IOWA ACADE.MY OF SCIENCE 159 



sent in would be identified and prepared, and duplicates distributed 

 to tlie schools, whereby each would in a short time become the pos- 

 sessor of a small museum representative of the state, and thus afford 

 and encourage conservation in nature in the young minds while they 

 are eager to grasp it. Then, as they advance to the high school or 

 college, they will have acquired a training preparing the way for 

 further and higher study along the same lines, and where they will 

 then find more advanced and larger museums. 



A general harmony of the citizens of the state would also be brought 

 about, and they would feel that they had a personal interest in the 

 schools, as they would probably have contributed something to each, 

 and all would feel proud that they had helped to build the central 

 state museum. Above all, thousands of valuable objects of historic 

 interest and scientific value would be preserved and placed where they 

 would become an everlasting benefit, instead of being "scattered to the 

 four winds," or going to destruction entirely. The writer's attention 

 is called almost daily to some article of historic or scientific value, that 

 some fellow used to have, but he doesn't know where it is now. "I 

 would have given it to you, if I had known you wanted it," is the 

 reply generally made by them when asked what they did with it. 



The State Historical Building is a magnificent specimen of archi- 

 tecture, and in this respect is a credit to Iowa, but its designer seems 

 to have regarded its use as a museum as quite secondary, and in this 

 we have a remarkable illustration of shortsightedness. However, this 

 is but one instance out of many, and we are gladly accepting the situa- 

 tion, and are trusting to future developments. "We have been "hang- 

 ing on and hammering away" under innumerable difficulties, awaiting 

 the 'ime when the museum will be more than a secondary considera- 

 tion, for in the eyes of the common people of Iowa, the citizens of the 

 state, the people to whom the institution belongs, the museum is every- 

 thing, but it has only just begun. Will you help finish it? 



