8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Life-size panel restorations of dorsal and ventral surface of 

 Hughmilleria and Eurypterus 

 By G. S. Barkentin 



General Museum matters. For a year past the funds of the 

 Museum have been too low to hasten the progress of the work. 

 It has been necessary to fall back practically to the appropriation 

 which for years has been made without change for the maintenance 

 of the entire work of the Science Division, regardless of the added 

 cost and responsibility of ^luseum equipment. Should anyone be 

 disposed to intimate that the equipment of the Museum was not 

 advancing with expected celerity, here lies the cause. 



The present quarters of the ^luseum are in many ways attractive 

 and capacious but are far from presenting ideal conditions for a 

 museum of any kind. The space available for the display of the 

 scientific collections is wholly inadequate and compels the contrac- 

 tion of these collections, even though they are planned to represent 

 only the natural resources of New York State, to much less, both 

 in quantity and quality, than they ought to be and much less than 

 the actual possessions of the Department would permit. This very 

 fact has required the most careful and serious consideration in the 

 selection of the superior material only for exhibition purposes, 

 while very much that is good and instructive and equally important 

 to have accessible, remains and must continue to remain out of 

 sight on account of this lack of adequate room. This is a 

 serious obstacle to the development and future growth of the 

 Museum, and there is not much satisfaction in looking forward to 

 the time in the immediate future when it will be necessary to 

 regard the Museum as finished, for such a condition implies stag- 

 nation and will fail to measure up both with the public interest and 

 the demands of the science, were it not that we may anticipate with 

 reasonable hope the time when the science museum, together with 

 the other museums which, though not yet realized, are contemplated 

 in the organic law governing the State ^luseum, will be installed 

 in its own building, free of entanglements with interests not wholly 

 germane to its. own. 



