Arch(Sologia Americana, 357 



INTELLIGENCE AND MISCELLANIES. 



I. Domestic. 



i. ArchcBologia Americana. Transactions and collections of 

 the American Antiquarian Society. Vol. I. 1820. 



The American Antiquarian Society, as appears from the 

 act of incorporation, was instituted at Worcester, Massachu- 

 setts in the year eighteen hundred and twelve. The imme- 

 diate design of the association, in the language of their pe- 

 tition to the legislature of Massachusetts, is " to discover the 

 antiquities of our own continent; and, by providing a fixed 

 and permanent place of deposit, to preserve such relics of 

 American antiquity as are portable, as well as to collect and 

 preserve those of other parts of the globe." From the time 

 of their incorporation to January 1820, the Society had 

 collected a library of more than six thousand volumes of 

 rare and valuable books, some of which, it is beheved, can- 

 not be found elsewhere in the country. The cabinet is 

 stated to be Hkewise respectable. The national govern- 

 ernment has ordered its laws, &;c to be sent to the society ; 

 and the legislature of Massachusetts has directed the Sec- 

 retary of the state to furnish the institution with two copies 

 of all their laws and other publications, which they now 

 have or may hereafter have. The society has experienced 

 like indulgence from the legislatures of most of the other 

 states. For the preservation and proper arrangement of the 

 library and cabinet, a commodious and substantial building 

 has been erected at the expense of the president of the so- 

 ciety, Isaiah Thomas, Esq. of Worcester ; whose munifi- 

 cence in this instance, as well as in his valuable dona- 

 tions to the library of the society, and in the aid he has af- 

 forded towards completing the examination and surveys of 

 the antiquities in the western country, justly entitle him to 

 an honorable rank among the benefactors of the literature 

 of the union. 



The volume mentioned above, is the first in the series of 

 the proposed publications of the society. After a historical 



