wherever it is possible there should also be a good collection of photographs which will be of the utmost assistance in determining attributions.
An important part of the function of the museum is coming to be the extension of the work of the staff to include lectures for the public. For this there must be provided at least one lecture room in the museum and preferably two. These rooms can also be used for meetings of outside organizations interested in the history of art, and by providing such space the museum becomes the centre for clubs studying this subject.
One of the best equipped lecture rooms in connection with a museum is the one at the Ethnographical Museum in Hamburg. This building has four wings which come together around two courts, forming an obtuse angle on the front. The entrance and vestibule are at this angle and the main galleries of the museum go out on either side. There is a central wing between these two side wings, which is occupied by the library and lecture rooms, and which joins the fourth wing at the back. This fourth wing contains the work-rooms, store rooms and the rooms of the staff, and communicates directly with the two wings in which is the main exhibition space. The Director's offices are approached by a separate door. The lecture room is thus directly accessible to the public without entering the exhibition galleries. At the back of the lecture hall is a room for the use of the lecturer. The seats are arranged as in a theatre, on the sloping floor, the stereopticon being placed about at the centre of the room on a stand which can be automatically raised and lowered. The lecturer stands upon a platform in front of which runs a long table. Beneath this table the lecturer finds electric buttons which control the shutters at the windows on the sides of the hall. By pressing one of these buttons the metal curtains at the windows are lowered practically without noise and with no effort. Another switch controls the lights, and still a third one the blackboard, which drops like the curtains in Greek and Roman theatres, into a socket in the floor. The stereopticon is a double one and is arranged so that two slides can be thrown on the screen at the same time, thus making it possible to compare very readily two types of material. Behind the screen is a blackboard which can be used when the stereopticon is not needed. In addition, on both sides are racks upon which maps can be hung and raised or lowered by means of a very simple device. They are so hung that several maps or charts can be arranged, one above the other, and yet so that they can be exhibited with a minimum of effort on the part of the lecturer. Mechanical devices of this sort are a nuisance when overdone. The late Dr. Meyer of Dresden was one of the first to introduce a large number of such systems into his museum and the student will readily perceive which of them are more ingenious than practical. [See F. A. Bather, Many Inventions, Museums Journal, vol. IV, page 202, and Dr. A. B. Meyer, III Bericht über einige neue Einrichtungen in Dresden, 1903.]
Common sense is a prime requisite for any one connected with a museum. It must be possible to tell the difference between a device which will be expensive to instal and not very satisfactory after it is installed, and one which is absolutely essential to the working of the museum. In the case mentioned, the presence underneath the table of the switches which control the curtains and the lights, is excellent. The advisability of having a disappearing blackboard and arrangements for hanging maps is not so apparent. In buying the stereopticon for the large lecture room it would perhaps be as well to provide a double-barrelled one, as it is certainly very convenient at times to have two pictures on the screen, side by side. Some museums may want to instal a reflectroscope by means of which it would be possible to throw upon the screen photographs or illustrations in books and other opaque material, in addition to the slides. There are several such machines on the market which are fairly satisfactory in a small room and with material which does not exceed 6x6 inches in size. Books are not as easily handled as the dealer usually represents them to be, and the strong focussing of light on the photograph or post card creates heat which is liable to burn it up if kept in too long.
Some museums have deemed it wise for the stereopticon to be in an adjoining room. In this case the end of the lens projects into the lecture room through a hole in the wall and all noise of the machine is shut off. In case this is done, some sort of a speaking tube has to be arranged so that the operator can get in touch with the lecturer, as a bell is not always sufficient to explain the lecturer's needs. Where two lecture rooms (a large one and a small one) are arranged side by side, some such system as this might permit the use of the same stereopticon for both rooms. The stand could easily be made to revolve and if the rooms are not used simultaneously there should be no difficulty. A separate room of this kind is necessary where motion pictures are to be shown and a fully equipped lecture room should not be without it.
The development of the nitrogen lamp has recently quite revolutionized stereopticon systems. A 1000 or 1500-watt lamp attached to an ordinary circuit can be operated noiselessly by even the most unskilled person with satisfactory results. Too much power is not wanted with slides and a cheap machine with good lenses provided with one of these lamps is perfectly satisfactory in a small room. In choosing a stereopticon it is well to remember that if it is possible to load and unload the slide carriage from the side next the operator much fatigue is spared. Constant reaching over to the opposite side of the machine to remove or put in a slide is tiresome as well as slower.
The ventilation of the lecture room should be carefully considered. In case it is impossible to instal the special lecture room system with the outlets under the seats there should always be outside windows which can be opened in case of need. It is unwise to put the lecture room on the regular circuit in an ordinary system, as the lecturer's voice and the sound of applause can be heard in all the other rooms on the circuit.
WORKSHOPS AND STORE ROOMS
The modern museum must be provided with workshops. Certain pieces of work should never be done outside. It is not always necessary to have workmen constantly employed in the building in all the fields that are needed, but the shops should be arranged so that an expert coming in from outside would not be handicapped. A restorer's studio, a carpenter's shop with a full set of tools and cabinet maker's bench, a printer's office with a small hand press, a paint shop especially fire-proofed and not connected with other rooms, a disinfecting room equipped with vacuum tank for the use of the textile department, a plaster moulder's shop, possibly even a small forge, and a photographer's studio are all more or less necessary. Some of these shops may be located in the basement, others, like the printer's office and the photographer's studio should be up under the roof. But wherever they are, they must be arranged so that large objects can easily be taken to and from them. Much better results can be obtained by the photographer with paintings in his studio than in the galleries. Access to the studio must therefore be provided. Photographer's quarters on the top floor of the museum building, in some out-of-the-way angle not needed for exhibition purposes, are often arranged, but the mistake is made of building a two-foot stairway leading up to them by which large objects cannot be taken to the studio. The main freight elevator shaft should in all cases go to the highest and lowest points in the building, as there is no use in rooms which cannot be reached, and every available space in the museum must be utilized. At the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, as in many others of our best planned museums, the elevator stops at the main gallery floor and under the roof are several storage rooms and an excellent photographer's studio. The most complete installation of workshops in this country is at the Metropolitan in New York. Here, in addition to the shops mentioned above, are the laboratories for the care of Egyptian limestones and the restoration of classical antiquities. In the Berlin museums a complete chemical laboratory adds to the equipment for the scientific care of art objects.
In most European museums it is considered necessary to have a caretaker live in the museum building and for his use an apartment is provided. In this country, however, this does not seem advisable. The janitors by day and watch- men by night are considered sufficient protection for any museum. The extraordinary difference between the frequency with which fire breaks out in this country in comparison with the rarity of its occurrence in Europe, makes an especially strong plea against providing in the museum, rooms which shall be occupied by a family.
Machinery should be kept as far as possible from the main building. In a large museum where a number of boilers are necessary for heating purposes and where an electric plant supplies the power to run the ventilating and lighting systems, this plant is usually placed either outside the museum entirely or in a court. In the old days when the coal supplies were kept on the floor of the boiler house and shovelled in by hand, there was invariably a large amount of dirt which could not be avoided. Now, however, when all up-to-date museums are putting in a self-feeding system of furnaces, the coal or oil is confined in bins or tanks and is passed from them through an automatic device, onto the fire. With such a device the boiler rooms can be kept as clean as any part of the museum. There is a minimum of fire danger, as the fire box is practically never opened. Of course it is necessary to provide especially thick walls with few openings and to avoid fire danger as far as possible. If this is done there is no reason why the boilers should not be put in the basement of the museum building, provided space is left above to take care of excessive heat. The electric plant is apt to cause vibration and noise and unless an especially silent set of machinery is installed it is much better to place it outside the walls of the museum. Of course it is always possible to use the current supplied by an outside firm but it is much more expensive than where electricity is generated at the building.
Store rooms of various kinds are needed. A large clear space which need not necessarily be lighted by daylight should be provided for boxes. A loan exhibition comes in, is unpacked and the boxes stored; perhaps fifteen or twenty boxes more come in before that exhibition goes out again. The store room must be so arranged that it will be possible to take out the first set of boxes without interfering with the second. Rooms for the storage of pictures and other art objects should be provided on the gallery floors. A small store room next the Director's office for objects offered for sale is a valuable adjunct and a store room near one of the entrances for objects loaned for special exhibitions by local artists is also a desideratum. These objects which are sent in to be passed upon by a jury should not have to be placed in the store rooms with more permanent material and should also be easily accessible when the artists call for them if they have been rejected or after the exhibition is over. There must also be storage space for janitor's supplies, catalogs and office supplies of all kinds.
FIRE RISK, RESTAURANT
Fire, theft and dust are the three great enemies of the museum Director. For some reason that is hard to explain, we, in America, are subject to a fire peril which is unknown in Europe. In Italy, for instance, it is a common experience to see a carpenter occupying a shop in the ground floor of a big apartment building, sweep together his shavings into the middle of his shop, set fire to them there, and then sweep the ashes into the street. Nothing ever burns down; whereas here with all the precautions that we take against fire we are constantly having terrific disasters. In most cities in America there are police regulations which must be complied with in regard to fire doors, etc., and the law in regard to entrances is very strict. All doors must be made to open out so that in case of fire the exits will not be impeded. The number of staircases, also, is regulated by law and often there are requirements in regard to the thickness of the walls. With all these things the building committee should be conversant.
An important precaution is the use of fire doors by means of which the different parts of the museum building can be shut off, one from another. These are often made with what is called a fusible link, an attachment which when the temperature reaches a certain degree, automatically closes the door. These doors are never handsome but if they are planned during the construction of the building they can be made to run in the thickness of the wall so that when opened they are concealed. If a plan is adopted similar to that of the National Museum in Munich such an arrangement is absolutely necessary, as a fire once started could spread too easily from one room to another, and what is more, the damage done by the smoke would be very great. Fire doors usually fit so tight that the minimum amount of smoke passes through them. In general, it seems wise to reduce as far as possible the number of places in the building where fires are lighted or matches need to be struck. In the carpenter's shop it is necessary to have an arrangement for heating glue. At the present time, a small electric machine which uses very little current can be obtained especially for this purpose, and these electric gluepots are much cleaner and safer in every way than the old-fashioned gas heaters.
A source of danger, but a necessary one, comes from the restaurant. It is only in the last ten years that restaurants in museums have been considered feasible. They were not necessary in the old days when the museums were much smaller than they are now, but since it has been the fashion for us to have buildings with the floor area of the Louvre and the British Museum and the Metropolitan, it has become necessary to provide the weary traveller with some means of sustaining life until he can accomplish his object. The size of the restaurants provided differs in different places, although the most complete and most delightful in many respects is the celebrated one at the South Kensington Museum in London. Here it is possible for people of moderate means to get a good and inexpensive luncheon in the large and airy room on the main floor. The epicure may go to the grill, at a slightly increased cost, select his own chop or steak, and see it cooked before his eyes, over a most dangerous and wholly beautiful fire under an enormous chimney. The luxurious may enter a third room fitted with all the appointments of a first-class hotel, where at a price commensurate with the glory about him he may eat an excellent meal.
The number of people who take advantage of this service is really astonishing. People even go there just for meals, but as the restaurant is cunningly situated at the farthest point from both entrances, going there just for meals necessitates passing through a number of the most interesting galleries in the museum, and the hungry wayfarer cannot help absorbing a certain amount of art as he passes by. Restaurants in museums do not need to be on this lavish scale. Even a small room where nothing but tea and sandwiches are served is a great help and a great rest. Some provision should be made for the staff of the museum. The ideal condition would, of course, be to have a small dining room for the use of the staff only, where smoking could be allowed if desired, and another room which should be open to the general public. Museums are usually situated at too great a distance from any centre for it to be possible for the staff to go out to luncheon and return within the usual one hour at noon. Cooking by electricity is the ideal arrangement, but this is usually too expensive to be practical and gas forms a useful substitute.
Bavarian National Museum, Munich, Germany
DETAILS OFTEN OVERLOOKED
No building committee should accept plans, no matter by whom they are submitted, without most careful study. There are certain points which every architect forgets, and it is the business of the building committee and the Director to see to it that they are remembered. Such, for instance, are the telephone system, bells, hardware, wiring for electric light, automatic burglar signals, gas pipes, arrangements for vacuum cleaners, and plumbing. All these things must be carefully considered before the building has gone so far that the cost of installation is going to be doubled. There is no reason why locks on the doors should not be considered just as well before the doors are ready to receive them, as after the doors are in place. The hardware is all ordered long before the building is ready for it, and unless unusual needs are specified at the time the plans are accepted there will be extra expense in later changes. Some doors must be locked on the outside and some on the inside only, a certain door must be accessible only to the staff and must, therefore, be arranged to be opened from the outside by a key and from the inside by a handle, but if this same door is so placed that it is possible for a thief to enter through a window at night there must be an additional lock on the outside of the door to keep him from going out into the gallery.
The position of the radiators, light switches, thermostats, ventilators and all such appliances must be carefully considered so that they will not interfere with exhibition space. In certain cities the fire regulations require the provision of four-inch water pipes with outlets and hose attachments at frequent intervals in the building. The law states that these must be "in a conspicuous place," and great tact and persistent effort on the part of the Director are often necessary in order to have these so placed as to comply with the regulations and at the same time not to occupy the best wall space in the gallery.
In one museum in this country, where no provision was made in the original plan for the offices of the staff, it was decided to use exhibition galleries for this purpose. Although architect and contractor both knew that this was the intention, no change was made in the order for windows, and the great solid and immovable steel and glass windows were put in place before Director and building committee realized that there must be a chance to change the air in the offices in a building that had no ventilation. To cut off these windows and provide a space that could be opened at the bottom was a great expense, and one that might have been saved by fore-thought. This simply goes to show that there is no detail that may be overlooked.
Architects in this country think that casement windows in order to be tight must open out. There are various disadvantages in this system. In the first place if a strong wind comes up when the window is open the strain on the frame and glass is enormous. The opening and closing of a window that opens out is much more difficult than if it opens in, but worst of all is the screening. On the ground floor of museums, casement win- dows are often provided. If they open in it is possible to put bars and screens on the outside with little expense. If they open out it is difficult to bar them and the screens must go inside and be arranged to slide up and down so as to provide access to the fastenings. Ordinary American windows do not give this trouble, of course, but where casement windows are specified they should be made to open in as they do in all continental European countries.
There are often dark days in winter when it is necessary to throw on artificial light, and even if the museum is not regularly open in the evening there will be certain occasions when it will be used after dark. Social functions held in the museum are a great help in increasing the membership and interest of the public. Some scheme of overhead lighting must therefore be arranged. It will also be found useful to arrange a plug in the baseboard which can be used either for special lighting or for a portable vacuum cleaner. Where the museum is to be lighted at night each room should be provided with one bulb on a separate circuit for the use of the night watchman. The question of how the lights shall be turned on and off is a serious one. In the case of a lecture room it should be possible either for the lecturer himself or for the attendant in charge of the stereopticon to turn the lights on and off in the room. In the Director's offices also it will be necessary to provide a switch which can be operated in the room. In almost every other case, however, it will be found much more satisfactory to have the lights operated from a central switchboard. This will obviate the danger which would arise were some visitor suddenly to turn off the light in a gallery. Key switches may also be used to good effect. In the Director's offices, it is an excellent scheme to arrange for a floor plug in the middle of the floor to which may be attached desk lights, as a small amount of concentrated light is often necessary where the room is not dark enough to require the full amount of light. These floor plugs do not need to be used and can be arranged flush with the floor and with a water-tight top, which is very inconspicuous. If these plugs are not put in until after the floor is laid the expense is enormous. If, however, it is all planned beforehand the expense is inconsiderable.
A more or less complete telephone system is necessary. It must be possible for the different parts of the building to communicate with each other. The Director must be in touch with all that is going on and must be able at any moment to reach the guards. Then, too, the telephone is a necessity in case of theft or any danger, as the guard can quickly notify the gatekeeper and prevent the escape of the suspect. Some arrangement should be made by which telephone communication can be maintained through the night as well as in the daytime; that is, a museum should never be put on a private branch exchange which depends upon a switchboard in some other building operated only in the daytime, unless it is plugged with one of the trunk lines at night. It will be necessary to arrange for a conduit through which telephone and electric wires can be brought into the building and another for gas and water. This conduit should always be placed at the time the foundations are being built, as otherwise it will be necessary to pierce through the wall at considerable expense. The small pipes running to the different parts of the building can be planned so as to take telephone, electric light and telegraphic wires from the watchmen's boxes. If all these things are planned ahead the expensive necessity of later changes will be avoided. The telephone people, if left to themselves, will bore holes and run their pipes, leaving no chance for any one else. No sooner have they finished than the burglar protection people will come along and need wires in almost the same places. That will mean another set of borings.
There should be at least one drinking fountain where the ever-thirsty public can be refreshed. Few people who have not been obliged to face this realize that not a day goes by without frequent requests for water. On each floor a mop closet should be provided with a slop sink and running water. There should be in connection with the rooms of the staff a chance to wash the hands, for the handling of documents and works of art makes this necessary. The provision of a toilet here also is a desideratum. In the case of a large museum a men's staff room and women's staff room are sometimes provided, and these are given elaborate toilet arrangements. Perhaps the simplest means of meeting all needs is to provide two bath rooms in connection with the staff offices which can be used as dressing rooms if desired. A public rest room should not be overlooked. Some thought must be given to the comfort of the guards and janitors. They will need lockers in which to keep their uniforms, and a dressing room. This same room can be used for their lunch room and should be provided with an electric plate or gas ring and a sink, so that coffee or other beverages may be heated and bottles washed. They will undoubtedly want to smoke at noon, and this room should therefore be so situated that it will be safe to allow this and also so that it can be properly ventilated without blowing the smoke into the halls of the museum. The public smoking room, or smoking room for the staff, should be entirely separate from this.
HEAT AND VENTILATION
Test of Heat Distribution in Kaiser Friedrich Museum System
wall and covered by an insulating wall which absolutely prevents both the loss of space incident to the usual method and the overheating of the wall at one point, which we sometimes find. It may be interesting to those who are about to build a museum, or to change the heating in some museum already built, to see the results of experiments made abroad, which are appended. (See page 62.) It will be seen from this that the temperature in the different parts of the room was extremely uniform, slightly colder near the floor but to no marked degree warmer at the top of the room. The system works perfectly in Germany and should do the same in America. In side-lighted galleries, radiators may be placed under the windows without interfering with exhibition space. In building a museum, the first requisite is to secure good light; the second, to secure available wall and floor space. In almost every case both wall and floor space are necessary. Radiators placed in the middle of a room not only become very disagreeable and ugly pieces of furniture, but they take available exhibition space. Radiators placed in front of the wall render useless the space which they occupy and make the wall directly above them unavailable for exhibition. There is no class of objects which can stand the continued heat. An interesting article on this subject is Die Lösung der Heizfrage bei Gemäldegalerien und ähnlichen Sammlungsgebäuden, by R. Stegemann, Museumskunde X, page 133.
We have not yet thoroughly come to understand, either, the importance of proper ventilation in the museum. Ventilation does not mean merely provision for a change of air. It means that no air should be taken into the museum that has not been screened and washed. Any one who doubts the amount of dust that is brought in by air can be easily convinced by once being taken to the intake in some building where the air is properly sifted. The system most commonly in vogue is that of drawing the air through cheese-cloth screens. Large wooden frames are provided, over which bags made of cheese-cloth are passed. These bags are scraped one day and changed the next. The amount of dirt which has accumulated on both sides of the bag is so great that it seems incredible. Another system is that of using exceedingly fine copper-wire screens over which water pours continually. The air passes through this screen and the water washes off the dirt which accumulates. At the same time the air is supposed to receive some dampness. This system is thoroughly satisfactory in summer, and if the air is not damp enough already; in winter, however, when the air needs to be heated there is no advantage in this more costly system, for the dampened air in passing over the hot coils is dried. Another system is usually installed providing either large pans of water, which are placed on the hot coils, or a very fine spray which rises with the warmed air into the galleries.
Another system passes the air through sheets of water arranged one behind another. By warming this water in winter the air is warmed and moistened and so rises to the galleries. Some such system is necessary in order to keep the humidity nearly the same all the year round. A temperature of sixty-five degrees to sixty-eight degrees is right for museum galleries. Curiously enough the Directors of Italian picture galleries find it impossible to heat their museums to the same degree that can be done in London without injury to their paintings, and the cause of this is undoubtedly the difference in dampness in the London climate over that in Italy.
Another very important fact that must be borne in mind is the necessity of keeping the temperature throughout the twenty-four hours somewhere near the same. Where European galleries have failed has usually been in providing heat only during the day. The drop in temperature during the night has done great harm to objects in the museum.
Sometime a system will be installed and operated by which museums can be cooled in summer and warmed in winter, and the humidity kept practically constant. Such a system has been installed in one of our great museums, but it has not been operating long enough to prove how successful it may be. All these ideal arrangements are very expensive to instal and still more so to operate. It is only the exceptional museum in this country that has a budget large enough to warrant the use of them. Humidity is tested in European museums by hygrometers, which are fixed to the wall in each room. In this country these hygrometers seem to be unsuccessful, perhaps because they are not watched sufficiently closely, and perhaps because they are meddled with by the public. If no hygrometers are provided in the rooms some person in authority should test the air at least once a day in order to tell whether the conditions are right for the works of art. It is not sufficient for us to provide a place where beautiful things can be seen to advantage. We must also provide sufficient care for those things so that future generations will not be deprived of their enjoyment. Thermometers of some kind are always placed in the rooms. Sometimes a thermostat is used. Like all mechanical devices it does not always work, and must be supplemented by the common sense of the guardians who should not themselves touch the apparatus but simply report to the superintendent of buildings or engineer.
In installing a ventilating system it is well to remember that toilet rooms should always have direct outdoor ventilation, the smoking room must be on a separate duct and the kitchen and lunch rooms on another. The odor of cooking in a museum is out of place, but where the lunch-room ventilator opens into the same shaft as some of the galleries there will always be a smell of food, ventilating experts to the contrary notwithstanding.
It is advisable also to have the lecture room on a separate circuit. (See page 46.)
The staff rooms should always be provided with windows which open, and radiators for heat, and should not have any artificial ventilation. No such system is satisfactory to live with, and individual preference and special conditions call for separate treatment. Dust and variations in humidity will not matter here, but the possibility of quickly airing off the smell of a cleaning compound or of ink eradicator will make a great difference in the comfort of the staff.
HOW MAY DEFECTS IN EXISTING BUILDINGS BE REMEDIED?
In Europe it is the exception for the building in which collections are housed to have been built purposely for a museum, and in this country also many an aspiring institution is located in an old dwelling house made over. The chief difficulties which are likely to confront the architect are concerned
Changes in Dresden Gallery
with the height of the rooms and the quality of the light. A room that is too high is quite as difficult to work with as one that is too low, although the remedy is much simpler. Many of the older European museums which were built with enormously high rooms have been found to dwarf the pictures to such an extent and to present such an ungainly appearance when hung according to modern taste with pictures on the line of the eye and not too close together, that it has been found necessary in several cases to lower the inner skylight. The problem has been met most successfully in Dresden, where the old-fashioned very high rooms have been cut down and provided with a cove ceiling. (See cut page 68.) This gives a large surface for reflection, which if painted in some light color is a great addition to the light which comes in above. The curved surface not only adds to the intensity of the light but makes the division of the walls for decorative purposes much simpler. It is always hard to handle a high wall, as a too great expanse of color is trying and gives an effect of height which is exceedingly unpleasant. The experiments made in various places of covering the lower part of the wall with a material, say, to the height of eight feet, and above that painting a band or frieze in a lighter tint, and then having the ceiling in a third tint, is apt to give more or less the effect of a patch-work quilt. The expense of putting in a false ceiling at a lower level is not as great since we have been able to build with steel and wire netting, as it used to be in the days when wooden beams or expensive stonework had to be used.
The problem of raising the ceiling in a room which is too low is much more difficult. Much can be done by the interior decorator to improve the looks of the room that is too low, but there have been certain unfortunate mistakes in some of our well-known museums where there was no remedy except to raise the roof. If it is possible to use these low rooms for small objects, they are very delightful and have a friendly appearance which never can result in rooms of the proportion of those on the main floor in the Brooklyn Institute, for example. Inadvisable as it is in building a new gallery to provide only north light, it is sometimes necessary where a gallery is too low and too hot. Where a room has been provided with an ordinary skylight, the heat in summer is often so intense that something has to be done. In that case it is sometimes possible to build a saw-tooth skylight admitting only north light. This will obviate the difficulty by excluding the sun, but gives a cold and unattractive light except for certain modern pictures. Another solution which can be used in certain places is that of providing the so-called Monitor light, which has been worked out by Professor Lichtwark in Hamburg following the scheme originally used in England. These Monitor or lantern lights are valuable especially in cases where the skylight has been made too close to the ceiling glass and where there is not enough ventilation. The form of the lantern in itself makes possible a much greater amount of ventilation through the skylight and the fact that it has a solid roof makes both the glare and the heat admitted less intense.
In the case of rooms which are by nature dark, where the diffusion of light is poor, something may be done by the use of prismatic glass, although its makers no longer claim for it the tremendous power it was thought to have when first discovered. One of the most interesting uses of prism glass may be seen in the Fogg Art Museum at Cambridge, Mass. There it is used as a supplement to the glass in the ceiling placed at an angle to it and diffusing the light in certain sections of the room. The problem there was that the light was too great in the front of the room and too little in the back. The diffusing glass placed at an angle has corrected this, so that now the light is evenly distributed throughout. Intensity of light is one of the most difficult things to gauge with the naked eye and a prism glass will invariably give the effect of darkening the room when used in side-light windows, from the fact that the observer cannot look through it. It has been claimed that the intensity of the light admitted through prism glass is the same as that admitted through ordinary glass, but the diffusion is much greater. Thus, a room opening on a small court or a side street, where the only good light is in the immediate vicinity of the window, can be made usable by supplying a glass which will deflect downward rays and turn them into the room.