462 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



passed beyond our borders and their descendants, if perchance they 

 may be found, are too far removed in ancestry and from ancient 

 domain and conditions to be able to tell us much of ethnic interest. 

 The Iroquois who held most of the remainder of the territory re- 

 main, but during the past 40 years they have been stripped of their 

 ancient heirlooms and treasured relics by collectors who have been 

 silently busy. There will be no more harvests of the old products 

 of Iroquois handicraft — we may only pick up a few scattered 

 specimens that remain hidden in out of the way corners. The State 

 for many reasons has been oblivious to the true conditions and not 

 mitil 1896 was there an awakening when through the influence of Dr 

 Melvil Dewey, Secretary of the Beard of Regents, the following 

 bill was drafted and submitted to the Legislature : 



There shall be made as the Indian section of the State Museum, 

 as complete a collection as practicable of the historic, ethnographic 

 and other records and relics of the Indians of the State of New 

 York, including implements or other articles pertaining to their 

 domestic life, agriculture, the chase, war, religion, burial and other 

 rites or customs, or otherwise connected with the Indians of New 

 York. 



The trustees of the State Museum shall appoint on its staff a 

 competent curator, without salary, to make and arrange this Indian 

 collection, and for his necessary expenses, and for collecting or buy- 

 ing specimens for the Indian collection, there shall be paid by the 

 Treasurer, on the warrant of the Comptroller, from any money not 

 otherwise appropriated, not to exceed $5000. 



The bill was passed and became chapter 586 of the laws of 1896. 

 Then followed the activities of Mr A. G. Richmond who became 

 honorary curator of the collection, and of Mrs Harriet Maxwell 

 Converse. With the appropriation at service Mr Richmond pur- 

 chased a series of collections from central and northern New York 

 that today can not be duplicated. Among the collections are those 

 of John S. Twining of Copenhagen, N. Y., of Charles F. Moseley 

 of Bergen, N. Y., of William Lay and A. D. Crone of Honeoye 

 '^J'alls, N. Y., of W. S. Stone, Mt Vernon, N. Y., of Dr William G. 

 Hinsdale, Syracuse, N. Y., and of L. Walter Ledyard, Cazenovia, 

 N. Y. Active work in the field was done under the direction of Mr 

 Richmond in the counties of Madison, Onondaga, Montgomery and 

 Fulton and resulted in what is known as the de Clercq collection, 

 from the Messrs de Clercq and Hall who did the excavating. 



Mrs Harriet Maxwell Converse manifested her genuine interest 

 by donating as a memorial to her father, Hon. Thomas Maxwell, a 

 magnificent collection of articles of dress, domestic utensils, fabrics 



