81 
endowments or other property from which they draw interest 
or rent—such as those of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 
and a few others. A few, such as Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 
and probably others, have special annual grants from their State 
Legislatures ; a few are provided with apartments in the State cap- 
itol- rent free, which is to that extent an appropriation, but the 
majority, I presume, are mainly supported by the membership fee, 
with occasional special contributions. 
It is natural to presume that American energy would produce im- 
portant and valuable vesz/¢s from such institutions. We, as a peo- 
ple, have never yet failed to bring something good out of material 
capable of being manipulated. The labors which most of these 
associations have performed are simply marvelous, and the good 
they have achieved is worthy of all admiration. Not only have 
many of them acquired by purchase, or donation, or bequest, splen- 
did edifices, or, at least, most spacious and commodious buildings, 
in which they have gathered libraries, pamphlets, manuscripts, rec- 
ords, historical relics, museums of State antiquities and other 
treasures of priceless value, and have saved from destruction histor- 
ical monographs, biographies and genealogies. They have enriched 
the literature of history with hundreds of volumes of useful books, 
containing many rare documents, of which but few knew anything 
before, but which are now open to all investigators, and many a 
precious book, which the poor student could not purchase, is now 
freely laid on the library table whenever he wishes to consult it. 
They have ransacked old depositories, and have rescued from dust 
and dampness and destruction many State and family records; they 
have unearthed many buried treasures of more value than heraldic 
escutcheons or baronial insignia. They have awakened an interest 
in historical research before unknown, or at least not concentrated 
and systematic ; they have stimulated the zeal and encouraged the 
efforts of many a solitary student or obscure investigator; they 
have fostered the establishment of local and county societies in vil- 
lages where intelligent persons cannot attend the meetings of the 
State societies. 
But we dare not omit mentioning another result not less import- 
ant, and that is, the formation of /adfes’ societies with the same 
general purpose in view. ‘There are now eight or ten societies of 
Colonial Dames in this country, and although their researches are 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXII. 143. K. PRINTED DEC. 1, 1893. 
