Further to Visigoths, Villa, and Vhy-Ve-Are-Here, I have this to add
from a recent paper by Marjorie Halpin (of this museum), she writes:

"On September 17, 1773, the following notice appeared in English
newspapers, signed by Sir Ashton Lever:

This is to inform the Publick that being tired out with the insolence of
the common People, who I have hitherto indulged with a sight of my museum
[at Alkrington], I am now come to the resolution of refusing admittance
to the lower classes except they come provided with a ticket from some
Gentleman or Lady of my acquaintance.  And I hereby authorize every
friend of mine to give a ticket to any orderly Man to bring in eleven
Persons, besides himself whose behaviour he must be answerable for,
according to the directions he himself will receive before they are
admitted.  They will not be admitted during the time of Gentlemen and
Ladies being in the Museum (quoted in Alma Wittlin [1970], Museums:  In
Search of a Usable Future, Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press).

"More than a century later in New York, anthropologist Franz Boas wrote that:

The value of the museum for popular entertainment must not be underrated,
particularly in a large city, where every opportunity that is given to
the people to employ their leisure time in healthy and stimulatin
gsurroundings should be developed, where every attraction that
counteracts the influence of the saloon and of the race-track is of great
social importance ([1907], "Some Principles of Museum Administration,"
Science, June 14)."

Kersti Krug
Museum of Anthropology
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada