109 



May 3, 1865. 

 ANNUAL MEETING. 



The President in the chair. 



Forty-two members present. 



The Secretary read the record of the last Anniial and the 

 last regular meetings. 



The Custodian made the following Report, embodying the 

 Annual Rej^orts of the Librarian and Curators of the several 

 departments, for 1864-5. 



The official year now brought to its close, has been an ex- 

 tremely interesting one in the history of our Society ; and a 

 review of what has transpired and is now occupjdng the 

 attention of the community in connection with this Institu- 

 tion wiU doubtless show, in after years, that it has been the 

 transitional epoch of its history, the link which unites the 

 old and the new. 



Early in the year, on the second of June, 1864, the Society 

 met in the spacious Hall above, to attend the exercises of 

 the dedication of our new Museum, and to listen to an ad- 

 dress by Prof W. B. Rogers, in which the steps were pointed 

 out by which the Society had progressed from the first small 

 gathering of a few ardent lovers of Mature, up through the 

 various phases of its career, and our warm thanks were ex- 

 pressed to the many patrons through whose generosity the 

 Society was then able to disj^lay its treasures of Nature in 

 an edifice far surpassing in magnificence any devoted to kin- 

 dred objects of which this country can boast.* 



In but a few months afterwards the efibrts of the So- 

 ciety, in endeavoring to raise a working fund, were crowned 

 with complete success. In August last, the subscription 

 books were closed, which brought the Society into posses- 

 sion of $20,000, received fi-om its many patrons,! in addition 



* For a list of subscribers to the " Building Fund," see page 142. 

 t For a list of subscribers to the " Working Fund," see page 143. 



