This, I believe, is the first example in which a State Government
in our country has erected a museum for the exhibition of its
natural resources, its mineral and rock, its plants and animals,
living and fossil. And this seems to me the most appropriate spot
in the country for placing the first geological hall erected by
the Government; for the County of Albany was the district where
the first geological survey was undertaken, on this side of the
Atlantic, and, perhaps, the world. This was in 1820, and ordered
by that eminent philanthropist, Stephen Van Rensselaer, who,
three years later, appointed Prof. Eaton to survey, in like
manner, the whole region traversed by the Erie Canal. This was
the commencement of a work, which, during the last thirty years,
has had a wonderful expansion, reaching a large part of the
States of the Union, as well as Canada, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick, and, I might add, several European countries, where
the magnificent surveys now in progress did not commence till
after the survey of Albany and Rensselaer Counties. How glad
are we, therefore, to find on this spot the first Museum of
Economical Geology on this side of the Atlantic! Nay, embracing
as it does all the department of Natural History, I see in it
more than a European Museum of Economical Geology, splendid
though they are. I fancy, rather, that I see here the germ of a
Cis-Atlantic British Museum, or Garden of Plants.
North Carolina was the first State that ordered a geological
survey; and I have the pleasure of seeing before me the gentleman
who executed it, and in 1824-5 published a report of 140 pages.
I refer to Professor Olmstead, who, though he has since won
brighter laurels in another department of science, will always be
honored as the first commissioned State geologist in our land.