61 



Thinking that you would doubtless be more interested in a 

 statement of the work now in progress and in immediate pros- 

 pect than in an account of the development of our operations, 

 I have left myself time for only a brief sketch of the history 

 of the State Laboratory from its origin in the Museum of the 

 old State Natviral History Society. This museum, transferred 

 to the State Board of Education at Normal in 1871 for the 

 use and benefit of the state, received from them the name of 

 the Illinois Museum of Natural History, and their intentions 

 concerning it were described in resolutions adopted December 

 15, 1875, in which they say: "We regard the Museum as a 

 State Institution, devoted to the prosecution of a natural his- 

 tory survey of the state, * * * * and we consider it an 

 important part of its work to supply collections of specimens 

 to public schools, * "'' ' * * and especially to provide all 

 needed facilities for the instruction of teachers in natural his- 

 tory, and in the most approved and successful methods of 

 teaching the same." 



In the law of 1877, however, which established a State 

 Museum at Springfield under the name of the Illinois State 

 Historical Library and Natural History Museum, it was 

 directed that the old museum of natural history at Normal be 

 converted into a state laboratory of natural history, at which 

 the collection, preservation, and determination of all zoological 

 and botanical material for the State Museum should be done; 

 and it was further made a part of the duty of the director of 

 this laboratory to provide, as soon as possible, a series of speci- 

 mens illustrating the zoology and botany of the state, and to 

 deposit them from time to time in the State ^Museum. In 

 this same act $1000 per annum was appropriated, to be ex- 

 pended under the direction of the director of the State Labora- 

 tory at Normal, for the purpose of increasing the collections in 

 natural history in the State Museum at Springfield. The collec- 

 tion of birds now in the museum, the mounted mammals, the 

 casts of fishes, most of the insect collections, and a considerable 

 quantity of botanical material are among the products of these 

 appropriations so made. 



