Published monthly by The New York Public Library, No. 40 Lafayette Place, New York City. Subscriptions may be sent to I. Ferris Lockwood, Business U. S. House of Representa tives 16 U. S. Interior Dept. 8 37 U. S. Navy Dept. . U. S. Post Office Dept. 16 3 I U. S. President 9 U. S. Supt. of Documents 67 II Univ. of Idaho. 5 5 Univ. of Melbourne I During the month of January there were received at the Library, by purchase, 741 volumes and 180 pamphlets; by gift, 9.12 volumes and 3,441 pamphlets; and by exchange, 72 volumes and 5,172 pamphlets, making a total of 1,725 volumes and 8,793 pamphlets. There were catalogued 3,220 volumes and 1,937 pamphlets, for which were written 11,667 cards, in addition to which 1,928 slips were written for, and 9,819 cards received from, the copying machine. The following table shows the number of readers, and the number of volumes consulted, in both the Astor and Lenox Branches of the Library, also the number of visitors to the Print Exhibition at the Lenox, during the month: The most popular books of the month were (in non-fiction): Wagner's "Parsifal," Morley's "Life of William Ewart Gladstone," Lavignac's "Musical Education"; (adult fiction): Wister's "The Virginian," Chambers's "Maids of Paradise,' Crawford's "Heart of Rome"; (juvenile fiction): Alcott's "Little Women," Wiggin's "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." The most important gifts of the month were: From Brooks Brothers, 8 volumes of Directories; from the Governor of the Danish West Indies, 2 volumes of laws relating to the islands; from the Ministers of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs and from the Statistical Bureau of Denmark, 6 volumes and 1 pamphlet, government documents; from W. C. Downing,.a copy of his privately printed "Genealogy of the Downing Family . . . 1509-1901," 1901 (no. 35 of 50 copies); from Mrs. Henry Draper 107 volumes, including 8 German literary annuals from 1796 to 1842, "Historic Illustrations of the Bible principally after the old masters" (London, Fisher, Son & Co.), "Gemmæ selectæ antiquæ e museo Jacobi de Wilde" (Amstelædami, 1703), 171 prints, a Sheriff's summons in manuscript, dated Oyster Bay, 31 July, 1806, and several pieces of Pennsylvania colonial currency; from the Consul-General of France at New York, 34 volumes and 17 pamphlets, official publications of France; from the Préfet de la Seine, France, 21 volumes, documents relating to Paris, etc.; from Miss Lucy M. Green, 31 volumes, 375 pamphlets and 8 periodicals, mainly reports of institutions, colleges, and government documents; from Lawrence University of Wisconsin, 4 volumes and 20 pamphlets; from Miss McLane, a copy of the privately printed "Reminiscences, 1827-1897, of Governor Robert M. McLane;" from the Marine Society of New York, a copy of the "Memoir of the Society," 1903; from Speed Mosby, a copy of "Ben Blunt, his life and story" (1903); from A. Nardecchia, Rome, 13 Italian guide books; from the New York City Rapid Transit Railroad board, the text and drawings for Contract no. 2, for the construction and operation of BrooklynManhattan Rapid Transit Railroad; from Messrs. H. V. & H. W. Poor, 84 volumes and 387 pamphlets, railroad reports, etc; from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 13 volumes and 20 pamphlets, registers of the Institute; from the Consul of Salvador at New York, 24 volumes and 90 pamphlets, Salvador documents; from Henry Yates Thompson, his privately printed "Facsimiles of two 'Histoires' by Jean Foucquet from volumes 1 and 2 of the Anciennetés des Juifs, numbered respectively 247 français in the National Library of France, and 101 in the supplemental volume. . . of the catalogue of illuminated manuscripts in the collection of H. Y. Thompson" (London, 1903). The exhibition of the loan collection of mezzotints was continued during the month at the Lenox Branch and a few of the Charles Stewart Smith Japanese prints were kept on view. The exhibition at the Astor Branch of "Rembrandt: 17 of his masterpieces. . . in the Cassell Gallery" and "Handzeichnungen alter Meister aus der Albertina" was also continued. At the Chatham Square Branch the views of New York City are still on exhibition, and at the Yorkville Branch the Turner Company Holbein collection. At the Circulation branches the picture bulletins and reading lists were as follows: CHATHAM SQUARE, Japanese history, Chinese history, American history; EAST BROADWAY, Famous men and women born in January, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Burns, Land of the long night, Young animal defenders, Good stories for boys and girls, American history, Music, Painting, Jewish history and literature, Chemistry, China, Korea, Japan, India; ELDRIDGE STREET, Famous men and women born in January, Paul Revere, Washington, D. C., New books; BOND STREET, General J. B. Gordon, Music; AVENUE C, Benjamin Franklin, New books, Robert Burns, China, Japan, Philippine Islands, Egypt; OTTENDORfer, Washington, Japan and Russia, China, Philippine Islands; JACKSON Square, Wordsworth, Byron, Carlyle, Tennyson, Stories of the Eastern states, Stories of the South, Stories of the West; MUHLENBERG, Long Island, Philippine Islands, Ceylon, Electricity; THIRTY-FOURTH STREET, Alaska, College life and sports; BRUCE, New books; FIFTY-NINTH STREET, Famous men and women born in January, Cotton, Popular authors of the day, China, Japan, Korea, Music; Yorkville, Anthracite coal, Sweden and Denmark, Finland and its people, Havana old and new, Travels and experiences in Cuba, Russia, Wales and her people, Studies in European life; ST. AGNES, Korea, Russia; BLOOMINGDALE, The greatest writers of modern France, France and her people, Paris and its people, Berlin and military life in Germany, The Rhine, Goethe, Schiller, Dickens's stories for children, Short stories; AGUILAR, Winter sports, Benjamin Franklin, Famous men and women. born in January, New York, European geography, New books; HARLEM, William Shakespeare. The cornerstone for the circulation branch at Washington Avenue and One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Street was laid on the afternoon of Thursday, January 21, by Hon. George L. Rives of the board of trustees. At the exercises attending the ceremony held in the Trinity Congregational Church addresses were made by Rev. William B. Makepeace, president of the trustees of the Bronx Free Library, Mr. Rives on behalf of the New York Public Library, and Mr. A. E. Bostwick, chief of the circulation department. The 1st of February was the fiftieth anniversary of the opening to the reading public of the Astor Library. Some notes on the opening were printed in the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, February 9th, 1854, page 2, columns I and 2. The reading room was opened at 10 A. M. Several persons soon came in and asked for books, the first ones called for being a treatise on astronomy, a treatise on international law, a treatise on the aqueducts of ancient Rome, a volume of Asiatic researches, a treatise on diseases of the stomach and Moore's poems. The whole number of readers on the first day was about 50 and the whole number of books called for was between 60 and 70. On the 2d of February a delegation from the United German Societies came to the Director's office and presented a laurel wreath for the bust of the founder, John Jacob Astor, with a short address. The Committee was Prof. Dr. Albert J. W. Kern, Dr. H. A. C. Anderson, Mr. A. Arns, Mr. William W. Knabe and Mr. C. Stolberg, and the address by Dr. Kern was as follows: "DIRECTOR JOHN S. BILLINGS. MR. DIRECTOR: "To you, representing the Board of Trustees of the Astor Library, I wish to say a few words on this memorable day. "It is just fifty years since the Astor Library opened its doors to the public. For the existence of this great storehouse of learning, we are indebted to the generosity of the founder Johann Jacob Astor, who, prompted by a kind impulse of his heart, wished to render a public benefit to the city of New York and to contribute to the advancement of useful knowledge and the general good of society. "His undertaking was a marked success from the start. In this library are |