THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 31 



Monday Evening^ May 3, 1897. — Dr. Hasket Derby, 

 of Boston, delivered an illustrated lecture in Plunimer 

 Hall, on " A Dead City of the Baltic." This was Wisbuy, 

 the capital of the Island of Gothland, which belongs to 

 Sweden. The speaker had been there and brought away 

 some sixty-five slides and many delightful impressions. 

 It was once the great commercial port of northern Europe, 

 grew vastly rich, built splendid warehouses and churches, 

 and established five hundred years ago a maritime code, 

 quoted ever since as the " ancient and supreme water-law 

 of Wisbuy" and commended by Grotius as of the highest 

 authority almost all over Europe. All that remains of 

 the once "magniticent city of Wisbuy " are the wealth of 

 architectural ruins to be seen there and this wonderful 

 code of laws. Grass grows in the streets and the harl)or 

 is deserted. In 1361, Valdemar, a Danish conqueror, 

 sacked the city. 



Necrology of Members. 



John Israel Baker, son of Joseph and Lucy (Bisson) 

 Baker, was born in Beverly, Aug. 16, 1812; elected a 

 member of the Essex Institute, June 18, 1851 and died 

 in Beverly, Feb. 17, 1897. 



Eev. Caleb D. Bkadlee, D.D., son of Samuel and 

 Elizabeth D. (Williams) Bradlee, was l)orn in Boston, 

 Feb. 24, 1831 ; elected a life member of the Essex Insti- 

 tute, Sept. 4, 1894 and died in Brookline, May 1, 1897. 



WiLLARD H. Brown, son of Edward and Eunice 

 (Porter) Brown, was born in Plaistow, N. H., Apr. 24, 

 1823 ; elected a member of the Essex Institute, Nov. 4, 

 1879 and died in Salem, May 21, 1896. 



James Buxton, son of Amos and Mary (Stone) Bux- 

 ton, was born in Dan vers (now Peabody) Sept. 3, 1832 ; 



