In consequence of elections to fill vacancies caused by declinations and resignations, the officers during the latter part of 1836 were: President, John Pitman; Vice-President, William G. Goddard; Directors, Zachariah Allen, William Jenkins, John Carter Brown, Frederick A. Farley, Thomas H. Webb, William S. Patten, Thomas B. Fenner, Owen Mason, William Butler, John J. Stimson, Henry Anthony, John Kingsbury, and Charles F. Tillinghast; Treasurer, Stephen Tripp; Secretary, Samuel W. Peckham; and all these were re-elected at the first annual meeting, February 27, 1837.

The constitution provided that the annual meeting should be held on the fourth Monday in February, but at the first annual meeting this was changed to the fourth Monday of September, on which date all subsequent meetings have been held; so that although the present annual meeting is the fifty-first, the present year is the fiftieth anniversary.

On the present Board of Directors may be found a name which also appears as that of one of the officers for the latter part of the year 1836, and unless, in these days of extraordinary physical phenomena, one may be mistaken in the consciousness of his own personal identity, these names belong to the same individual. This circumstance seems to make a sort of connecting link between these two widely separated periods, and this Board may be supposed to be looking back, with the mental vision of one of its members, to that remote period, and to be using, in a measure, his recollection as to some of the facts and

psychical

events alluded to in this Report; and this may account for and excuse some personal allusions in this historical sketch.

On the 9th of March, 1836, a communication from Messrs. Nicholas Brown, and Moses B. and Robert H. Ives, for the estate of Thomas P. Ives, deceased, was received by the Board of Directors, offering "to furnish a lot of land opposite the Town House, at the junction of Benefit and College streets, for the site of an edifice to be erected of stone or brick, for the suitable accommodation of the Athenæum, Historical and Franklin Societies, the lot and building to be owned by the Athenæum, and the other societies to be accommodated therein upon terms to be agreed upon." They also offered, the lot being valued by them at $4,000, to pay $6,000 towards the erection of such a building, and $4,000 towards the purchase of books for the Athenæum, making a total of $14,000, upon condition that the sum of $10,000 more be made up, to be applied to the same building, and $4,000 more towards the purchase of books, by the subscriptions of responsible persons (and exclusive of moneys received for shares to be sold in the Athenæum), previous to first of June next.

This "public spirited and munificent proposition" was accepted by the Board, by the passage of appropriate resolutions, and a committee was appointed to obtain subscriptions in accordance therewith. This committee met with a cordial response on the part of the citizens, and the sum of $15,604.50, an excess of $1.654.50 above the required amount, was subscribed

before the date named, by 188 individuals and 8 firms.* Of these, seven individuals and one member of a firm, Thomas Harkness, William W. Hoppin, George C. Nightingale, Elisha Dyer, Joseph C. Bucklin, William J. Harris, James H. Read and William Hall, are now living, and of these, five, Thomas Harkness, William W. Hoppin, George C. Nightingale, Elisha Dyer and James H. Read, are shareholders.

Most of these subscribers, and others, manifested their interest, and afforded their aid, by taking shares in the new institution, the price of which was fixed at the low sum of $15. The number of shares subscribed and paid for at the first opening of the books

was 291.

According to the terms of agreement between the library companies, the books of each were to be purchased by the new institution. For those of the Providence Library one thousand dollars were paid, and by the purchase of the shares of the Providence Athenæum, at the rate of $25 each, the books, furniture, etc., of that library became the property of the Athenæum. The amount of this purchase was $3,925. The number of volumes purchased of the Providence Library Company, exclusive of books unbound, broken sets, etc., was 1,680, and the number purchased of the Providence Athenæum was 2,400; total, 4,080.

The preliminary arrangements having been completed, the new library was opened on the 10th of October, 1836, at the rooms which had been previously

*The names and amounts subscribed are printed on the xx and xxi pages of the Historical Sketch prefixed to the Catalogue of 1853.

occupied from its commencement, by the former Athenæum, Nos. 42 and 44, on the west side of the second story of the Arcade, No. 44 being used for the library, and the other and smaller apartment for a reading room. The library hours at first were from

3 to 5 P. M., and afterwards from 3 to 6 P. M., daily.

The next rooms, excepting one, towards the south, in the same story, were then occupied by the United States District Judge, John Pitman (in whose office the meetings of the Board, except the first three, were held, until the occupation of this building), the United States District Attorney, Richard W. Greene, the Clerk of the United States Courts, and the United States Marshal, and there happened to be at that time, in Judge Greene's office, a student, whose attention, in passing to and fro, had often been arrested by the titles of some of the books in the old Providence Athenæum, displayed on the shelves near the windows, a great many of which were new to him, his literary resources having thus far been limited to the then comparatively meagre supplies of the college and old Providence libraries; and he longed for an opportunity to become acquainted with, and to peruse, those attractive volumes. Whether in consequence of his own exertions to this end, or of friendly interest in his behalf, his longing was satisfied by the appointment of Librarian of the new library, which office he filled until the removal of the books to the new building, with great delight and profit to himself, and he trusts to the satisfaction of the proprietors and visitors of the library. The reading room was soon after

fitted up and supplied with periodicals, and opened every evening from 6 to 9 o'clock, the library being also accessible during the same time, and Thomas P. Rodman was appointed Superintendent.

In the meantime the subject of the erection of the building by the Athenæum for their own accommodation and that of the Historical and Franklin Societies, had early engaged the attention of the Board of Directors. A plan furnished by Mr. William Strickland, of Philadelphia, was adopted, the lot of land was conveyed to the Athenæum as proposed, and Zachariah Allen, John J. Stimson and William S. Patten were appointed by the Board the Building Committee, to contract for and superintend the erection of the building. The ground was first broken on the fourth of April, 1837, and the building was commenced on the ninth of May, the interval being occupied in excavating and preparing the ground. Samuel B. Durfee, of Providence, who is now living, was the master mason, and Ebenezer Carpenter, of Providence, took and executed the contract for the carpenters' and joiners' work.

As an explanation of the length of time and large expense, over $2,200, required for excavation, it will be interesting to the shareholders to know that, in the language of the report of the Building Committee, “the uneven and precipitous condition of the land required much expense and labor upon it in excavation and filling up to prepare it for the building." In fact, the land on the east side of Benefit street, from