6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



VI Report of the State Entomologist 



VII Report on the Zoology Section 



A'lII Report on the Archeology Section 



IX Publications of the year 



X Staff of the Science Division and State Museum 



XI Accessions to the Collections 



XII Appendixes (to be continued in subsequent volumes) 



All the scientific publications of the year. 



THE STATE MUSEUM LAW 



The present attitude of the State of New York toward its museum 

 is defined in the statute enacted in 1889 ^^^ incorporated without 

 change in the codified Education Law of 1910: 



All scientific specimens and collections, works of art, objects of historic 

 interest and similar property appropriate to a general museum, if owned by 

 the State and not placed in other custody by a special law, shall constitute 

 the State Museum. 



This provision for the existence of a State Museum is brief and 

 precise, but the conception which lies behind it is broad, enlightened 

 and efficient. Provision is made, not alone for a museum of science, 

 even though to the present day the science museum only has received 

 recognition and support by actual allotments from the Legislature. 

 The law is broader than the present exercise of that law and the 

 genius of the brief enactment cited rises above the actual condition 

 attained by virtue of it. 



THE STATUTORY CONCEPTION OF A " STATE MUSEUM " 



The letter and evident spirit of the law provide not only for the 

 museum that now exists, but for any public museum which the 

 people of the State may choose to bring into existence, whether it 

 be a museum of history, of art, of industry, or of education; and 

 all such museums and their materials shall constitute the State 

 Museum. The statute clearly opens the way for the institution, 

 at the will of the people, of a series of museums or departments 

 of a State Museum, as many in number and nature as the reason- 

 able demands of a populous, wealthy and intellectual state may 

 regard essential to the instruction of its people. No law for the 

 establishment of public museums could be broader in import or 

 susceptible of a more generous interpretation in strict accord with 

 the expressed wishes of the people. It is the deliberate expression 



