THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 25 



country, a naturalist at the age of ten, devoted to the 

 study and to the collection of specimens which came to 

 possess a rare interest and value, a careful student of 

 genealogy and family history, leaving much of his research 

 in print, besides a fund of manuscript material most help- 

 ful to those who follow him, — he made his acquaintance an 

 invaluable privilege to the student by a wealth of personal 

 reminiscence ; by an acquaintance with the dark history of 

 Gallows Hill, under whose shadow he passed his life, and 

 of the Witchcraft period of which he made a specialty ; 

 while his gathered store of antique furnishings, publica- 

 tions and coinage made his comfortable homestead a Mecca 

 for the bibliophile and the archaeologist. His accumula- 

 tion of coins and medals of British and American issue, 

 of colonial and provincial currency, of continental pa- 

 per money, of New England almanacs, covering more 

 than two centuries in their publication, of autograph let- 

 ters, French, English and American, illustrating our Rev- 

 olutionary period, represented the devotion of a lifetime 

 and challenged comparison with the most exhaustive 

 collections in the country. With the exception of six 

 consecutive years during which Mr. Stickney was the 

 librarian of the Essex Institute, he was curator of numis- 

 matics from the foundation of the society in 1848 until 

 his death." 



The Secretary was instructed to send a copy of the 

 above to the family of Mr. Stickney. 



Regular Meetiiu/, Monday, JVbv. 19, 1894. — Mr. 

 Rantoul made a statement'in reference to a cradle presented 

 to the Institute by Richards W. Bradley of Boston. " The 

 Essex Institute accepts with satisfaction the custody of 

 an object so intimately associated with two of the most 

 distinguished sons of Essex County, as is the cradle of 



KSSKX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XXVII 4 



