12 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
HOW THE PRESENT STATE MUSEUM WAS CREATED AND THE 
OBJECT OP IT. 
The act creating the present State Museum became a law March 
20th, 1895, as Chapter 183, Laws of 1895. Governor George T. 
Werts, in his annual message of 1895, after the Columbian Exposi¬ 
tion at Chicago in 1893, said: 
“The exhibits at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1S93 including 
the educational, agricultural, geological and sea coast exhibits were very fine 
and cost large sums of money. If preserved intact they are now worth more 
than their original cost, as it would be impossible to duplicate them. The furni¬ 
ture was quite costly and they are now stored in the Fidelity Storage Warehouse 
in the city of Trenton. In my opinion the exhibit should be preserved, and 
the State should provide some place or places where they may be placed as a 
Museum or educational exhibit. They should not be sold as a whole and to 
sell them piecemeal would produce but an insignificant sum and destroy what 
can never be replaced.” 
In accordance with the Governor’s recommendations the Legisla¬ 
ture passed the law creating the Museum. Before this, there was a 
geological exhibit or museum having in it very valuable specimens 
from the State of New Jersey, a part of which were displayed in 
one of the rooms in the State House. The Museum Law of 1895 was 
amended by the Legislature of 1896. 
The Museum Commission instructed the Curator to have circulars 
prepared, printed and circulated explaining the intent of the Museum. 
In compliance therewith, the following circulars were printed and 
circulated: 
No. 1.—Circular of information, stating how the Museum was created and 
the objects of its work. 
No. 2.—This was to school officers, superintendents and teachers, stating 
that the Museum was designed to become one of the permanent educational 
factors and how it expected to accomplish it. 
No. 3—Was to the manufacturers of the State asking them to help make the 
Museum a means of aid to their business. (For lack of room very little has 
been done along this line, although we have had many offers to contribute 
specimens, which we were obliged to decline for want of room to display them 
properly.) 
No. 4.—Was to the farmers and agriculturists of the State. (It was intended 
to make this department of the Museum very important in exhibits that would 
be of great benefit to them. The response to this circular was good and we 
received many contributions. Among the most valuable is the fine exhibit of 
insects prepared by the late Prof. John B. Smith, through the courtesy of the 
State Board of Agriculture and the Agricultural College at New Brunswick. 
Also the exhibit of “How to Exterminate Mosquitoes,” by Prof. Smith, which 
attracted so much attention at the exposition at St. Eouis and Jamestown, 
as well as the Museum here in the State House. This exhibit has been studied 
by persons from many parts of the United States and foreign countries.) 
