Abstract of History. xxi 



LIBRARY. 



After its organization, the Academy met in Pope's 

 Medical College, where a creditable beginning had been 

 made toward the formation of a museum and library, 

 until May, 1869, when the building and museum were 

 destroyed by fire, the library being saved. The library 

 now contains about 18,500 books and 16,000 pamphlets, 

 and is open during certain hours of the day for consulta- 

 tion by members and persons engaged in scientific work. 



PUBLICATIONS AND EXCHANGES. 



Twenty-one octavo volumes of Transactions have been 

 published since the organization of the Academy, and 

 widely distributed. Two quarto publications have also 

 been issued : one from the Archaeological Section, being 

 a contribution to the archaeology of Missouri, and the 

 other a report of the observations made by the Washing- 

 ton University Eclipse Party of 1889. The Academy 

 now stands in exchange relations with 422 institutions or 

 organizations of aims similar to its own. 



MUSEUM. 



After the loss of its first museum, in 1869, the Acad- 

 emy lacked adequate room for the arrangement of a 

 public museum, and, although small museum accessions 

 were received and cared for, its main effort, of necessity, 

 was concentrated on the holding of meetings, the forma- 

 tion of a library, the publication of worthy scientific mat- 

 ter, and the maintenance of relations with other scientific 

 bodies. 



The Museum is at present located on the third floor 

 of the Academy Building and has in it a number of 

 specimens illustrating the various branches of natural 

 science, among which may be mentioned the Yandell Col- 

 lection of fossils, a collection of some 600 exotic butter- 

 flies, a collection of Mound Builder pottery and skulls 

 from near New Madrid, Mo., and a collection of 25 

 meteorites. Our material forms but a nucleus of a 

 museum which the Academy hopes to establish — a 

 museum which we trust will be of benefit to the public 

 and to the educational institutions of the city. 



