Entry as a Right

Abstract

The pattern of museum growth in America has been exactly the opposite of what took place in Europe. In Germany, Austria, France, England and the other European countries, the private collections came first and public museums developed from them. In America, public museums were in being many years before the great private collections began to be formed. It is true that during the present century many of the private collections have either been bequeathed to existing museums or transformed into public institutions, so reproducing a process which had been in evidence more than a century before in Europe; but by then the American idea of a museum established for the benefit of the whole community had struck deep roots.