Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary. xxxiii 



ing place. President H. W. Eliot completed the gift by the 

 donation of $5,000.00 which he employed to put the building 

 into a condition suitable for the Academy's purposes. Our 

 library and our valuable collections are at length well housed 

 and exhibited. We also enjoy the gratification of offering 

 comfortable quarters to affiliated societies. 



No doubt the Academy will continue to increase in value 

 and benefit to the people in whose midst it is situated, and 

 they will endeavor to improve the space which is ready for 

 occupancy, with solid fire proof buildings for a grand cele- 

 bration of its centennial anniversary. 



A History of the Museum and Library. 

 DR. G. HAMBACH, Librarian. 



Time in its ceaseless course has brought us to the close of 

 the fiftieth year of our existence and on this occasion we can 

 look back on our library and museum with pride and pleasure 

 and with hope and confidence in their future prospects. It 

 behooves us on this occasion to review the events which have 

 marked our progress, so that we may see how far we have 

 succeeded in accomplishing the noble objects, which are the 

 basis of our organization — " the advancement of science and 

 the establishment of a museum and library for the illustra- 

 tion and study of its various branches." Hampered for 

 many years by lack of funds and patronage, we have strug- 

 gled successfully, until we now have treasured in our museum 

 many valuable specimens in all branches of natural science 

 and in our library the memoirs and transactions of learned 

 societies all over the globe, to be resorted to by the stu- 

 dents and lovers of natural science in this great Mississippi 

 Valley. 



The first meeting of the members, held March 10, 1856, 

 was taken up by the election of officers and the adoption of a 

 constitution and by-laws. 



At the second meeting of the Academy, April 21, 1856, 

 Col. John O'Fallon, through Dr. C. A. Pope, offered to the 



