sold them within a year or two to individuals. The change in placement of these shares afforded relief to the Academy and gave stimulation to the Athenæum; the Academy was relieved of the task of subletting, and the Athenæum gained in new membership and inherent vitality.

Apropos of the holding of these shares of the Athenæum by another corporation, it should be stated that the institutions were allied and yet non-competitive, and that they were managed and directed largely by the same persons. Moreover, in the seventies and eighties, and for that matter in the early nineties as well-Athenæum shares were not in demand. The transformation of the Athenæum into a public library was every now and then under discussion and the possibility of its absorption naturally had a deterrent effect on the vigor of the institution. The future of the Academy was secure; that of the Athenæum was still undetermined.

By the character of their charter the Proprietors of the Athenæum have no personal equity in the property of the institution. The estate is to be "appropriated for the promotion of literature, of the arts and sciences, and not otherwise." Through their privilege of controlling and directing the property the shareholders are trustees; and through their privilege of use they further become, so to speak, proprietary-trustees. But this is not all. Theirs is also participation in support: they are sustaining members. Assessments for the maintenance and enlargement of the library are an essential feature of the institution and are annually levied on all shares. Provision for them is found in the charter and action in case of their non-payment is therein designated.

At the outset the annual assessment was the only means of meeting the current expenses and enlarging the library. During the early years, when the Athenæum was without a home of its own and had rental to pay, and before it had any productive funds, the annual assessment was considerably more (especially so if we consider the purchasing power of money) than it has been in recent years. From 1810 to 1814 it was five dollars; in 1815 it was ten dollars, and in 1816 eight; from 1817 to 1820 it was again ten dollars, and from 1821 to 1849 seven; since 1849 it has uniformly been five dollars.

Since receiving the bequest which provided a building in 1857 the Athenæum has received several other legacies, some of them inspired by hereditary interest in the institution.

In 1861 Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, a son of Nathaniel Bowditch, left the Athenæum the sum of one thousand dollars. The clause in the will granting this is as follows:

"I give to the Proprietors of the Salem Athenæum one thousand dollars as a slight mark of regard for my native town.”

By vote of the Trustees this gift was added to the "Bowditch Fund" created by his father in 1838.

In 1879 a bequest came to the Athenæum by the will of William Howes, son of Frederick Howes who was a Proprietor from 1816 to 1853 and a Trustee from 1826 to 1840. This bequest amounted to ten thousand dollars and has been constituted the "Howes Fund."

In 1889 J. Ingersoll Bowditch, LL.D., another son of Nathaniel Bowditch, remembered the Athenæum in his will, leaving it the sum of one thousand dollars.

The last bequest to the Athenæum in the first century of its history came in 1898 from George Plumer Smith of Philadelphia. This gift increased the assets of the Athenæum by about five thousand dollars and has been set aside by the Trustees and designated the "George Plumer Smith Fund", the income from which is to be devoted to the payment of current

expenses.

In the years immediately preceding the establishment of the Public Library the Athenæum, being the principal library in the city, was fairly well used. Its circulation ranged from 6,843 in 1883 to 7,786 in 1887. Few persons, however, desired to become proprietors and a considerable number of the users of the library were annual or semi-annual subscribers. At the time of the opening of the Public Library in 1889 fully half the subscribers of the Athenæum discontinued and the circulation fell perceptibly. To stimulate the lagging interest in the institution a leaflet of information regarding the library was issued in 1890. At this time also the Proprietors took under consideration the lighting of the large hall, but nothing was actually done in the matter. A few years later, between 1895 and 1905, substantial improvement in the condition of the Athenæum was effected through the activity of the Treasurer in renewing the body of proprietors. Of the proprietors in 1910 thirty-one, or nearly one third, became shareholders between the annual meetings of 1895 and 1905. During these ten years there were fiftynine stock transfers as compared with sixty in the twenty years preceding, or in this single decade almost twice as many as in the two preceding decades. In July 1903, the Trustees instructed the

Treasurer to buy the shares then held by the Peabody Academy of Science which that institution was willing to sell at fifteen dollars a share. Within the next three years the Treasurer sold these twenty-four shares to individuals and the increase thereby made in the number of persons having direct proprietary interest in the Athenæum was highly advantageous in every way. It did much to dispel the lethargy which had rested upon the Athenæum as an institution for so many years.

In 1905, as has been stated, Plummer Hall was sold to the Essex Institute, the Proprietors in November of that year having voted to accept the offer of fifty thousand dollars made by the Essex Institute for the land and building of the Athenæum. At the same meeting the Proprietors empowered the Trustees to purchase a site and erect a building at a cost not exceeding forty thousand dollars. The present site on upper Essex street was finally selected and the sum of fourteen thousand five hundred dollars was paid for the Curwen and the Swedenborgian Church properties. Subsequently the buildings and the organ and pews were sold and the cost of the lot was thereby reduced to thirteen thousand five hundred dollars. The exterior design of "Homewood" in Baltimore, the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland, was selected by the Trustees and a building modelled after this, save for the wings on either side, which may be added later for the enlargement of the library, was erected at a cost (including the furnishings and a steel stack) of forty-one thousand dollars. The nine thousand dollars remaining from the fifty thousand which the Athenæum had received

from the Essex Institute for the first Plummer Hall were added to the permanent fund and designated as the Caroline Plummer Fund. The reservation of this sum of money and its addition to the fund for general purposes was designed through the interest to be derived therefrom to offset the loss of income hitherto received from the Essex Institute in the form of part payment for heating, lighting, repairs, etc., in consideration of the privilege of the co-occupancy of Plummer Hall granted by the Athenæum.

The largest room in the new Plummer Hall is the reading room. This extends across the entire rear of the building and occupies about one half of the floor area of the first story. Rectangular in shape and simple and symmetrical in design, this room has a distinct and charming individuality. It is cheerful, restful, and singularly beautiful, and is admirably adapted to its purpose. Low cases extending somewhat into the room and terminating in fluted columns reaching to the ceiling, subdivide it into three sections. The tripartite division, however, does not interfere with the sense of unity; rather, it enhances it. From the central division of the reading room the fire-proof stack room is entered. This occupies one entire corner on the front of the building, from basement to roof. In the opposite corner, at the right of the entrance, is a reading room, supplementary to but separate from the main reading room. The books of the library are distributed by classes through these rooms and in the basement under and the room over the main reading room. The present building, without enlargement through the erection of wings found in the original, provides ample shelv