REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
13 
some place or places where they may be shown as a museum or educational 
exhibit. They could not be sold as a whole, and to sell them piecemeal 
would produce but an insignificant sum and destroy what can never be 
replaced.” 
The geological Survey, the Department of Public Instruction and the 
State Board of Agriculture were represented in the exhibits referred to in 
the Governor’s message. In accordance with the above recommendation a 
Commission was created, consisting of the President of the Senate, the 
Speaker of the House of Assembly, the State Geologist, the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction and the President of the State Board of Agriculture. 
The object of this Commission is to establish a Museum for the proper ex¬ 
hibition of these collections of the State and to appoint a Curator to have 
general charge of such Museum. The members of this Commission serve 
without compensation, and the Curator receives a regular salary, as stipulated 
in the act. 
Supplementary legislation (Chapter 195, P. L. 1896) makes it the duty of 
the Museum Commission “.to prepare plans for such alterations as are 
necessary to provide suitable rooms in the State House,” provided said plans 
shall be approved by the State House Commission and the work be done under 
its supervision. 
The act further provides that no work shall be done or contract entered 
into without a specific appropriation for that purpose. As no appropriation 
has been made, the Museum is limited to the corridors and two small attic 
rooms in the old central portion of the State House. The collections of the 
Geological Survey are on the third floor of the rear building or extension, in 
a room assigned to the Survey by the State House Commission in 1892. 
The space allotted to the Museum is insufficient and unsuitable for the 
exhibition of the several collections. Although the Geological Survey room 
and the rooms assigned to the Educational and Agricultural exhibits are now 
full, many boxes of minerals, fossils and educational and agricultural exhibits 
are stored in the basement of the State House. 
The Museum Commission has appointed S. R. Morse, of Atlantic City, 
Curator of the Museum. 
OBJECTS OF THE MUSEUM. 
State Museums have been established and maintained with successful 
results, and proved of value, in all the other leading States of our country. 
They supplement and illustrate the Geological and Natural History Surveys 
and the reports of their Boards of Agriculture and Departments of Educa¬ 
tion. They are neither simply collections of curiosities nor repositories of 
materials found in the State, but are designed to be in touch with its life, to 
illustrate its natural resources and capabilities, and to constitute an im¬ 
portant part of its educational auxiliaries. 
In New Jersey the Geological Survey is thus illustrated by collections of 
minerals, ores, rocks and other natural products of economic importance, 
and by models, maps and publications descriptive of the occurrence of these 
materials. It is desirable that these collections be so enlarged as to be truly 
representative of the physical geography and the geology of our State, and to 
