of rubbish in a closet, I discovered a small manuscript mem- 

 orandum book containing, among other items of more or less 

 interest, this important and most valuable entry: ''Articles 

 for the Museum, presented 5th June, 1798, by Capt. William 

 Hall." This little volume I recently brought to the atten- 

 tion of Professor Rea, and after a prolonged search of the 

 records of the Library Society, it was found, and a tran- 

 script of this entry, and those of its several succeeding 

 pages, was published in the October, 1906, number of this 

 "Bulletin," (Vol. 2, No. 6). This is doubtles one of the 

 oldest, if not indeed the most ancient, accession list in exis- 

 tence, so far, at least, as our American museums are concerned. 

 With this date as a clue, I have diligently followed the trail 

 backwards until the records have been successfully estab- 

 lished as far back positively, as 1777, and most probably sev- 

 eral years earlier. 



In "The South Carolina and American General Gazette" 

 of January 29, 1778, there is a remarkably full account of 

 the very disastrous fire which had laid waste the greater 

 part of this city a few days before, in which this paragraph 



appears: 



"The Charles Town Library Society's valuable collection of 

 books, instruments and apparatus for astronomical and philo- 

 sophical observations and experiments, etc. etc., is almost 



entirely lost." 



Dr. David Ramsay, a member of the Society, whose name 

 appears among the members of its executive committee, a cir- 

 cumstance which insures his complete familiarity with its af- 

 fairs and property, amplifies this statement in this extremely 

 interesting and most important note on page 379, Vol. 2, of 

 his "History of South Carolina," (Charleston, 1809). 



"On the 17th January, 1778, a very extensive fire took 

 place in Charleston, when this Library, containing between 

 six and seven thousand volumes, comprising a valuable col- 

 lection of ancient authors, with paintings, prints, a pair of 



50 



