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has room to exhibit them, they must not be refused, especially if 
with the donation provision is made for their safe keeping; but a 
general picture or a statuary gallery is a very different thing from a 
collection of historical portraits or other pictures representing great 
historical events. Such a collection it is desirable to have. Popu- 
lar and miscellaneous books as well as most of the illustrated maga- 
zines and newspapers and quarterlies and monthlies must be sought 
for in libraries designed for more general use. A museum of house- 
hold relics of colonial and Revolutionary times, of old documents, 
ornaments, dress, weapons, furniture and many other things, such 
as we have lately had exhibited in Baltimore, will teach more history 
in an hour than a mere fancy picture gallery, of whatever extent or 
estimated value, will do in a week. . 
What a fresh impetus has been given to the study of our national 
history within the last hundred years! It has been estimated by 
those capable of forming a correct judgment, that since the organiza- 
tion of the Government in 1789, under the Constitution, more than 
two hundred historical societies have been organized, the greater 
number of which continue in active existence. Most of them aim 
at the elucidation of the State or county or town in which they 
have been formed, and the principal means employed for accom- 
plishing the object has been the collection of historical books, of 
manuscripts, of museums, of historical memorials—in some instances 
including the natural history of the region, and the printing of 
historical documents. 
All these collections are rendered accessible to the public, and 
persons devoted to such studies have every desirable opportunity of 
gratifying their tastes, and every facility should be afforded. The 
red tape tying the documents should be short and the knot very 
loose. No student need go far to find everything that has been 
published concerning his own State, besides numerous valuable 
documents which have not yet been put in print, and to these he 
should have free access under liberal limitations. Of what use are 
such historic treasures to any body if they are to be locked up in 
a fireproof vault, and the use or exhibition of them environed 
with discouraging difficulties ? 
Several of the States, as Maryland and Georgia, and perhaps 
some others, have made their library rooms or vaults of their State 
societies, places of deposit of valuable State historical records, at 
least to some extent, and it would have been well if our own State 
