The colonial journals were turned over to the State Library 10 days before the fire.

April 3, 1911, Albany Evening Journal, Page 1, GUARD DOUBLED AT THE CAPITOL

James I. Wyer Jr., director of the state library, said, relative to the building up of a new library:

"I believe the state of New York will went to perpetuate the state library as one of the greatest libraries of the world. It was third in size and importance in the United States. To do that a large appropriation must be forthcoming at the outset to put this library on a working basis when it goes into the new state education building, If the staff of the library is to be kept intact, and the state library school eventually retained in Albany, this appropriation must come speedily, and the work of the rebuilding of the collection must be pushed with all dispatch."

The colonial journals which have been in the custody of the secretary of state since their publication, were turned over to the state library 10 days before the fire. They are believed to be entirely lost.

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