teeter Ue ete OeN mee Ur i la BT ob N 5 
A New State Museum Building: 
By Dr. PERCIVAL ROBERTSON 
On APRIL 21, 1959, Senate Bill No. 656 was introduced in the Illinois State 
Senate to provide for the construction of a building, “‘to be used as the 
Illinois State Museum at Springfield . .. including the selection and 
purchase of a site therefor, and the custody thereof and making an appro- 
priation ($2,996,860) in connection therewith.” The Bill was introduced 
by Senators Hart of Streator, Chrisenberry of Murphysboro, Gray of East 
St. Louis and Drach of Springfield. The following day Governor Stratton 
in his budget message indicated the need for a State Museum building and 
earmarked essentially the same amount of money for the above purpose. 
The Illinois State Museum in its 82 years of existence has never had a 
building of its own but has been housed in buildings designed as office 
buildings. Yet it has served an increasing number of citizens with a broad 
and expanding program of cultural and scientific significance. It is strongly 
urged that all persons who understand and appreciate the values of our 
natural sciences make their support of this proposed building program 
known by letters to their state legislators. In a great state such as this 
there should be a proper center for the preservation, study, and interpre- 
tation of our natural resources. The use of the Illinois State Museum has 
grown rapidly since the end of World War II — from approximately 
200,000 people in 1945 to 1,500,000 people, both residents and visitors to 
Illinois, who used the resources of the Museum during 1958. 
For the greater convenience and comfort of the public, and in order that 
the people may be better served and the story of our natural resources 
better told, it is important that the Museum have a building of its own. 
The building should provide ground floor exhibit space, adequate fireproof 
facilities for the care and exhibition of the collections, and proper labora- 
tory facilities to develop new exhibits and carry out research programs. 
The Illinois State Academy of Science, during its annual meeting at the 
Illinois Institute of Technology on April 23 to 25, by unanimous resolution 
supported and urged the erection of a new State Museum building. At every 
meeting for several years the Board of Museum Advisors of the Illinois 
State Museum has worked for the erection of a Museum building that will 
be so designed and so placed as to bring credit to the State of Illinois. As 
Chairman of the Museum Committee of the Illinois State Academy of Sci- 
ence and as a member of the Illinois State Museum Board of Advisors, I 
urge the members and friends of the Illinois Audubon Society to express 
their support of Senate Bill 656. 
What will this new building accomplish? It will almost double the avail- 
able space for Museum exhibition, storage, laboratory space, and service 
areas. It will put the entire collection in one fireproof, air-cleaned building 
with ground floor exhibition space. The building will be designed to handle 
one million visitors yearly, expected by 1965. It is to be a simple, clean, 
modern building, compatible with the new State Office Building in design 
and only half the size of the building proposed in 1947 in order that the 
cost can be kept to a realistic minimum. 
Principia College, Elsah, Illinois 
