THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 5 



eiii France." Louis Prang followed him, on "Chronio- 

 Lithographic Art," and Dr. Hasket Derby, describing 

 "Wisbuy, a Dead City of the Baltic," completed the series. 

 The last three lectures were copiously illustrated. The 

 promise of another lecture on the "Old Time Clergymen 

 of Salem," by Rev. J. W. Buckham, was defeated by the 

 illness of the speaker. 



The nature of these addresses is at once a tribute to the 

 character of the audiences which our courses command and 

 an evidence that the work of the Institute is held in high 

 esteem amongst the class of lecturers who are able and 

 willing to make gratuitous contributions to popular cul- 

 ture. Our own home course of evenings in the Institute 

 Building has been also well sustained and furnished sev- 

 eral papers which have been accepted for the Historical 

 Collections. Wm. L. Welch, Gilbert L. Streeter, John 

 Robinson, Arthur H. Chase, Edward A. Silsbee, Ezra D. 

 Hines, Mrs. Henry Wardwell, Mrs. W. S. Nevins and 

 Miss A. L. Warner have each, in turn, occupied evenings, 

 — Mr. Streeter two, — in an acceptable manner, and a con- 

 sideiable number of local topics have been illustrated and 

 discussed. 



The Institute has commemorated the seventy-fifth anni- 

 versary of the founding of the Essex Historical Society, 

 which was practically its own birthday , for the mantle of the 

 Historical Society has fallen, for better or for worse, upon 

 the shoulders of the Essex Institute. Before the next en- 

 suing annual meeting, the Institute will be called on, in 

 March, 1898, to give an account of its stewardship for the 

 first half-century of its corporate life. It would be well 

 if this present annual meeting should indicate, in some 

 way, what notice it would wish the Society to take of this 

 event. 



Prof. Daniel B. Hagar, a vice-president of the Institute 

 for many years, has since the last yearly meeting removed 



