ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL, 1901.

THE Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, the 11th instant, at twelve o'clock, M.; the President in the chair.

The record of the March meeting was read and reports were made by the Librarian and Cabinet-Keeper, the latter of whom mentioned the receipt, from the Recording Secretary, of a large and beautiful photograph from an oil painting of the late Rev. Dr. Alexander Young, for many years an officer of the Society.

The President then announced the appointment of a Committee to publish a selection of Revolutionary Papers from the Trumbull Collection, as follows: Charles C. Smith, Winslow Warren, George B. Chase, Henry F. Jenks, Arthur Lord.

The President also announced the receipt from the executors of the will of the late Hon. Mellen Chamberlain of his incomplete manuscript History of Chelsea, with ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans, engravings, photographs, materials, etc., used in the preparation of said History.

Rev. MORTON DEXTER, Senior Member at Large of the Council, read their Annual Report.

Report of the Council.

The history of the Society during the past year has been one of prosperity, but unmarked by many striking events. The conveniences and comforts of our new building have been appreciated thoroughly, and at length we may regard the Society as satisfactorily settled, and probably for many years to come. The classification and shelving of our general library, which were in progress at the time of the Annual Meeting in 1900, have been completed, and advantage has been taken of the opportunity to weed out and dispose of a number of duplicate or otherwise comparatively valueless, publications. Additional space thus is provided for the future legitimate increase of the library.

The Waterston Room, containing the collection of books, autographs, etc., bequeathed to us by our late associate

Rev. R. C. Waterston, has been fitted up appropriately, and should prove a congenial resort for quiet study. It is a beautiful and attractive feature of our building. The energy and good judgment of the Cabinet-Keeper have rendered our collection of portraits, memorials, and other objects of interest accessible and enjoyable to a degree impossible of attainment heretofore. The room set apart for it has been made an inviting and instructive museum. There have been added to its contents a portrait and the dress sword of Governor John Brooks and a cane presented to him by General Washington, gifts to the Society from Miss Elizabeth Burnap, of Baltimore. Arrangements have been made for the admission of the public to this room hereafter on Wednesdays from two to five o'clock, P. M.

The Council has decided to grant the recent request of the heirs of Dr. John Clark Howard that the portrait of Dr. John Clark, which has been in our collection for the last sixty or more years, be transferred to the Medical Library next door as its more appropriate guardian. But the discussion of the matter has suggested the desirability of the adoption by the Society of a definite policy in regard to such possible future requests.

During the year an agreement has been made with the city of Boston accepting on the part of the Society certain restrictions substantially similar to those imposed upon land adjoining our property, but requiring the setting back of buildings to a distance of not more than fifteen feet from Boylston Entrance and of not more than twenty feet from the Fenway. A statement regarding the sale of a portion of our real estate fronting upon Boylston Entrance will be found in the annual report of the Treasurer.

As usual, nine regular meetings have been held, and there has been one special meeting, called to approve the sale of real estate just mentioned. A number of important papers have been contributed; among them being one, by President Adams, upon Experiences of Candidates for Admission to Harvard College in the Past, based upon the autobiography of John Adams and the diary of Dr. S. K. Lothrop, and supplemented by extracts from his own diary by Colonel Higginson; one by Dr. De Normandie upon Alleged Diabolical Performances at Great Island, near Portsmouth, as recorded in a book

published in London in 1698; one by Dr. Slafter, on Coat Armor; and others by Mr. Hunnewell, on Early Houses near Massachusetts Bay; Mr. Quincy, on the Need of Caution in the Use of Diaries as Material for History; Dr. Schouler, entitled A Century's Retrospect; and Dr. Rhodes on his Recent Impressions of England. Many interesting unwritten communications also have been made, notably Dr. A. C. Coolidge's about the Randolph family gathering at Tuckahoe, Virginia, on April 19, 1900, and Professor Channing's account of a visit to Jamestown, Virginia.

In this connection the Council would remind the Society of the suggestion made as long ago as 1892 by our associate Mr. R. C. Winthrop, Jr., that the interest of our meetings is much increased when members who have prepared contributions too long to be read to the Society in full furnish oral abstracts or statements of the substance of what they have made ready for print. During the year this been done repeatedly and acceptably, and the practice should become a matter of course, excepting when there exists some special reason to the contrary.

No such collection has been received this year as Mr. T. J. Coolidge's earlier gifts of the Jefferson manuscripts. But we have received, from Mr. Waldo Story, nearly three hundred letters by Chief Justice Marshall, Chancellor Kent, Daniel Webster, and others, chiefly to Mr. Justice Story and treating of important legal and political topics. Dr. Young also has given us a copy of an important map showing the Federal territory according to an ordinance of Congress passed in 1785. It should be added that during the year a collection of tracts relating to George Whitefield, which was taken from the library nearly seventy years ago, has been returned.

The Society has published one volume-2d Series, Vol. XIII. of its Proceedings. It contains portraits of Messrs. Clement Hugh Hill, Charles Francis Adams, and Francis A. Walker, former members, and it has for frontispiece a fine picture of our present building. Five serial numbers of our Proceedings also have appeared and will be included in the next volume, which will soon be published. One volume — 7th Series, Vol. I. of our Collections, the Jefferson Papers, also has been published.

Of our Resident Members a year ago six have passed

away: William Crowninshield Endicott, who died May 6, 1900; Edwards Amasa Park, June 4; William H. Whitmore, June 14; Augustus Lowell, June 22; Mellen Chamberlain, June 25; and Roger Wolcott, December 21. Of our Corresponding Members six also have died: John Nicholas Brown, May 1, 1900; Richard Salter Storrs, June 5; Jacob Dolson Cox, August 4; Charles Jeremy Hoadly, October 19; William Wirt Henry, December 5; and Moses Coit Tyler, December 28. Two Honorary Members, Mandell Creighton and William Maxwell Evarts, also died on January 14 and February 28, 1901, respectively.

The following memoirs of deceased members have been written and will soon be published: That of Charles F. Dunbar, by Edward H. Hall; of John C. Ropes, filed by John C. Gray; of John Lowell, by Thornton K. Lothrop; of Benjamin F. Thomas, by Richard Olney; of George O. Shattuck, by Oliver Wendell Holmes; of Edwards A. Park, by Alexander McKenzie; of William W. Greenough, by Barrett Wendell; and of Edward G. Porter, by Morton Dexter.

The following gentlemen have been elected to Resident Membership: Melville Madison Bigelow, April 12, 1900; Elijah Winchester Donald, May 10; Worthington Chauncey Ford, November 8; Thomas Leonard Livermore, January 10, 1901; and Nathaniel Paine, March 14. John Bassett Moore was chosen a Corresponding Member on May 10, 1900, John Hay on June 14, Daniel Coit Gilman on January 10, 1901, John Morley on February 14, and Frederic Harrison on March 14.

Three vacancies remain in our possible list of Resident Membership and six in that of Corresponding Membership. In that of Honorary Membership there are two. It has been proposed by our President, and with the approval of the Council, to treat election to our list of Honorary Members hereafter as a greater distinction than heretofore, as a very high honor ordinarily only following some special and recognized success in historical work.

It remains only to note that the Society recently has been. invited to be represented on the occasion of the celebration. next June by the University of Glasgow of the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foundation.

During the year the following publications have been made by members of the Society:

Publications by Members.

The Sifted Grain and the Grain Sifters. An Address at the Dedication of the Building of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, at Madison, October 19, 1900. By Charles Francis Adams. The same, second edition. The Power of History. An Address delivered before the Westborough (Mass.) Historical Society, January 19, 1899, and repeated before the Quinnebaug Historical Society, at Sturbridge (Mass.), June 21, 1900. By Daniel H. Chamberlain.

Andros's Proclamation Money. From Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1900. By Andrew McFarland Davis. The Currency and Provincial Politics. Reprinted from the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. VI. By Andrew McFarland Davis.

"Previous Legislation." A Corrective for Colonial Troubles. Reprinted from the Publications of the Colonial Society, Vol. VI. By Andrew McFarland Davis.

Patriotism: An Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard College, 28 June, 1900. By William Everett. The Life Everlasting. By John Fiske.

The New Epoch for Faith. By George A. Gordon.

An Address on the Life, Character, and Influence of Chief Justice Marshall, delivered at Richmond on the fourth day of February, 1901, at the request of the State Bar Association of Virginia and the Bar Association of the City of Richmond. By Horace Gray.

The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770: a Part of the Council's Report made to the American Antiquarian Society at its Annual Meeting in Worcester, October 24, 1900. By Samuel A. Green. Groton during the Revolution. With an Appendix. By Samuel A. Green.

Student Customs. From Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, at their Annual Meeting, October 24, 1900. By G. Stanley Hall.

Suffolk Deeds. Liber XI. Edited by John T. Hassam, with an Introduction by him on Registers of Deeds from 1735 to 1900. Hunnewell, chiefly six generations in Massachusetts. By James F. Hunnewell.

Some Problems of the Country Parish. The Annual Sermon delivered in the South Congregational Church, Boston, before the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, May 26, 1898. By Henry F. Jenks.

A Letter to the Wardens and Vestrymen in the Diocese of Massachusetts. By William Lawrence.