APPEAL 



TO GENEROUS, PATRIOTIC CITIZENS, ESPECIALLY TO THOSE 

 INTERESTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND PERFECTION OF 

 AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 



The American Institute, founded in 1829, was the first in the 

 world to establish annual fairs for the promotion of improvement 

 in the various branches of productive industry, more especially in 

 mechanics and manufactures. These fairs it has maintained, with 

 very few intermissions, for a period of nearly forty years, growing 

 steadily in extent and importance, exciting many imitations. 



The Institute has awarded and paid to American inventors and 

 artisans, at the close of thirty-six fairs respectively, premiums cost- 

 ing over $100,000. None will dispute that its awards and com- 

 mendations, with the emulation they necessarily incited, have con- 

 tributed somewhat to the improvement of methods and the increase 

 of efficiency in our National Industry. 



The Institute is now brought to a pause in its useful career by 

 the fact that no structure remains in our city wherein such fairs as 

 befit the present development of American Industry can be held. 

 The time has passed wherein such a fair could be held in a single 

 spacious saloon like our old Masonic Hall. The Crystal Palace 

 was destroyed by a fire which consumed all the capital of the 

 Association which erected it. The " Palace Garden/' wherein our 

 fairs have more recently been held, has been converted to uses 

 incompatible with its re-occupation by us. We are willing to pay 

 a large price for the use of a suitable edifice wherein to hold our 

 Thirty-seventh Fair next autumn ; but no such edifice is to be had 

 at any price. 



The American Institute needs and deserves a " local habitation," 

 having already achieved a "name." After having been so long 

 hunted from pillar to post — now depending on municipal indul- 

 gence, then trusting to the chance of finding some unfinished or 

 deserted building wherein to display the trophies of American 

 genius and skill — it ought to have a permanent home. Its forty 



