PORTRAITS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 163 



Before the time for vacating its hall, the Society had 

 secured rooms at the corner of Washington and West 

 Streets, with entrances from both streets. The rooms 

 were all upon one floor; and the largest, previously 

 known as Amory Hall, was a spacious, airy, and pleas- 

 ant room, sufficiently large for the weekly, though not 

 for the annual exhibitions. The large room in the rear 

 was well adapted for the meetings of the Society and its 

 committees, as well as for the library and reading room. 

 In some respects, the Society was better accommodated 

 here than ever before. 



While occupying these rooms, the Society received 

 from L. M. Sargent, December 15, 1860, the present of 

 a painting, by Henry C. Pratt, of the Cereus giganteus, a 

 cactus found in the hot and arid regions of New Mexico, 

 which is now suspended in the library room. 



While here, also, the collection of portraits and busts 

 of the presidents and other prominent members and 

 benefactors of the Society, which now ornaments its 

 halls, may be said to have been commenced ; the only 

 one previously owned by the Society being the bust of 

 Theodore Lyman. On the 5th of January, 1861, a 

 committee was appointed to consider the expediency of 

 procuring portraits of the past and present presidents, 

 to be placed in the rooms of the Society. The commit- 

 tee having reported, a month later, in favor of procur- 

 ing such portraits, the sum of $1,000 was appropriated 

 for the purpose ; and on the 5th of May they an- 

 nounced that they had procured portraits of H. A. S. 

 Dearborn and Marshall P. Wilder, by Miss Stewart ; 

 Zebedee Cook and Joseph S. Cabot, by Brackett ; Eli- 

 jah Vose, by Young ; Samuel Walker and Josiah Stick- 

 ney, by Hartwell ; and Joseph Breck, by Pratt. 



