818 The Smithsonian Institution 



Institution, and which formed a collection of records of the 

 progress of the world which was unequaled in the United 

 States, and hardly surpassed in other countries. 



The growth of this special collection was a very rapid one. 

 In 1853 it had already attained 25,000 volumes, and in 1895 

 it included 314,499 volumes, and formed over one quarter of 

 the National Library. 



A most important influence was exerted by the communi- 

 cation addressed by the secretary of the Institution to the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, setting 

 forth the importance of the publication of lists of titles of me- 

 moirs or papers contained in all the transactions of learned 

 societies of the world, and offering to cooperate in this work. 

 The result of this suggestion was the undertaking of this 

 work by the Royal Society of London, which has now pub- 

 lished ten large quarto volumes of the " Catalogue of Scien- 

 tific Papers." The latest development of this movement was 

 the calling of an international conference, which met in 

 London in July, 1896, to consider a plan for cataloguing sci- 

 entific literature in such a way as to make readily accessible 

 the bibliography of any particular subject coming within the 

 scope of such an index. 



The development of public libraries in the United States 

 since 1850, the date when the Smithsonian Institution began 

 to exert its influence in this direction, has been marvelous. 

 Jewett's " Notice of Public Libraries," referred to above, gave 

 the statistics for the year 1849, showing that the number of 

 libraries containing 1000 volumes and upward was 423, and 

 the aggregate number of volumes in these libraries was 

 2,105,652. In 1891, according to the Report of the Bureau 

 of Education, there were 3804 such libraries, containing about 

 27,000,000 volumes. In 1849 there were but five libraries con- 

 taining over 50,000 volumes and upward, the largest being 



