30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Newland and Air Jones, will eventually be brought to a successful 

 conclusion. 



Paleontology. The collections in the paleontology section which 

 are very large, came to the new quarters in unavoidable disorder, 

 due to the fact that the best part of them had been twice moved 

 since the dismantling of the exhibit in Geological Hall, and the rest 

 had in large measure been packed in boxes from five to thirty 

 years and during this time shifted from pillar to post — from 

 Professor Hall's laboratory to the State Hall and Geological Hall, 

 from there to the McCredie malthouse, to the Taylor brewery — 

 at length to this building where, for the first time since their col- 

 lection, all were assembled in one place with the purpose of selec- 

 tion for one permanent exhibit. The boxes and crates and drawers 

 containing this material were more than a thousand and the first 

 and immediate problem here was to ascertain the nature and 

 quality of their contents. 



The progress made in this work is satisfactory, in view of the 

 small number of men on the staff available for such service. The 

 paleontology cases, 66 in number and consisting at present of four 

 different types of construction, were made finally available in 

 August and, except for a few of the smaller ones intended for 

 special exhibits, all have been filled with a temporary arrangement 

 of materials, and a final and permanent display has been worked 

 out for certain groups of fossils : the Trilobites, Eurypterida, Cru- 

 stacea and Cephalopods. This work has been carried out by 

 Doctor Ruedemann, Mr Hartnagel and Mr Wardell. 



In addition to this, much has been accomplished in the prepara- 

 tion of large exhibits of invertebrate fossils mounted on uncovered 

 pedestals. Of these are a unique slab of Devonic starfish 4 feet 

 9 inches by 4 feet 9 inches, from Saugerties, N. Y., collected and 

 mounted by Mr Wardell; a very striking display of cephalopods 

 from the Agoniatite limestone, collected by Mr Hartnagel, developed 

 by Mr Norton and mounted by Mr Wardell ; a great slab of Devon- 

 ic sponges from the Jenks quarry at Bath, N. Y., collected by 

 the late C. Van Deloo, developed by Mr Norton and mounted by 

 N. T. Clarke. Some very effective natural size reproductions of 

 the Eurypterida, Pterygotus, Eusarcus, Stylonurns, have been 

 made, framed and set up in the hall. These have been modeled 

 by Mr Marchand and colored by Mr Barkentin. A series of 

 natural size and enlarged relief designs to show the structure of 

 the fossil cephalopods have been modeled by Doctor Ruedemann, 

 cast by Mr Clarke and effectively colored by Mr Barkentin. 



