8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



here pursued, that will be of effective instructional value entirely 

 creditable to the State. 



That a knowledge of a state's natural resources is of paramount 

 moment to the people, needs no argument. That the people should 

 have an insight into the larger scientific problems based upon and 

 arising from these natural resources, will not admit of debate. In 

 the natural and orderly development of practical and intellectual 

 interest among the people, these are demands which have a superior 

 force because they develop first. 



But this great Commonwealth has certainly reached a stage of 

 intellectual attainment where it may demand now, or should demand 

 soon, the development of the fuller conception of the additional 

 museums to which the statute has pointed the way. The State of 

 New York has no museum of its own history. Whether it should 

 have is not a matter for debate. The director's project for such a 

 museum has been approved by the Commissioner of Education, 

 by a special committee of the Board of Regents, by unanimous vote 

 of the Board itself, by the finance committee of the Senate and by a 

 thousand expressed opinions of competent citizens. Yet it does not 

 exist. The substantial means fail largely because a locus for such a 

 museum still fails. The hope that the Education Building might 

 accommodate such a museum probably must be abandoned for want 

 of room, and until there is a definite answer to the question " Where 

 are you going to put it? " the appropriations necessary for its crea- 

 tion will be withheld. For such an historical museum public senti- 

 ment is ripe, and the time is ripe. In the impending amplification of 

 the State's buildings provision should be made for it. 



Have the people of the State of New York reached a stage of 

 such intelligent concern in their past as to desire a portrayal of the 

 development of the industries on which their wealth and happiness 

 so largely depenxi ? Has not the time arrived when a museum which 

 would teach the people how the raw material in every line of in- 

 dustry is evolved into the finished product, would have a very dis- 

 tinctive usefulness to all the people? How many among the ten 

 million citizens of New York know that their morning newspaper 

 requires in its manufacture the use of sulfur and lime, and talc or 

 clay as well as wood ? One who is concerned with modern methods 

 of any manufacture will be as much concerned in the historical 

 development of that industry. Here lies an immense field of deepest 

 concern and very high instructional value. To such an inspiring 

 institution as a museum of industry, all paths would lead ; the direct 



