New York State Education Department 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke Director 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1904 



The New York State Museum was organized as the New York 

 State Cabinet of Natural History. The scientific collections 

 which formed the nucleus of this organization were brought to- 

 gether in the course of the Natural History Survey of the State 

 of New York which commenced in 1836 and closed by the ren- 

 dition of the final reports in 1843. ^ n the organization of that 

 survey no provision was made for the conservation or custody 

 of such materials as should be acquired by the various members 

 of its staff. It w r as however impossible that scientific results of 

 value should be achieved without the aggregation of extensive 

 collections. In some measure the specimens thus brought to- 

 gether seem through want of provision for their custody and 

 fault of storage facilities, to have passed into the possession of 

 the collectors themselves. 



During the progress of the Natural History Survey the Sec- 

 retary of State, who was officially charged with its supervision, 

 considered that the various collections might be accommodated 

 in a room in the third story of the old Capitol by throwing two 

 committee rooms into one. This arrangement proving inade- 

 quate, in 1840 Governor Seward in response to a memorial from 

 the geologists " urging the importance of providing suitable 

 rooms or a separate building for the collections made during the 

 survey " recommended that the old State Hall be used for that 

 purpose. 



After the close of the survey in 1843 the Governor was au- 

 thorized by the Legislature to continue the services of one or 

 both of the geologists who were living in Albany, Ebenezer 

 Emmons and James Hall, for the purpose of completing and 

 arranging the collections of specimens in the old State Hall and 

 in accordance with this authority Dr Emmons was for a time 

 charged with this arrangement. The building thus referred to 

 as the old State Hall followed on the same site the original building 



