32 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Friedensteinsclien Sammlnngen, Gotha. The Britisli Admiralty has 

 contributed a full set of all the charts published by it during the year. 

 We may also mention, as an object of special interest of this class, a 

 valuable set of historical maps, presented by Justus Perthes, the 

 celebrated geographical publisher of Gotha, exhibiting the political 

 condition of Europe from the beginning of the third century down to 

 the time of the crusades. The limits of the several empires are ex- 

 hibited by different colors, and the whole are on such a scale as to 

 be adapted for instruction in schools or academies. To render this 

 interesting work more generally known in this country, it is proposed 

 to exhibit the maps in the reading room and to translate and print 

 the pamphlet of explanations for the use of the visiters to the Insti- 

 tution. 



Among the curiosities of the library received during the past year 

 the most prominent is an ornamental album, presented through the 

 Department of State, from Miss Contaxaki, a native of the isle of 

 Crete. This work was designed as a contribution to the universal 

 exhibition at Paris in 1855, where it received a diploma for the artistic 

 merit displayed in its execution. The " Classical Bouquet," as it is 

 called, consists of illustrations of the principal monuments and places 

 in Greece, to which are added a few from the author's native isle of 

 Crete. These illustrations are accompanied by quotations from the 

 most illustrious Greek authors, beautifully illuminated, while many 

 of the pages are adorned with pressed flowers culled from the places 

 which the drawings represent. The book itself is a large quarto, 

 covered with blue velvet heavily embroidered, and lettered with silver. 

 It is inclosed in a case, made of olive wood of the country, about a foot 

 and a half square, richly carved and ornamented with appropriate 

 devices. This work was transmitted to the United States through 

 Charles C. Spence, esq., and affords a favorable specimen as well of 

 the present state of the arts in that country, which was the birthplace 

 of the true and the beautiful, as of the talents, the taste, and the un_ 

 wearied industry of the lady who devised and principally executed it. 



The library possesses an extensive collection of pamphlets, in- 

 cluding the separate theses of the candidates for graduation or honors 

 at the German universities ; also a series of the annual reports of the 

 public institutions and societies in this country. During the past year 

 these have been classified, a large number of them bound, and the 

 remainder arranged in pasteboard boxes, labeled and placed on the 

 shelves as volumes. 



