An Empire Museum Survey

Abstract

AMONGST many topics dealt with by Sir Henry Miers in his fourth presidential address to the Museums Association was that of an Empire Museum Survey. A few years ago the possibility of so great a venture would have occurred to no one; now the Survey itself is far advanced towards accomplishment, thanks to the initiative and energy of Sir Henry Miers himself. It began with the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust survey of the museums of the British Isles; it was continued with rapidity when the Carnegie Corporation of New York, in addition to all it is doing for the United States, expressed its willingness to expend certain funds allocated for expenditure within the British Empire (exclusive of the British Isles) upon such a scheme. In 1931, Sir Henry Miers and Mr. Markham visited 121 museums and galleries in Canada; early this year they visited all the museums they could discover in the Union of South Africa and in Rhodesia, as well as many others encountered on the return journey by Khartoum, Cairo, and Port Said. This year also a survey of museums in British possessions in the Mediterranean Sea was carried out by Alderman Squire and Mr. Herdman. So that in a year, from June 1931 until June 1932, two-thirds of the Empire Survey has been completed; and now there remain only to be tackled the Commonwealth of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, the West Indies, and a few almost inaccessible places like the Falkland Islands.