306 directory of American museums 



museum has been fully organized as a department of the society with 

 its own chief, only since 1908. 



Financial Support. The society is now asking from the state 

 an annual appropriation of $3500 for the maintenance of the museum 

 and the prosecution of historical and anthropological research. 



Building. Since 1900 the museum has occupied the entire upper 

 floor of the state historical library building, including two large and six 

 smaller halls, with adjoining office, storerooms, photographer's dark- 

 room, carpenter shop, etc. Additional exhibition halls and a labor- 

 atory are needed. 



Administration. By a chief, responsible to the State Historical 

 Society of Wisconsin. 



Scope. The chief aim of the museum is popular education in 

 anthropology, history, and art, with exploration and research in these 

 subjects, especially in Wisconsin. Lectures are given in the museum 

 to schools, University of Wisconsin classes, women's clubs, and the 

 genera] public, by the chief, university professors, and others. Special 

 exhibits illustrating anthropological and historical subjects are made 

 from time to time. The Madison Art Association holds a number 

 of special exhibits and lectures in the museum halls each year. The 

 Wisconsin Archeological Society, the Wisconsin branch of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, and the Wisconsin Academy of 

 Sciences, Arts, and Letters each occupy an office in the museum. 

 The Museum Club holds meetings in the museum. 



Publications. Reports are made in the annual Proceedings of 

 the State Historical Society and handbooks, catalogs, and circulars 

 are issued by the museum. 



Attendance. The museum is open free to the public on week- 

 days from 9 to 5, and occasionally on Sunday afternoons. The num- 

 ber of visitors is from 60,000 to 80,000 a year. 



UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 



The university maintains no formal museum but has extensive 

 teaching collections in connection with its science departments. The 

 more important features of these collections are as follows: The type 

 fossils described in the volumes of the first geological survey of Wis- 

 consin, deposited by the Wisconsin Academy; over 34,000 minerals; 

 27,000 rocks; a herbarium of 10,000 sheets of phanerogams and vas- 

 cular cryptogams from outside the state, 4000 sheets from within the 

 state, and 7000 labeled specimens of Musci. 



