ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



By DAVID MURRAY, Ph. D., LL. D. 



[Delivered May 25, 1880.] 



fl^dustrial axd material progress, illustrated in the 

 History of Albany. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Albany Institute : 



You have invited me to make one in h long and distinguished suc- 

 cession of members, who have delivered addresses before this society. 

 When I recall the names of those who have preceded me, and the 

 contributions they have made to the annals of this venerable society, I 

 realize that it is no easy task to find something worthy aqd fitting to 

 say on this occasion and in this presence. 



In attempting to fulfil the duty to which I am called to-night, I 

 have thought that it would not be inappropriate and, I hope, not 

 without interest, to present to you a sketch of the material and in- 

 dustrial progress of the country during the period which has elapsed 

 since the origin of this society. And in order that the subject may 

 have for an Albany audience a more direct and personal interest, I 

 propose to illustrate this progress, so far as possible, from facts in the 

 history of our own city. I confine myself to the material jirogress of 

 this period, because other aspects of this subject have been more fre- 

 quently presented, and because we shall find in a comparison of the 

 physical condition of the present with even that of the recently past, 

 facts that must prove both striking and instructive. The limit which 

 I have set for this comparison carries us back to the time immediately 

 succeeding the revolutionary war. It was in 1T91 that the Society of 

 Arts, which composes the elder branch of the Albany Institute, was 

 founded. This was almost at the verv besfinnins^ of that wonderful 

 career of growth and prosperity on which the country entered after 

 its struggle for independence — a career which before that time had 



