Abstract
IMPORTANT developments in policy and organization, made possible by an increased Treasury grant, were announced in the annual report of Council of the National Museum of Wales, which was presented at the court of governors held at Cardiff on October 23, when Mr. W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, vice-president of Council, was in the chair. An immediate addition of £1,500 per annum, to be followed by two increments of £750 per annum, will raise the Treasury grant to £20,000 per annum in all by April 1, 1938. Of the additional income, the Council proposes to set aside part to form a fund for the purchase of collections of outstanding importance, otherwise beyond the normal resources of the Museum. Of even greater interest, however, is the second development, to which effect has already been given. The Sub-Department of Folk Culture and Industries within the Department of Archaeology has been advanced to the status of a full department. It will cover the national ethnography and cultural history of Wales from the Act of Union of 1536 to the present day, with the proviso that the modern industrial civilization will not be coveied, save to a limited degree. It will, therefore, concern itself with the trades and crafts, the ways of living and working, the domestic and industrial environment, and the clothes and customs of past generations of all ranks of the Welsh people. The enhanced status of this section of the National Museum is no more than due recognition of the value of a piece of work to which much time and research have been devoted by the responsible authorities, and from which important studies have already accrued. The collections at Cardiff illustrating the life and culture of the Welsh peopleeven more now that this opportunity for expansion is afforded themprovoke regret that no similar unitary collection deals in like manner with the folk history of England.
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National Museum of Wales and Welsh Cultural Studies. Nature 138, 751–752 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138751d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138751d0