xcii Trans. Acad. Sci. of iSt. Louis. 



Historical Society of Missouri was organized in 1898 by the 

 Missouri Press Association, and was made a trustee of the 

 State by the Legishiture in 1899. Its object is " the collec- 

 tion, preservation, exhibition and publication of material for 

 the study of history, especially the history of the State and 

 of the Middle West; " and to this end it collects documents 

 and manuscripts, conducts a historical library, and maintains a 

 historical museum. In the short time since its organization 

 it has been very successful in these objects, and now has a 

 library of not less than 30,000 titles, with duplicates of 

 an equally large number of publications. The library is now 

 larger than any other State Historical Society in the Union 

 had when it was of the same age as this is now. It receives, 

 binds and preserves 760 periodicals of Missouri regularly, a 

 number in excess of that of any other Historical Society. It 

 has more of the official publications of the State than any 

 other library ; more publications made by Missouri authors, 

 and more of the local publications relating to different parts 

 of the State, and is fortunate in having a complete set of the 

 publications of this Academy. 



For some years its collection of publications has increased 

 on an average of more than 1,000 per month in addition to 

 its periodicals. 



The Society had two large exhibits at the World's Fair; 

 one of works by Missouri authors numbering more than 1,800 

 publications, and the other of the periodicals of Missouri for 

 the year 1903. For these exhibits the Society was given a 

 Grand Prize. The Society has many manuscripts of great 

 importance which it will publish in the future as an impor- 

 tant contribution to the history of the West, and it extends 

 its good wishes to the Academy in its investigations of the 

 scientific questions arising in the same part of our country. 



Mr. Chaplin: — 



Had there been an opportunity at the dinner commemo- 

 rating the fiftieth anniversary of the Academy of Science, I 

 should have been very glad to present the congratulations 

 of Washington University to the Academy on its long life 



