8 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



gist and Botanist as these officers are now defined and provided 

 for by law." 



Under this incorporation of the departments into the general 

 organization of the State Museum the scientific staff became in a 

 certain definite sense subsidiary or contributory to the general 

 functions of the Museum as a depository of scientific collections. 



The same law recognized the fact that the Geological Hall was 

 insufficient both in capacity and in construction for the accom- 

 modation of the greatly increased collections of the §tate Mu- 

 seum and the scientific work of its departments, and authorized 

 the Regents of the University to take possession of the present 

 State Hall as its rooms should be vacated by the state officers 

 who were to be accommodated in the new Capitol. In pursu- 

 ance of this provision several of the rooms in the State Hall were 

 in 1886 occupied by the staff of the State Geologist and Paleon- 

 tologist and by the State Botanist, and the more valuable and 

 typical portions of the paleontologic and botanic collections re- 

 moved thereto. It subsequently proved impracticable to acquire 

 full possession of the State Hall on account of the reluctance of 

 its occupants to remove to other quarters, but the office of the 

 State Paleontologist and the larger part of the collections in paleon- 

 tology have been in this building from that date to the present. 



In 1889 the State Museum was made an integral part of the 

 University of the State of New York, and the section of the law 

 which specially relates to the affairs of the Museum says " all 

 scientific specimens and collections, works of art, objects of his- 

 toric interest and similar property appropriate to a general mu- 

 seum if owned by the State and not placed in other custody by 

 specific law shall constitute the State Museum, and one of its 

 officers shall annually inspect all such property not kept in the 

 State Museum rooms and the annual report of the Museum to 

 the Legislature shall include summaries of such property with 

 its location and any needed recommendation as to its safety or 

 usefulness." 



Together with the other departments of the University, the 

 Museum became a constitutional body in 1895, and in the re- 

 vised University law of 1896 the functions of the organization 

 are defined as already given. 



In 1885 Dr John C. Smock was appointed assistant in charge 

 of the State Museum under the directorship of Prof. James Hall. 

 Prof. James Hall resigned his position as Director of the State 



