display that had ever occurred in Minnesota. The military authorities at Fort Snelling sent their full band. Major Sherman and his battery (not W. T. Sherman, afterward General, but Thomas W. Sherman, who had won fame in Mexico with his "Flying Artillery") headed the procession, which marched through the streets and to the foundation, where the corner stone was to be laid.

Hon. George L. Becker, who was mayor of St. Paul at that time, being then as now an honored citizen of Minnesota, delivered an address. Lieut. M. F. Maury, of the United States Navy, who had already distinguished himself and honored his country by his original scientific work in charting ocean currents and making routes for the safer and more speedy navigation of the Atlantic Ocean, also gave an address. The corner stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies; and there, I trust, it remains safe, with its contents undisturbed, up to this day.

The financial storm of 1857 was approaching, and life memberships were unsalable; conditional subscriptions stopped at $15,000, some were withdrawn, and others were expected to be withdrawn; and the legislature declined to make any appropriation for the building. Col. Robertson, discouraged and beaten, went to Europe for a year's rest and recreation.

The room at the capitol occupied by our society was demanded for the use of the state auditor, and the Executive Council rented a small room adjoining the St. Paul Library room in the Ingersoll Block, at the southeast corner of Third and Wabasha streets. This was the humble home of the society during the incumbency of Mr. Charles E. Mayo as secretary, from 1864 to 1867, a period in which the unsettled condition of public affairs prevented any considerable growth.

On the 21st of January, 1867, John Fletcher Williams was elected secretary. He served in that capacity faithfully and efficiently until his resignation in 1893, a period of twenty-six years, during which time there was a constant and increasing interest exhibited by the people of the state and by the successive state legislatures. The society was recognized as a state institution by appropriations of money that enabled its officers to largely extend its usefulness, and to increase ma

Not

terially its valuable library of books and newspapers. withstanding the impairment of its property by the fire that on March 1st, 1881, destroyed the old capitol, in which were its library and museum, the society has experienced a constant and healthy growth, under different secretaries, up to the present day. Now, under the present careful and efficient management, it is in the front rank with any similar institution of the same age in any state or country.

I have passed lightly over the more recent growth of the society, for it would require an extension of the time allotted to me for the presentation of this subject. To realize that our growth has been phenomenal for the half century, it is only necessary to enumerate the number and consider the value of the publications of the society, and the catalogue of its library, which now contains a grand total of 63,500 volumes, bound and unbound; and to note that our unique and most valuable collection of Minnesota newspapers commences with the first number of the first paper published in Minnesota Territory in the year 1849, and continues down to the present day. The library is now receiving regularly four hundred and twenty-one daily, weekly and monthly newspapers of Minnesota, which are bound when volumes are completed, and are carefully preserved in a fireproof room.

These daily and weekly newspapers and periodicals afford the truest, the fullest, the most impartial image of the age we live in, that can be derived from any single source; and this collection is recognized as invaluable for reference by students of history and of politics, by lawyers and searchers for titles of real estate in all parts of Minnesota, and for many other matters of record nowhere else obtainable. Constant use is made of these files, by personal inspection, by all classes of citizens, who often come to the library for this purpose from distant parts of the state.

The young men who met just fifty years ago, on November 15th, 1849, for the organization of the Minnesota Historical Society, and on January 14th, 1850, to discuss and adopt its constitution and by-laws, in the little room of the log tavern, were there at the solicitation of Secretary Smith, who was pushing a fad, for which presumably none of his associate in

corporators of the society had much if any sympathy. They, like others, were absorbed in the strife for the human necessities of food and clothing, and in the endeavor to acquire a competency, if not wealth, through the opportunities offering in a newly settled country. It is safe to say that no one of them, not even our worthy chairman of the committee having this celebration in charge, ever imagined he might live to see that society an honored institution of the state, with a library of between sixty and seventy thousand volumes, referred to by persons from every county in the state, while the work of. the society in gathering and publishing the history of Minnesota and of the Northwest is known and highly esteemed throughout the civilized world.

As those of us pioneers who survive to celebrate this half century of existence and growth of our society contemplate the result of our seemingly fortuitous action, we now see the fact that, while we were mostly absorbed in the development of our heritage, in the conquest of this portion of our peerless continent, by the plowing, the planting, the harvesting, trading, and building towns and cities, we did not recognize, as we might have done, the invincible spirit of human progress which was then as now the directing power that suggested action. In our forecast of the possibilities of the next fifty years, it is well to remember that this is the electric age, and that our society is a component part of the model state of the world, the State of Minnesota. All things attainable by any people are also possible to the people of Minnesota and to this Historical Society.

THE LIBRARY, MUSEUM, AND PORTRAIT COLLECTION

OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

BY NATHANIEL PITT LANGFORD.

In the legislative act incorporating this society, approved by Governor Ramsey October 20th, 1849, nearly four weeks before the first meeting and organization of this society, its object was stated to be "the collection and preservation of a library, mineralogical and geological specimens, Indian curiosities, and other matters and things connected with, and calculated to illustrate and perpetuate the history and settlement of said Territory."

Wider scope of the society's duties to the Territory was declared in an additional act passed somewhat more than six years later, as approved March 1st, 1856, of which the third section says: "The objects of said society, with the enlarged powers and duties herein provided, shall be, in addition to the collection and preservation of publications, manuscripts, antiquities, curiosities, and all other things pertaining to the social, political and natural history of Minnesota, to cultivate among the citizens thereof a knowledge of the useful and liberal arts, science, and literature." In view of this exceedingly generous definition of its fields of labor, this society may well affirm, as did the Apostle Paul, "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient."

The work of the society in accumulating material possessions has been limited, first, to its large and very valuable library, open from half-past eight o'clock in the forenoon until five o'clock in the afternoon as a public and free reference library; second, the collection of a museum of historical relics, illustrative of the conditions of the pioneer settlement of

Minnesota, of the Sioux war, and the civil war, of the aboriginal people who built the thousands of prehistoric mounds in this state, and of the Sioux (or Dakotas) and the Ojibways who were living here when the first white men reached this region; and, third, its collection of portraits of pioneers and other prominent citizens of this state, with other portraits, pictures and framed documents, illustrating the history of Minnesota, of the whole Northwest, and indeed of the whole United States.

THE LIBRARY.

In the few minutes allotted to me for these remarks I will speak first and chiefly of the historical treasury which the society has gradually provided for itself and for all the people of Minnesota, in its carefully selected library, now numbering about 63,500 titles of books and pamphlets. While the aim of the society has constantly been to gather and preserve all publications issued in Minnesota, and all relating to Minnesota, wherever they may be published, we have also given great attention to the collection of everything published concerning local history, as of townships, in all the older states, as also in the new states of the West and of the Pacific coast.

What immigrant from any eastern part of our country, or son or daughter of such immigrant, does not still feel an interest in the old home and hearthstone, the old township of their nativity, or the homes where lived fifty years ago the fathers and mothers of the present generation?- Many who came here in the early times, and have endured hardships and won success in building up this great Commonwealth, now, in the well-earned leisure of declining years, go back in memory to the old township of their childhood in the Granite State, it may be, or the Bay State, or the Keystone State, which, with all the other states east of us contributed largely to the building up of Minnesota.

This society's library contains many volumes, mostly nowhere else to be found in this state, concerning the detailed local history of all those older parent states. To particularize and give more definite expression of the richness of the library in this department of American township histories,