98 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF KaTURAL SCIENCES. 



Mobile there has thus been hut litt](' of the regular work of soci- 

 eties of this kind accomplished daring the year just closed, still we 

 may congratulate ourselves that, since so little interest has been man- 

 ifested, we have been able to do as nuich as we have in other direc- 

 tions. Many donations and exchanges have been received for our 

 museum and library. The most important of these are the desk, with 

 the pistol and other articles, of the late Antoine LeClaire, and over 

 one thousand of his manuscript papers, many of them of the greatest 

 value and importance in illustrating the early history of this region, 

 and quite a number of old French papers of great interest. It is out 

 of such material as this that the historian weaves his interesting nar- 

 rative, and the value of these old manuscript collections cannot be 

 too deeply appreciated. There have been deposited in the library of 

 the Section files of NeAV York papers published during the late war, 

 and twenty-two volumes of the Davenport Gazette from its com- 

 mencement. Next in order to collections (jf manuscripts, newspaper 

 files are of great utility as historical material. 



But l)y far the most important work of this {)ast year was the series 

 of meetings of the old settlers of this county, held during the spring 

 and summer at the Academy. As a result of these meetings and of 

 circulars sent among the pioneer settlers still living, a large number 

 of letters giving interesting narratives of early days have been sent to 

 the President of the Section ; others have been promised, and when 

 the whole series is completed, it will form a store-house filled with 

 information which must otherwise have been lost. 



Hoping that the future will bring forth better fruits than the past, 

 and that the sjiark of life which the Section now has may not only 

 not be allowed to expire, but that it may l)e fanned into a flame, I 

 close this brief record of a year's work, which, to say the least, should 

 have presented a better showing. 



President's Annual Address. 



BY MRS. MARY L. 1). PrTNAAf. 



Gentlemen and IjAoies : When at your last animal meeting the 

 sex, of which 1 am an humble representative, was honored by the 

 selection of myself as your President, my nomination was preceded 

 by the statement from one of your most esteemed members, that "the 

 actual success and present pros{)erity of the Academy had been co- 

 incident with the interest taken in it by woman. It was a Woman's 



