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the Association is engaged, and that they will willingly place these 

 where they shall be accessible to every one and thus perform a larger 

 use than scattered private collections can possibly do. To further- 

 this object, efforts will be made to erect a suitable building at some 

 future day for the reception of the museum, and for other uses of a 

 similar character. Meanwhile, through the generosity of Mr. W. A. 

 Brand, Postmaster at Urbana, the Association has been enabled to 

 carry out this plan to a certain extent, and has placed a part of its 

 collections in the Post Office building. Perhaps no location could be 

 selected more suitable for such a museum than the city of Urbana. 

 In the words of President Glover's inaugural address, "We have a 

 field that has scarcely been worked, and one that is replete with ob- 

 jects of interest and importance. Within a radius of a hundred miles, 

 lies a magnificent geological field with its paleontological treasures. 

 The drift and more recent deposits have been but little studied. In 

 natural history, zoology and botany, the region is a rich one; in an- 

 cient remains, the richest in America. Dr. Foster in his Prehistoric 

 Nations says that Ohio alone contains 10,000 tumuli or mounds, and 

 Mr. Baldwin states that of these not over 500 have ever been 

 opened." The advantages to our city of such a collection of speci- 

 mens of the natural history of the neighborhood as well as of the 

 relics of its pioneer inhabitants and of those races, unknown to his- 

 tory, whose numerous implements, ornaments and articles of domestic 

 use, annually turned up by the plow, make their mute appeal to our 

 human sympathies, are so obvious that they hardly need be stated. 

 Gathered together and preserved, they not only excite curiosity and 

 stimulate research on the part of every individual of the community, 

 both young and old, but they at the same time add to that vast mass 

 of material which is being accumulated all over the country, and out 

 of which is, at some day, to be evolved the histor}^ of our predecessors 

 upon this Continent. In so good a work will not every one aid, who 

 has in his possession a stone ax, arrow head, pestle, pipe, badge or 

 ■other relic, dug up from the soil or obtained from burial mounds, by 

 contributing them to the museum? Due credit will be given to 

 each depositor and all articles will be carefully labelled, and classified. 

 In the explorations that have been made by the Association, during 

 the past three years, much valuable material has been gathered to- 

 gether, especially of an archaeological character, and when all the 

 necessary data are obtained it is proposed to publish a 



