Page:A Short History of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1909).djvu/51

Rh the use of the society the Annales de Chymie and the Annales des Arts et de Commerce. Mr. Shinn is commissioned to procure for account of the society the Archives of Useful Knowledge of Dr. Mease and the Medical Museum of Drs. Mitchell and Miller. Agreed to procure the Repertory of Arts from London." Davy's London Institution Lectures, Nicholson's Journal, Murray's, Thompson's and Davy's Chemistrys and Tilloch's Magazine were suggested as desirable. It is interesting to see how largely the first members were concerned with physics and chemistry, subjects which for years have received little or no attention in the Academy.

The growth of the library was slow until 1816 when the newly elected President, William Maclure, began his donations which, in 1819, had reached nearly 1,500 volumes. A portion of his library was transferred from New Harmony in 1834.

A catalogue of the library was published in the Journal for 1817 to 1824 when there seems to have been in the possession of the society 1,675 volumes embracing 672 titles. Another catalogue published in 1836 gives the number of volumes at 6,890 of which 5,232 are credited to Mr. Maclure. In 1841 the collection had increased to 7,000. In May, 1845, Dr. Thomas B. Wilson presented Owen's History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds and from that date until his death in 1865, more than ten thousand volumes were given by him. His brother, Edward Wilson, presented 4,184 rare volumes and pamphlets of the last century, and a valuable selection from Dr. Wilson's library was received after his death from another brother, Rathmel Wilson. Dr. Wilson bequeathed to the Academy $10,000, the interest to be used for the continuance of his subscriptions and as a contribution toward the salary of the Librarian. A small amount had been received from the sale to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania of a collection of historical documents given by Mr. Maclure, and a little was secured from time to time by subscription or from the sale of duplicates, etc., but no permanent endowment was available until 1875 when Isaiah V. Williamson gave $25,000 in ground rents, the interest to be expended for the purchase of books.

The John Warner Library of about 1,045 volumes and 1,200 pamphlets, mostly on mathematics, was received in 1892 and the library of Dr. James Aitken Meigs consisting of 5,089 volumes was bequeathed to the Academy by his father, together with $20,000, in 1895.