Till- Muscinn Situation in Ciiiciiinali iVt 



State House iit Columbus, tlieu at the Suiithsonian, and then 

 sold to a gentleman in Enahuul where we must now go to eom- 

 j)lete our studies of Ohio Archeology. After much of the 

 material had l)een removed, Ohio started its state nmseum 

 to which it now gives $7,0()() a year and an excellent building 

 for the ))ur|U)se of asseml)ling Ohio material only. As for 

 inat<'rial remaining in Cincinnati, the best known collection 

 is now in our Art Museum. Smaller collections are found at the 

 Natural History Society and at the University, and there is 

 an unknown amount of good material in private hands. Its 

 value can not be known until it is studied, but the amount still 

 a\ailable would do something worth while toward retrieving 

 our loss. 



Aside from what is contained in the Art Museum, Cin- 

 cinnati can scarcely be said to have an historical museum. 

 There is room here for a prosperous society and an interesting 

 nmseum. What advantage over Cincinnati has St. Louis, 

 which enabled it to assemble one of the richest historical col- 

 lections in the United States? If one were a.sked to guess at 

 what point west of the original thirteen states such a museum 

 should be found, he would look to a locality which had been of 

 critical iin])ortance in aboriginal culture, settled early by the 

 white man, the center of a large population and a point inti- 

 mately as.sociated with the great movements of war and peace. 

 Such a jjlace is Cincinnati, but the objects which illustrate 

 or .symbolize the great events or daily life of former times are 

 not con.served for instruction and inspiration. 



A coin collection which any nmseum in the world might 

 covet was made in Cincinnati by the late Thomas Cleiieay. 

 On his death it left the city to be sold at auction in Philadel- 

 phia. E\en in this manner the collection brought nearly $20,- 

 000, partly from the United States Government. 



Coming to the realm of Natural Ili.story, Cincinnati 

 appears in her best light and her wonst. In the content of her 

 Zoological (iarden she is definitely outranked by New ^'ork 

 alone, lieing roughly coordinate with Philadelphia and Washing- 

 ton, though the race with Washington is 'hopeless. Chicago 



