BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 5 



may be noted it is apparently due to the use of the same catalogs 

 or other printed matter as sources of information. 



In relation to historical museums much help has been derived 

 from a report on state and local historical societies 1 compiled for the 

 American Historical Association by a committee consisting of Reuben 

 G. Thwaites, chairman, Benjamin F. Shambaugh, and Franklin L. 

 Riley. References to Thwaites in the text refer to this work. Other 

 sources of information include the "Handbook of Learned Societies" 

 issued by the Carnegie Institution, the census reports, and "Minerva." 

 The last has been consulted chiefly in regard to South American 

 museums which have not otherwise been heard from. The census 

 reports have been drawn upon for accounts of the smaller zoological 

 parks, which it was decided to include only when the work was about 

 to go to press. 



In comparing our returns with those of Merrill and Thwaites 

 it is of interest to note that a considerable number of museums, often 

 with the same curator, now report much smaller collections, or even 

 "no museum." This is probably not to be interpreted as an actual 

 decrease of materia], but rather as an indication of estimates made in 

 absence of records, either in both cases or in the earlier only. When 

 "no museum" is reported it often indicates an indefinite conception 

 of what a museum is. 



The final results fail in many respects to come up to the standard 

 which it was hoped to maintain, and the work is submitted with a full 

 realization of its incompleteness, but with the hope that it may prove 

 of value in promoting the objects for which it was undertaken. It 

 is intended that it may also serve as the basis of further studies in 

 the organization and work of American museums which may be 

 published in the Proceedings of the American Association of Museums. 

 To this end, all museums are urgently requested to place the secre- 

 tary of the Association on their mailing lists for all publications 

 descriptive of their work. Communications should be addressed 

 to Paul M. Rea, Secretary, American Association of Museums, 

 Charleston, S. C. 



1 Report of Committee on Methods of Organization and Work on the Part of State and 

 Local Societies. Ann. Rep. Am. Hist. Assoc, I, 1905, 249-325. 



