10 



BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



picl^rpar) place 



century, would be found to have furnished us with the 



mass of our material and with much of our prestige. i 

 Since its establishment in 1848 the Institute has issued 



six volumes of its Proceedings and twenty-eight volumes 



of its Bulletin, and these 

 contain, together with its 

 current transactions, 

 scientific papers of high 

 authority and value num- 

 bering two hundred and 

 ninety-six articles, besides 

 minor contributions, 

 covering an infinite variety 



of topics of greater or less importance, for the most part 



related to the Natural History of Essex County ; and 



the work of one hundred 



and lorty-nme writers, >Tom Btov^os runs^ 



amongst whom I find such 



names as Agassiz, Fitch 



Poole, the Uphams, Alex- 

 ander Bell, Jones Very, 



Russell, Silsbee, Wheatland, 



John Robinson, Professors 



Wright, Dorsey, Emerton, 



Fewkes, Garman, Crosby, 



Putnam, Hyatt, Morse. The 



"American Naturalist," a scientific magazine in good 



standing, was established by the Essex Institute in 1867. 



1 To a little venture called the " Weal Reaf " printed in ISGO at a fair for the 

 benefit of the Essex Institute, Nathaniel Hawthorne contributed a delightful 

 reminiscence of Browne's Polly. During the period when his genius was ma- 

 turing, — say from 1825 to 1845, — be spent much time in the Historical Society's 

 Rooms in Pickman Place, and filled his note-books with what he saw there. Many 

 of our treasures will be found described in the " American Note Books." Espe. 

 cially has he used a bit of rough-cast from the old Browne Mansion, built in 16!)8, 

 which he found preserved there, for a mural decoration of the " House of 

 Seven Gables," where it will be recognized, twice described to the letter, iu Chap- 

 ters One and Thirteen. We have it still. 



