Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary. xxvii 



years the Academy museum was stored in the officers' minds 

 rather than in the Academy rooms. 



Now that we have a home of our own, the museum again 

 demands attention, and at present nothing is too small to be 

 noticed nor too large to be coveted by our curators. The 

 entire animate and inanimate world is called upon to pay 

 tribute to the museum now in process of growth. 



The Library. Dr. Johnson said: "There is no part of 

 history so generally useful as that which relates to the progress 

 of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the 

 successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning 

 and ignorance, which are the light and darkness of thinking 

 beings." The Academy library is rich in serial publications 

 running back more than half a century. It awaits better 

 acquaintance with the thinking public of this great city. 

 What we now need is a fire-proof structure on the ample 

 ground north of this building, so that contributors to the 

 library and museum will feel assured of their donations being 

 preserved for the use and instruction of future generations. 



Donations and Bequests. The notion that professional 

 men should be indifferent to pecuniary affairs is an inheri- 

 tance from the days of ecclesiastical monopoly of all matters 

 scientific or professional. It is as essential for an organiza- 

 tion to have funds as it is for an individual to avoid poverty. 

 The affairs of the Academy have always been in the hands of 

 men of good business judgment, but the process of accumu- 

 latinsr a reserve fund has been slow and will continue so until 

 more men and women of wealth and generosity come with 

 their aid. 



The endowment fund question was mentioned by the chair- 

 man of the first meeting of the Academy, in 1856. Treasurer 

 Sander will detail the results of fifty years of appeal to the 

 fostering hands of friends. Dr. Hambach will record the 

 contributions to the museum and library and detail the vicis- 

 situdes in the growth of each one. 



The Academy Homes. The Academy was born in the 

 hall of the St. Louis Public School Board, March 10, 1856. 



The infant was taken direct to the O' Fallon Dispensary of 



