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To advance in utility and perfection it needs the hearty sympathy 

 and support of the legislative committees which provide its finances. 

 It needs the cooperation and careful thought of its trustees. When 

 these are granted, the museum staff, by skilful and diligent applica- 

 tion, may be able to produce a museum ever more nearly approximating 

 an institution which should fittingly represent the great and prosperous 

 State of Illinois. 



The museum should preserve the vanishing types of animals and 

 plants of the State. It should represent the history of the State as far 

 as Nature is concerned. It should be a place of entertainment of the 

 highest class. 



Throughout the United States the value of museums as places of 

 entertainment and education is being more appreciated. It is coming 

 to be realized that museums supplement schools and libraries. They 

 often appeal first to people who are not influenced by other sources. 

 They are places of amusement of the highest type, and the public de- 

 serve amusement. They are a means of education, inasmuch as they 

 show the world in which we live as it is, and have a sane and whole 

 some influence on the public. 



The museum field is a great and valuable field. As the State pre- 

 serves her natural history treasures for the schools, she can at the 

 same time afford every one, learned and humble, rich and poor, such a 

 view of their environment as will enrich their intellectual equipment. 



That the number of friends of the museum among legislators and 

 executives may increase is a consummation devoutly to be wished. 



