REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9I2 13 



administration of the State Museum to offer to the visiting pub- 

 lic a show of '' curios/' or a series of discrete and incongruous 

 objects without rationale or consecuity. It is its purpose to 

 bring through the public eye into the public heart the concerns 

 of the natural resources of the State ; the stories they tell, the 

 business they record, the possibilities of commercial develop- 

 ment they carry, the welfare and protection of the life that con- 

 stitutes our native fauna and flora ; to portray the development 

 of the State from the beginning of its geography and with it to 

 depict the course of its life through prehistoric stages up to the 

 day of our aborigines with their multifold activities and culture ; 

 and so into the border lands of actual history. 



Enough has been intimated in the foregoing in regard to the 

 educational purpose of the State Museum of Science to make 

 way for the conclusion that such functions can not be realized 

 without a liberal support from an intelligent community. The 

 State of New York can make what it will of its Museum — a 

 storehouse of scientifically important but educationally arid facts, 

 or a conservatory of inspiring and uplifting knowledge of its 

 natural resources. To elect the latter as a deliberate .policy of 

 the Education Department is of necessity to supply the Educa- 

 tion Department Avith the requisite funds to do it. It is in all 

 respects a question of funds, for neither competent and enthusi- 

 astic men nor adequate materials are wanting for such an end. 



It is therefore most proper at this juncture in the history of 

 the organization to direct public attention to these requirements 

 if the real purpose of the State Museum is to be assured. 



Though it has been the practice of the State heretofore to 

 encourage these several lines of scientific research, it has not 

 l.^een its practice to give hearty support to the development of 

 its Museum. The State Museum as a depository of natural 

 resources has been rather tolerated than espoused. Its collec- 

 tions have come to it incidental to other activities rather than 

 I>urposely and for definite educational ends. The State Museum 

 does not compete with the great civic but privately supported 

 museums of this country and this day. Its field is not the world, 

 but the State of New York. It should not attempt to exploit 

 the world for its materials or for its educational purposes, but it 

 should exploit the State of New York to its utmost, in order to 

 set before the citizens of the State a conception of its natural 

 resources and of the large scientific problems arising with them. 



