PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 33 



building furnished by the Postmaster General. From early in 1820 

 until the end of 1822 the Institute was evidently located in the build- 

 ing of the Treasury Department, whence it moved to the new City 

 Hall, on Judiciary Square, in which the Mayor of the city had pro- 

 vided a light and dry room in the basement story for the minerals, 

 etc., tendering his own office for meeting purposes. The cabinet was 

 transferred to these quarters on December 7, 1822. 



In February, 1824, and possibly also at an earlier date, Congress 

 was memorialized on the subject of accommodations for the society 

 at the Capitol. The western extension of the center building of the 

 Capitol, mainly for the purpose of furnishing suitable quarters for 

 the Library of Congress, completed in this year, added a number of 

 rooms, especially in the first and second stories, not needed for the 

 Library. The disposition of these, chiefly required for committees, 

 was confided to a joint committee of Congress, with Senator Mahlon 

 Dickerson as chairman. Reporting on May 21, 1824, regarding the 

 assignments made, the committee recommended "that, until Con- 

 gress shall make a further disposition of the large room under the 

 Library in the second story, the same may be occupied by the Colum- 

 bian Institute as a place for holding their meetings, and a place of 

 deposit for their books, papers, furniture and collections." This 

 room, located in what is now known as the ground story immediately 

 under the former main apartment of the Library of Congress, and 

 with a western outlook, was numbered 44, and measured 30 by 42 

 feet. 



The first information regarding this grant seems to have been 

 announced to the Institute on June 1 by John Quincy Adams, then 

 president of the society, in a letter to the secretary, in which he sug- 

 gested the propriety of having the room prepared and the property 

 of the Institute collected and moved into it before the next regular 

 meeting to be held on the 5th. Circumstances, however, caused some 

 delay in making this transfer, as, on August 7, a committee to wait 

 on the Commissioner of Public Buildings reported to the society that 

 the Commissioner had agreed to provide out of the funds appro- 

 priated by Congress for furnishing the new rooms in the Capitol 

 the following articles of furniture : Two mahogany tables with green 

 covers, 6 feet long, 20 chairs, 2 mahogany bookcases, 2 mahogany 

 washstands, 2 sets of fire irons and fenders, and a carpet. On 

 November 2, 1824, the Institute was informed that the room was 

 ready, and while it is to be presumed that use was at once made of 

 it, nearly a year later, or on August 6, 1825, the minutes record that 

 a bill of $1.50 was ordered paid for moving the property of the 

 Institute from City Hall to the Capitol. On September 3, following, 

 the Commissioner of Public Buildings was requested that the room 



