138 



which were seconded with remarks from Messrs. E. C. 

 Bolles and E. S. Morse, the president and others, and 

 unanimously passed : — 



Resolved. That the Essex Institute tenders its sympa- 

 thy to its sister society, the Chicago Academy of Sci- 

 ences, in her second trial by fire, in which she has lost 

 not only her buildings, but all her specimens, books and 

 publications. 



Resolved. That the Institute hereby promises to furnish 

 such of its publications as the Chicago Academy of Sci- 

 ences may desire, and to render such other assistance as 

 possible in the efforts of the Academy to arise for a 

 second time from the ashes. 



The President stated that 



THE CHICAGO HlsTOUICAL SOCIETY 



Was organized in 1856 through the efficient efforts of 

 Rev. William Barry, formerly of Lowell, Mass., and was 

 chartered in 1857. It had accumulated a valuable library 

 of more than fifteen thousand bound volumes, a large col- 

 lection of pamphlets well arranged and catalogued, news- 

 papers and other historic data and memorials, a large part 

 of which is irrecoverable. It had a considerable collec- 

 tion of paintings, statuary, etc., also manuscripts and 

 other materials to elucidate the early history of Chicago 

 and of the late civil war. 



The following may be specified, indicating the extent 

 of the loss, which not only this society but the students 

 of American History have sustained. The complete 

 journals of the father of the late Major J. H. Kinzie, ex- 

 tending from 1802 (before the construction of Fort Dear- 

 born) to 1826, containing nearly one thousand names of 

 residents and visitors during the earliest period (now tra- 

 ditionary), of the local modern history of that city ; com 

 plete files of the public journal of Richmond, as preserved 



