FOURTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I907 III 



VII 



A STATE HISTORICAL MUSEUM 



Section 22 of the University Law as amended to 1904 reads in 

 part as follows : 



State Museum: how constituted. 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 specific law, shall constitute 

 the State Museum. 



The State of New York has made provision for the acquisition 

 and preservation of historical records but these only in the form of 

 documents, written or printed, of which the State Library has now 

 become a vast treasure-house. The Bureau of ^Military Statistics 

 pertaining to the department of the Adjutant General has brought 

 together by voluntary cooperation an extensive store of military 

 relics, in very large part memorial of the Civil War ; the State 

 Historian is authorized by law to " collect, collate, compile, edit and 

 prepare for publication all official records, memoranda and data 

 relative to the Colonial Wars, W^ar.of the Revolution, War of 

 Eighteen Hundred and Twelve, Mexican War and War of the 

 Rebellion, together with all of^cial records, memoranda and statis- 

 tics affecting the relations between this commonwealth and foreign 

 ix)wers, between this State and other States and between this State 

 and the United States." He is not empowered to acquire other 

 historical materials- than the data above referred to, nor has he 

 authority of law or appropriations to acquire historical " objects " 

 as distinguished from records, memoranda and documents. There 

 is thus no department of the State which has adequate authority, 

 breadth of scope and available funds for acquiring and conserving 

 "objects" of historical importance, in distinction from historical 

 *' documents," except the Education Department through the agency 

 of the State Museum. 



Importance of a State historical museum 



Throughout the history of the commonwealth no systematic cfTor; 

 has ever been made on the part of the State to conserve the relics 

 of its history. In the early career of tlie State Museum a good 

 many objects pertaining to the early culture of the comnuuiity 

 came into its possession, but in the developnicnt of tlie nuiscum, 



