10 . NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MUSEUM 



During the year the erection of additional exhibit cases with 

 their displays has reached close to the walls of the Museum halls, 

 and has practically preempted all the available floor space of the 

 Museum. Further exhibitions must be carefully planned with 

 reference to the amount of floor space to be occupied, lest too 

 serious encroachment be made on the aisle space necessary for a 

 dignified presentation of the displays. These physical limitations 

 of the Museum necessitate the constant renovation of the exhibits, 

 the substitution of specimens by materials of a better quality ; and 

 while these physical boundaries of the Museum are to be regretted 

 because of the constraints which they compel, yet they afford an 

 opportunity of beautification which might not otherwise be practic- 

 able. There is an undoubted and obvious advantage in the restric- 

 tion of a museum to a reasonable area. A museum in which the 

 floor space is without restraining limitations and is distributed over 

 several floors, often becomes a receptacle of materials which are 

 put on display solely for the purpose of filling space, and are 

 quite likely to detract from the impressiveness and quality of the 

 museum as well as to add to the fatigue and labor of the visitor. 

 The thought is kept in mind that a public museum of this kind will 

 be the resort of the people rather more than of the special student, 

 and while the demands of a scientific and orderly classification, the 

 requirements of scientific students, are not lost sight of, the 

 arrangement generally and the mode of display must be of a sort 

 to elicit the interest of the average visitor. 



The largest addition of moment to the collections has been that 

 returned to the Museum from the Panama-Pacific Exposition. 

 The exhibit made in San Francisco was entirely given over to an 

 illustration of the mineral industry of New York, and the materials 

 sent there were in a large measure brought together for that specific 

 end. With their return they constitute a very important addition 

 to the Museum displays in practical and applied geology. With 

 them came fifteen cases which had been built to accord with the 

 case patterns adopted in the Museum, and though these were of 

 somewhat inferior quality of material, they have been adapted to 

 the geology exhibits, and the geology hall is now fairly well 



