HISTORtCAX, COLLECTIONS. 151 



tliat there are now exhibited relics of Washington, Adams, Jetferson, 

 Madison, Van Biiren, Gen. Harrison, Jackson, Lincoln, and Grant 

 among the Presidents; of Elliott, Eipple, Perry, Grant, Hancock, Paul, 

 Harney, Shields, and other i)rominent soldiers and sailors; of Benjamin 

 Franklin, Morse, Vail, Whitney, Fulton, Sir John Franklin, Kane, Liv- 

 ingstone, and other eminent scientists, inventors, and explorers. 



RELICS OF IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENTS IN THE HI?fTORY OP 



AMERIOA . 



This part of the collection is growing steadily. There are already on' 

 exhibition documents and various objects connected with the early 

 colonial period, the French and Indian wars, the period of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence, and the Eevolutionary war, the formative period 

 of the Constitution, the war of 1812, the Mexican war, the war of the 

 rebellion, besides papers and objects to illustrate the liistoryand aboli- 

 tion of slavery. 



MEDALS AND MONUMENTS. 



The medallic history of the TTnited States is quite fully shown by the 

 Museum collection, which now includes all the medals struck by order 

 of Congress, a large number of medals commemorating national and 

 local events of greater or less imjiortance, and (piite a full series of the 

 smaller class of medals and tokens exhibiting the medallic history of 

 the Presidential campaigns, centennials and bicentennials of settle- 

 ments of towns, etc. The Museum collecticm of foreign medals is not 

 very complete, though there are many specimens of much interest. 



Monuments are classed next to medals as commemorating events or 

 as preserving the memory of eminent men. Something has l)een done 

 towards making a list of the monuments in the United States commem- 

 orating events of national importance, and photographs or other illus- 

 trations of many monuments have been collected. The Memorial Arch, 

 at Hartford, Conn., erected in memory of the men who fell in the war 

 of the Rebellion, is, perhaps, the most interesting monument connected 

 with the rebellion period of our history. 



All over the country there are buildings, bridges, etc., such as In- 

 dependence Hall, in Philadelphia; Faneuil Hall, in Boston; the Old 

 North liridge, at Concord, and the bridge at Salem, that stan<l as 

 monuments to perpetuate the memory of historic events, and it is proper 

 that the Museum should exhibit illustrations of them. 



PORTRAITS OF EMINENT MEN. 



The portrait collection numbers several thousand, and has been en- 

 larged during the year by the addition of several hundred engra\ings 

 of eminent Americans and foreigners. Much work has been (h>ne in- 

 mounting them on standard cards. A complete catalogue has not yet 



