"The object of the editors will be not to enforce any individual views, but to garner a rich harvest of fact and theory," wrote Elijah Howarth, the first editor of Museums Journal in July 1901. And what a rich harvest its contributors and correspondents have reaped, as the cuttings from the first 50 years show.
To stimulate the letters page and raise the standard of written interpretation in museums, Museums Journal began a regular feature on model labels. In response, an early correspondent wrote that if museums wanted to reach "intelligent workmen", they needed to speak "Anglo-Saxon", not Latin English.
International from the start, the editor reported that in Spain, the minister of education had taken the radical step of instructing all museums to open "all year round". From the US came the news of the premature death of George Brown Goode, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian, aged 45. A lengthy obituary peppered with many aphorisms coined by the great man, includes one that echoes down the ages: "No investment," wrote Goode, "is more profitable to a museum than in the salary fund".
"War is a great readjuster of values," declared Museums Journal in October 1914. With the Kaiser's army marching through Belgium, the magazine offered reassurance to readers wondering whether their work was truly important. It proclaimed that museum work was a national service, as British troops were already benefiting from the Army Biscuit Inquiry, under which the entomologists of the natural history departments of the British Museum recommended various pest-control measures.
On a brighter note, Museums Journal reported that museums were allowing women to enter freely again, now the risk of a suffragette wielding a hammer was over.
Low pay - always an issue
Advertising was one of many taboos broken by the first world war. The magazine published a scale of minimum salaries for a museum director the same year, which ranged from £300 to £1,200 a year, depending on the town's size.
As to what directors should do for these sums, A Sinnik suggested: "The director should see that each curator gets what he wishes, while at the same time getting no more than the curators think he should have." As for curators, they are to be selected for their "lack of interest in the public".
In 1930, the journal reported that training for young curators was being addressed by a four-day course. One student, writing under the pseudonym "Knocked-Silly", declared that a curator "who is not to discredit his high office must be an out-and-out blackleg", as life was too short to learn everything required.
In 1951, in the 50th anniversary issue, the editor dreamed of the day "when colour printing will arrive", along with a budget to pay for images and even the odd writer. Long before the next half-century, he hoped optimistically, "may they all be well-established features of a flourishing and valued magazine".
Javier Pes is the editor of Museum Practice
To stimulate the letters page and raise the standard of written interpretation in museums, Museums Journal began a regular feature on model labels. In response, an early correspondent wrote that if museums wanted to reach "intelligent workmen", they needed to speak "Anglo-Saxon", not Latin English.
International from the start, the editor reported that in Spain, the minister of education had taken the radical step of instructing all museums to open "all year round". From the US came the news of the premature death of George Brown Goode, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian, aged 45. A lengthy obituary peppered with many aphorisms coined by the great man, includes one that echoes down the ages: "No investment," wrote Goode, "is more profitable to a museum than in the salary fund".
"War is a great readjuster of values," declared Museums Journal in October 1914. With the Kaiser's army marching through Belgium, the magazine offered reassurance to readers wondering whether their work was truly important. It proclaimed that museum work was a national service, as British troops were already benefiting from the Army Biscuit Inquiry, under which the entomologists of the natural history departments of the British Museum recommended various pest-control measures.
On a brighter note, Museums Journal reported that museums were allowing women to enter freely again, now the risk of a suffragette wielding a hammer was over.
Low pay - always an issue
Advertising was one of many taboos broken by the first world war. The magazine published a scale of minimum salaries for a museum director the same year, which ranged from £300 to £1,200 a year, depending on the town's size.
As to what directors should do for these sums, A Sinnik suggested: "The director should see that each curator gets what he wishes, while at the same time getting no more than the curators think he should have." As for curators, they are to be selected for their "lack of interest in the public".
In 1930, the journal reported that training for young curators was being addressed by a four-day course. One student, writing under the pseudonym "Knocked-Silly", declared that a curator "who is not to discredit his high office must be an out-and-out blackleg", as life was too short to learn everything required.
In 1951, in the 50th anniversary issue, the editor dreamed of the day "when colour printing will arrive", along with a budget to pay for images and even the odd writer. Long before the next half-century, he hoped optimistically, "may they all be well-established features of a flourishing and valued magazine".
Javier Pes is the editor of Museum Practice
