for the first time for many years, and is now occupied by Miss Angell for her work on the card catalogue.

The Committee on Buildings and Grounds have been authorized to cause repairs to be made on the north bank and retaining wall, the expense of which will be about $35.

Necessary repairs have been made on the boiler, the expense of which, not yet ascertained, will be charged to the expenditures of next year.

FINANCES.

The following is a general statement of the finances of the Athenæum for the past year, the particular items of which will appear in the Treasurer's report. (See Appendix, No. 1.):

The foregoing pages contain all the information with regard to the affairs of the Athenæum which the Board are required by the Constitution to give at each annual meeting.

The present year being the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of this institution, the Board of Directors have thought it proper to take notice of the fact in their Report to the Proprietors, and to present to them such facts in relation to its origin, growth, condition, and prospects, as may be pleasant and profita ble subjects of present contemplation, and may furnish lessons and incentives for future action.

The records of the meetings of the Corporation and of the Board of Directors, and the annual reports of the Board, and the Historical Sketch prefixed to the catalogue published in 1853 furnish, for this purpose, ample materials, which will, however, require much abbreviation and condensation in order to be comprised within the limits proper for this occasion.

It will be understood, without further special acknowledgment, that these materials are freely made use of in this report.

The first public movement for the foundation of this library was the call for a meeting to be held in Masonic Hall, January 25, 1836, at 6 o'clock P. M., for the purpose of combining the Providence Library with the Providence Athenæum, and of forming "an enlarged institution which may be more extensively useful and creditable to our citizens," the notice of which was published in the Providence Daily Journal of that date.

This proposed meeting was the result of various preliminary conferences, formal and informal, at which the project for a union between those institutions having undergone, in its principles and details, a full discussion, was matured for the action of all parties interested in its success.

The Masonic Hall mentioned was in the upper story of the old City Building, now leased to the Providence Board of Trade. The second story was occupied by the City Council and city officers, and the lower story and basement were used for a public market.

The call for the meeting was signed by 59 persons, only one of whom is now living, the Rev. Dr. Frederick A. Farley, of Brooklyn, New York, the first pastor of the Westminster Congregational Society of this city, who was one of the Trustees of the old Providence Athenæum, and who, from this time until his removal from this city in 1841, was a most “valuable counsellor and efficient co-operator in the administration of the affairs of the new Athenæum." The first signature was that of Moses Brown. This call, with the names of the signers, is printed in the Appendix A to the first annual report.

The meeting was held accordingly, and a draught of an act of incorporation was adopted, and a committee was appointed to obtain signatures to a petition to the General Assembly for its passage. This petition is in the handwriting of the late Judge Staples, and was signed by 59 citizens, of whom four, Frederick A. Farley, John A. Howland, James H.

Read and John T. Pitman, are now living, and of these four, three, Messrs. Farley, Howland and Read, were on the first, and two, Messrs. Howland and Read, are on the present list of proprietors, and one, Mr. Howland, is now, and has been since September, 1863, a member of the audit committee of the corporation.

It sets forth, among other facts, that the Providence Library Company and the Providence Athenæum, "after mature consideration and ineffectual attempts for a union, have severally resolved to dispose of their libraries and dissolve their corporations, in case this Honorable Assembly would grant a new charter for the same objects to those of the corporators of each and such others as would join them in applying therefor." The petition and signatures, never before printed, will be found in Appendix No. 4.

Agreeably to this petition, this institution was incorporated at the January session, 1836, of the General Assembly, under the name of "The Athenæum,' which was, at the October session, 1850, by an amendment to the charter, changed to "The Providence Athenæum."

Of the 283 corporators named in the charter,* 16 are now living, Frederick A. Farley, John A. Howland, James H. Read, John T. Pitman, John R. Randolph, John R. Balch, W. W. Hoppin, L. M. Ware, Robert W. Aborn, L. D. Hutchins, Joseph A. Barker, Thomas Brown, W. S. Burges, S. R. Weeden, A. F. Adie, T. Davis, and several have died quite recently.

*See copy of Charter in Appendix A to First Annual Report.

Moses Brown, the first named corporator, and to whom share No. I was issued, and in whose name that share still stands, died September 6, 1836, aged 97 years. The names of 9 of these 16 survivors, F. A. Farley, Joseph A. Barker, Thomas Brown, W. S. Burges, T. Davis, W. W. Hoppin, J. A. Howland, J. T. Pitman, J. H. Read, appear in the first printed list of shareholders, and 6 of these, Thomas Brown, W. S. Burges, T. Davis, W. W. Hoppin, J. A. Howland, J. H. Read, are on the present list, and five other names on the first list, Elisha Dyer, Thomas Harkness, G. C. Nightingale, S. W. Peckham, R. Waterman, are on the last.

The first meeting of the corporation was held on Monday, February 22, 1836, at Mechanics Hall, over Franklin Hall, and now occupied by Slocum Post, No. 10, G. A. R., at which the charter was accepted, and a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and an adjourned meeting was held on the 29th, at which Directors, and a Treasurer and Secretary were elected, as follows: Zachariah Allen, William Jenkins, John Carter Brown, Frederick A. Farley, Thomas H. Webb, William S. Patten, Thomas B. Fenner, Owen Mason, William Butler, Amasa Manton, Stephen Tripp, John J. Stimson, Henry Anthony, Directors; William R. Staples, Treasurer, and Thomas White, Secretary.

The Directors subsequently elected John Pitman, President, and William G. Goddard, Vice-President, the persons first elected to those offices, Moses B. Ives and Zachariah Allen, having declined.