398 



The Smithsonian ItistiUition 



between national governments by Vattemare,^ it soon super- 

 seded all other plans for international exchanges. 



It is not without interest to briefly allude to the earlier 

 efforts of this kind. In 1694 the Royal Library of France 

 exchanged its duplicate volumes for new books printed in 

 foreign countries, and about the beginning of the present 

 century the American Philosophical Society and the Ameri- 

 can Academy of Arts and Sciences instituted the exchange to 

 which Professor Henry refers. 



Monsieur Vattemare about 1832 made an effort to estab- 

 lish an exchange of duplicates between some of the principal 

 libraries of Europe, and succeeded in interesting many of 

 the governments in the work, though his efforts do not seem 

 to have been rewarded with the success they merited. 



He visited the United States in 1839, and secured the 

 interest and cooperation of many prominent men in official 

 life. On his second visit to the United States in 1848 he 

 was designated as the agent for the Library of Congress to 

 conduct the exchange between France and the United States. 



Another effort to establish a system of exchanges, chiefly 

 of natural history specimens, was made by the National Insti- 

 tute in May, 1840, which resulted in securing many valuable 

 additions to the national collection. 



The United States government, in addition to assisting 

 Monsieur Vattemare, had on several occasions indicated its 

 desire of effecting exchanges with foreign governments. By 



1 Alexandre Vattemare was born in Paris 

 November 8, 1796, and died there April 7, 

 1864. He was educated as a surgeon, but 

 became a professional ventriloquist, lieing 

 well known both in Europe and America. 

 Subsequently he gave up this occupation to 

 urge the adoption of a system of exchange of 

 duplicate books between libraries, especially 

 of government publications, but afterward 

 extended the system to include art objects, 



maps, specimens of natural history, and other 

 siniilar articles. He came to the United 

 States in 1839, and again in 1847. He is 

 credited with being the means of adding 

 300,000 volumes to the liljraries of this coun- 

 try. The correspondence of M. Vattemare 

 with the National Institute, in which he has 

 set forth at some length the progress of 

 his i^lan for international exchanges, will 

 be found of much interest. 



