The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. The museum houses art, artifacts (prehistoric and historic), and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. Operated by the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education, it is the oldest and largest state museum in the US. Formerly located in the State Education Building, the museum now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten-story, 1500000 sqft building that also houses the New York State Archives and New York State Library. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NYSM, State Archives, and State Library to close temporarily, with museum employees continuing to work behind the scenes, offering virtual programming and online exhibitions. The museum reopened to the public with reduced hours and days of operation and some exhibits still unopened on May 17, 2021.

History

The New York State Museum was founded in 1836 as the New York State Geological and Natural History Survey, formed in 1836 by Governor William Marcy to document the mineral wealth of the state. In 1870, it was reorganized as the New York State Museum of Natural History under the trusteeship of the regents of the State University. The museum was located in the State Education Building from 1912 until 1976, when it was moved to the Cultural Education Center upon the Empire State Plaza's completion. The current location opened on July 4, 1976, and 15,000 people took part in the ceremony which included a performance by Don Mclean. In June 2015, the museum announced the largest renovation in its history. Over three to four years, 35,000 sqft of exhibition space was to be modernized. The NYSM is to remain open throughout the rebuilding process, although individual galleries may be closed during construction and re-installation.

Notable staff

Layout and organization

The large majority of the museum's permanent exhibits are located in the voluminous first floor, which features high ceilings that can accommodate large artifacts and displays, such as a subway car, fire engines, a reconstructed Mohawk Iroquois Longhouse, and a mastodon skeleton. Several smaller galleries and halls on the first floor house various temporary art exhibitions, as well as temporary scientific, historical, and cultural exhibits. Presentations and lectures (such as the weekly lecture series) are held in the Museum Theater, located near the West Gallery. A student visitors center is located behind the museum's main lobby. The Museum Store, located adjacent to the main lobby, offers souvenirs, high-quality mineral specimens, and selected New York State publications on science, history, and natural history. The second floor, generally not accessible to the public, contains education and youth services. The museum's staff, including the Division of Research and Collections and the Exhibits Division, is located on the third floor, also not accessible to the public. The fourth floor features a functioning carousel built between 1912 and 1916 which visitors may ride free of charge, plus supplementary exhibits covering regional topics and several historic cities in New York State, such as Buffalo and Rochester. The windowed walls surrounding this floor afford visitors a panoramic view of the Empire State Plaza and other areas of downtown Albany, hence the gallery's name, "Windows on New York".

Research

As a research institution, the New York State Museum houses several programs, centers, and initiatives that further the geological, biological, archaeological and historical understanding of areas within and outside of New York State. The following is a list of several of these programs.

Collections

The collections of the New York State Museum include geological samples, paleontology specimens, historic materials, and art. Their anthropological collections are extensive, and include the collections of several early and well-known anthropologists, including Lewis H. Morgan and Arthur C. Parker. These collections are open to researchers for analysis. A supplementary storage facility in Rotterdam, New York, houses material not presently displayed, including artifacts from the September 11 attacks.

Permanent exhibits