22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



V 



CONSIDERATIONS FOR FUTURE GROWTH OF THE 



MUSEUM 



The Director in previous reports and on many occasions has set 

 forth the conception of the central State Museum as pictured by 

 the statute, and has failed of no opportunity to present the claim 

 of the statute to the attention and consideration of the people and 

 their representatives. Constant dropping will wear away the hard- 

 est stone; constant reiteration may eventually effect the purposes 

 of the law. . It has been a source of gratification to find the expressed 

 purpose of the statute as so often and so urgently presented, 

 indorsed by the speakers who participated in the dedicatory exercises 

 at the formal opening of the Museum. 



Senator Henry M. Sage said: 



It is hoped that its [Museum's] growth will finally include collections of 

 every kind which have an educational value to the people of this State. The 

 " chariot is hitched to a star," and yet no great thing has ever been accom- 

 plished without ambition seemingly impossible of fulfilment. 



Dr Francis Lynde Stetson said: 



So for our own people, this generation as well as its successors, wise pre- 

 vision is needed and also' wise provision, and the people of the State of New 

 York need, even though they may not know it, the creation and nourishment 

 of public museums of art and of science and in particular their own museum, 

 in this capital city. 



Mr Theodore Roosevelt said: 



I warmly sympathize with the ambition expressed in your annual report to 

 have this Museum more than a mere scientific museum. It should be a 

 museum of arts and letters as well as a museum' of science. 



The science museum in its present development constitutes a 

 unit in the museum scheme. The development of the additional 

 units must be a matter of slow growth, but it is not necessary to 

 wait for the development of these additional units in the central 

 State Museum in order to validate the provisions of the statute 

 which give to the central Museum control, the same advisory and 

 inspection functions as are given to the State Library in its attitude 



