22 . NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sity, required ready access to this material in order to facilitate 

 his investigations. 



Lack of space. I again direct and urge attention to the over- 

 crowded condition of our quarters, which must and does by the 

 very nature of the circumstances become aggravated as time goes 

 on. Last year I reported an addition to our eollectioUfS from Jan. 1 

 to Oct. 1, 1899, of 10,000 specimens^ and it will be seen by refer- 

 ence to the accompanying list of accessions for the current year 

 that we have added more than another 10,000. Our space on the 

 other hand has not increased, and the possibility of expansion is 

 at an end so far as our present quarters are concerned. We 

 adjust ourselves to this condition only by packing from drawers 

 into boxes and from boxes into drawers as particular instances 

 and cases requiring special and immediate investigation require, 

 but it is a source of very great embarrassment to be compelled to 

 place out of reach in boxes stacked away in the basement of this 

 building, material which ought to be accessible on demand and is 

 needed in the daily course of our work. 



It is hardly necessary to rehearse the fact that, when we took 

 possession of the State hall in pursuance of laws of 1883, ch. 355, 

 it was with the presumption and expectation that this building 

 would eventually become the home of the museum ^^ as it was 

 vacated by the state officers"; but it was long ago recognized 

 that the purpose of the law could not be accomplished. On the 

 other hand, instead of acquiring additional space, we have during 

 the last 15 years lost room by being compelled to yield to the 

 growing demand for space of the various departments in the 

 building. While therefore our work has been relatively increas- 

 ing and our collections greatly augmented, the space which we 

 can control for our collections has lamentably and most seriously 

 decreased. In fact, our quarters in the State hall are only store- 

 rooms, and so long as our important collections, an altogether 

 unequaled and unapproachable representation of the fossil wealth 

 of the state, remain as they are, virtually out of sight, the work 

 of the department must continue at a serious disadvantage. 

 This is specially felt in its effect upon the educational bearing of 



