Library Service Secretary and Superintendent Librarian and Assistant Superintendent ISAAC SAMUEL BRADLEY, B. S. LIBRARY OPEN - Daily, except Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, University vacations, and summer months: 8 A. M. to 10 P. M. Saturdays: 8 A. M. to 9 P. M. Holidays, University vacations, and summer months, as per special announcement. MUSEUM OPEN - Daily except Sundays and holidays: 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. Sundays, holidays and evenings, as per special announcement. *During session of the University. †During winter months. Fifty-Third Annual Meeting The business session of the fifty-third annual meeting of The State Historical Society of Wisconsin was held in the lecture room of the State Historical Library Building at Madison, upon Thursday afternoon, November 9, 1905, commencing at four o'clock; an open session was held the same evening in the society's museum, commencing at half after seven. Business Session President Wight took the chair at 4 P. M. Executive Committee's Report The secretary, on behalf of the executive committee, submitted its annual report, which was adopted. [See Appendix, for text.] Financial Reports In the absence of Chairman N. B. Van Slyke, of the committee on finance, Mr. W. A. P. Morris of that committee presented its report, approving the report of Treasurer L. S. Hanks for the year ending June 30, 1905, to which in its turn. was attached the favorable report of the auditing committee (Chairman C. N. Brown) upon the treasurer's accounts. These several reports were adopted. [See Appendix for texts.] The secretary presented his fiscal report for the year ending June 30, 1905, all accounts having been audited by the secretary of state and warrants therefor paid by the state treasurer. [See Appendix for text.] Curators Elected Messrs. W. A. P. Morris, R. M. Bashford, S. E. Lathrop, Edward Kinne, and Edward W. Frost were appointed a com mittee on the nomination of curators, and reported in favor of the following persons, who were unanimously elected: For term ending at annual meeting in 1906 To succeed Hon. George Raymer (resigned) of Madison, Hon. Nils P. Haugen of Madison; to succeed Hon. James Sutherland (deceased) of Janesville, Maj. F. W. Oakley of Madison. For term ending at annual meeting in 1908 Prof. Rasmus B. Anderson, Hon. Emil Baensch, Charles N. Brown, Esq., Hon. George B. Burrows, Frederic K. Conover, Esq., Hon. Alfred A. Jackson, Hon. Burr W. Jones, Hon. John Luchsinger, Most Rev. S. G. Messmer, J. Howard Palmer, Esq., Prof. John B. Parkinson, Hon. N. B. Van Slyke. Reports of Auxiliaries The secretary presented annual reports from the society's several auxiliaries, the local historical societies of Green Bay, Ripon, Walworth County, and Sauk County. [See Appendix, for texts.] The meeting thereupon stood adjourned. Open Session The open session of the society was held at 7:30 P. M. in the museum, President Wight in the chair. President's Address The president spoke as follows: We approach this annual meeting through two postponements.' These have been rendered proper, if not imperative, by reason of demands upon the expert services of the secretary. One demand, by officials of this state, called him eastward at the proper meeting time; another demand, moderated into a request, found him in California at the appointed adjourned date. However, these delays cannot have dulled our pleasure or lessened the satisfaction this day experienced, while learning of the prosperity and broadening influence of this so 'The usual day, under the by-laws, was October 19; the date was first postponed by the president and secretary, under the rules, until October 26, and later to November 9.-SEC. ciety. The secretary's report presented this afternoon has advised us of the growth of books and pamphlets, of the increasing honorable repute enjoyed, of the healthy condition of the revenues, and of such an expansion in the membership as at last justifies a printed roster. Of the repute of this society, based in part upon its literary possessions, some judgment may be formed by examining a paper published in the annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1904, prepared by Prof. Wilbur H. Siebert, of Columbus, Ohio, entitled "Report on the collections of material in English and European history and subsidiary fields in libraries of the United States."1 The author, as his title indicates, browsed over a field far distant from that which this society started to cultivate in 1849, and which was bounded by the history and antiquities of Wisconsin and the history of Indian tribes. Hence the commendations of Professor Siebert are much more to be appreciated. He directs principal attention to our collection, in the department of English history, numbering some fifteen thousand volumes, and declares it "surpassed by but few other American libraries in character and extent." The author notices also our rich"- the adjective is his-gathering of material upon the French revolution and Napoleon. Professor Siebert observes also upon the considerable amount of geographical apparatus, including maps and plans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which appertain to our Tank Library, and which vastly facilitate the study of the discoveries of the navigators. This Tank Library, of more than five thousand books and pamphlets, is regarded very favorably by Professor Siebert, because unlocking the doors for the examination of Dutch history in general, of Dutch protestantism in particular, and of the statute law of the provinces constituting the old Netherlandish republic. As to the genealogical collection of the society, this Professor Siebert "ranks among the very best." 66 Mention such as this writer makes is warming, yet it is but a tithe of the attention he would devote and the praise he would be forced to bestow, should he collate upon our wealth of American history and aboriginal antiquities. The substantive, wealth, is advisedly used both as to those departments and as to the entire library. A single comparison will be interesting: During the first year of this society's existence, in 1849-50, its collections consisted of five articles - a patent of land in the state of New York, a drawing of a mound near Third Lake, Madison, two volumes of Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, and a book entitled Literature of American Local History.2 1 Pp. 651-696. 2 Wis. Hist. Colls., i, pp. xxxix, xli; v, 16. During the |