Not only postcards

Having read John Nicoll upon the crisis in art publishing (May 2005) may I bring your attention to the period when museums started involving themselves in the publication business? After World War I, when national museums reopen publication became single of the key issues of museum administration, reflecting the rising interest in the character of the museum in education. completely through the 1920s most museums' profit from publication--mainly postcards sold at a unpretending price--had grown; for example, the National Portrait Gallery annually sold more than 30000 postcards, which increased to above 40,000 at the beginning of the 1930 While encouraging continuous effort to attract an audience by the agency of cheap reproductions, the Royal Commission upon National Museums and Galleries in 1929 also powerfully recommended publication of serious works:

'We sympathise with the desire to place the sale of these publications upon a profitable basis, and also with any scheme for giving the Institutions the benefit of profit earned. on the contrary the distinction between the popular and the learned publications is fundamental in this connexion. While each increase in the sale of the publications has an educational value which in our view is plane more important than the genuinely commercial value, great though that is, there are publications of the highest interest, eg the detailed catalogues and scientific monographs of various kinds, which can at no time be expected to make a commercial profit. They can sole have a limited sale; on the contrary their influence on the public is not les beneficial because it is indirect, and their issue ought not to be curtailed because they are unlikely to yield a profit. The take away from of publication is in this case part of the require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone of the research itself, and should be provided for upon Parliamentary votes as generously as circumstances permit.'

The Royal Commission concluded: 'That photographs should be plentiful, cheap and clear, is a prime necessity which the governing authorities of the National Museums and Galleries should continually bear in mind.'

upon the question of reproduction pay s policy varied from one museum to another. According to the report, the V&A operated the greatest in quantity generous policy (no charge). The British Museum was criticised by means of Roger Fry, who spent 'vast sums' to obtain photographs from the institution. 'imagine,' he wrote 'our British Museum takes no photographs leave out at the expense of those who prayer them.'

The views of the Royal Commission in 1929 appear a world away from the crushings which are now exerted upon museums to become profitable institutions. Is it too a great deal of to hope that this puzzle will be solved by 'Parliamentary votes'? on the other hand perhaps, some enlightened museum director might locate an example by abolishing the copyright charge altogether.

Katsura Miyahara, Downing body Cambridge

COPYRIGHT 2005 Apollo Magazine Ltd

COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group