SYNOPSIS OF PROCEEDINGS. 317 



The publication committee reports that a part of Volume VI. is in 

 the printer's hands, while Volume V. is still waiting for its index, and 

 is otherwise ready for binding. 



The Treasurer's report for the past year shows our receipts to have 

 been equal to our expenditures, and that we still have a debt of about 

 $400. During the year the Academy has received notice of four 

 bequests, namely: $i,ooo from Mr. J- Monroe Parke;, $i,ooo from 

 Mr. Nicholas Kuhnen, $i,ooo from Mrs. J. Monroe Parker, and 

 ^1,000 from Mr. E. Nevvbold. With an additional endowment of $io,- 

 000 the Academy would have an ample income for its maintenance 

 without rendering it necessary that a few of its enthusiastic members 

 devote a large amount of their time annually to the unpleasant and 

 thankless task of circulating a subscription paper. With the endow- 

 ment safely secured we should not then find it a difficult matter to 

 enlarge our building so as to exhibit to best advantage our unequaled 

 collections of mound builders' relics. • In our basement are hundreds 

 of valuable specimens of the pottery and implements, and many boxes 

 and barrels containing the bones of that extinct race. 



Through the indefatigable efforts of Mrs. Putnam the Academy can 

 at last boast of a thorough house-cleaning and renovation. 



On December 14. the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization 

 of the institution, the ladies of the Academy gave a very delightful 

 concert, followed by an informal reception, which was enjoyed by a 

 number of our friends and members. 



This is not the time to deliver an address on the subject of mound 

 builders, but I cannot be too emphatic in stating that a natural pride 

 in our city and its reputation should impel every citizen to familiarize 

 himself with, and then show his children, the "Davenport inscribed 

 tablets" and the "Davenport elephant pipes." The earliest mention 

 of mounds made on our records was in 1873, when Mr. George H. 

 French stated that there were interesting mounds near Albany, Illinois. 

 Shortly after that the members of the Academy began making their 

 first explorations of mounds, which they continued all over Illinois 

 and Iowa. Captain Hall explored many, and sent the Academy 

 hundreds of the most valuable specimens from Arkansas and Missouri 

 and other Southern States. Copper and stone axes, pipes, beads, 

 arrow and spear-heads; pottery in great variety, and bones in differ- 

 ent conditions of preservation — these were the usual relics found, 

 until in 1877— 18S0 the inscribed tablets and the elephant pipes came 

 to light. Some scientific men hold that when Columbus discovered 

 America he found a country without a history. No Pompeii had 

 existed here, no Athens, no Troy, only wandering tribes of In- 

 dians, a people pictured in school histories as roving from place to 

 place, living by hunting and fishing. These Indians built no perma- 

 nent abodes, none such were discovered, nor were they known to possess 

 the art of writing or a mechanical turn of mind. A camping band of 

 hunters, the men fished, smoked, and followed the chase, the women 

 did the work. Such we have seen them here in Iowa, such have they 



[Peoo. D. a. N. S., Vol. VI.] 40 [February 8, 1897.] 



