Archival Collections: Documents
House Bill No. 42

House Bill 42 written and introduced by George W. P. Hunt during the 17th Legislative Assembly. The bill proposed that a territorial museum would be established with a board of directors including the governor, secretary, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction. It was proposed that the museum be located at the territorial library and the head librarian be responsible for the collections with payment for this service to be $100 per year. A letter from Territorial Governor Nathan O. Murphy suggested that the museum should be located at the territorial university (now the University of Arizona) in Tucson, rather than at the library, and be under the management of the university board of regents. The changes were adopted and the bill passed the house with unanimous support; it was enacted on March 8 and signed by the governor on April 7, 1893. This bill created what is now the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Reproduced from the original in the Arizona State Museum Archives.
Read the text of the bill