404 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



sliip a?ul to advance the best educational work now carried on b}^ the 

 modern library."'^' The New York State Library aims at the j^reatest 

 conceiva))le utilization of all of its literary treasures. Its object is to 

 send every book where it will do the most good. I left this institu- 

 tion carrving- with me the highest respect for its director's talent for 

 organization. 



The University of the State of New York contributes an astonishing 

 amount to the universal distribution of knowledge in a manner quite 

 peculiar to itself. I am convinced that a great future lies before it. 

 Its work, however, has already received the greatest recognition, as 

 shown by the circumstance that at the Paris Exposition of this 3^ear 

 (lOOO) it received the remarkable numl)er of three first prizes ("grand 

 prix'"), one to the State Museum speciall}' for its paleontological pub- 

 lications, a second to the library specially for the establishment of 

 traveling libraries and the home-education department, and a third to 

 the college department for technical education. 



III.— BUFFALO. 



[On Lake Erie near Niagara, with over 350,000 inhabitants.] 

 8. BUFFALO PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



In the year 1836 the Young Men's Association of the City of Buffalo 

 was founded as a nuinicipal library. In 1885 a house of its own was 

 erected, the Buffalo Library, which, in 1897, was reorganized as 

 the Buffalo Public Librar3^ The building, also called Library and 

 Art Building, is massive and fireproof, in the Romanesque style 

 of architecture, with triangular ground plan, about 300 b}' 250 by 175 

 feet in size, and cost nearl}'^ $375,000 — about the same amount as the 

 site. Situated on Lafaj^ette place in the midst of the l)usiness houses 

 of a great industrial city, the exterior is already badl}- discolored by 

 smoke. It is now occupied by the following: 



In the basement, the museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural 

 Sciences; on the raised ground floor and the second stor}', the public 

 library; also on the second floor, the collections of the Buffalo Fine 

 Arts Academy and the Buffalo Society of Artists; on the third floor, 

 th&collections of the Bufi'alo Historical Societ3\ Within a short time, 

 however, the entire building will be given up to the librar^^ The 

 Natural History Museum will secure a home of its own from a bequest 

 of about $250,000. The Art Academy, which was founded in 1862, 

 will, together with the Society of Artists, with which the Art Students' 

 League is also connected, move into the Albright Art Gallery, now m 

 course of construction,* for which $500,000 are to be expended by 

 private individuals. Finally, the collections of the Historical Society, 

 which was also founded in 1862, were to be exhibited in connection with 



«Fighty-firs[ Annual Report, 1898, New York State Library, 1899, p. H, 

 ^]So\v rinislied (in Delaware Park) — 1903. 



