ADDENDUM.

[The two following articles relating to the Historical Library and Historical Society were inadvertently omitted from the body of the book. It has been considered better to insert them here than to omit them altogether.]

THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY.

EDMUND J. JAMES, President.

JESSIE PALMER WEBER, Librarian.

The Illinois State Historical Library was created by act of the General Assembly of May 25, 1889. The first Board of Trustees, consisting of H. W. Beckwith of Danville, Dr. Arthur Edwards of Chicago and Edward F. Leonard of Peoria, organized November 25, 1889, by electing Mr. Beckwith, president, Mr. Leonard secretary and Miss Josephine P. Cleveland, librarian. Complying with a request made at the first meeting of the Board, the Secretary of State, as ex officio State Librarian, transferred from the State Library 442 volumes relating distinctively to the history of the State. These books formed the nucleus of the Illinois State Historical Library which now contains about 18,000 volumes of books and pamphlets, besides an interesting collection of manuscripts including. among other items, the original muster rolls of the Illinois troops in the Black Hawk war and valuable documents bearing upon the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The Library and the Historical Society (which is one of the departments of the Library) has prepared an interesting exhibit of manuscripts and pictures relating to Lincoln, arranged and carefully labeled in such a manner as to present a narrative account of the life of Mr. Lincoln. This collection was exhibited at the expositions at St. Louis, Mo. and Portland, Oregon. At Portland it received the highest award for an historical exhibit. The collection is now exhibited in the Historical Library. The purpose of the Library as defined by the act creating it is "to procure from time to time books, pamphlets, manuscripts, monographs, writings and other material bearing upon the political, physical, religious or social history of the State." The labors of the trustees have resulted in the collection of a well selected library relating to Illinois, the Mississippi valley and the old Northwest Territory, and in the publication of several volumes of much interest to the student of Illinois and western history. The Library Board has published nine volumes in a regular series, numbering from one to nine, in which are included the reports of the annual transactions of the Illinois Historical Society and other valuable material. A special series has been begun in the publication of a volume derived, in part, from the Canadian archives at Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec, selected and edited by H. W. Beckwith of Danville, president of the Library Board. This volume is entitled. "Illinois Historical Collections, volume one. A second volume of this series will soon be issued by the Library. During the sixteen years of its existence the Library Board has had three presidents, Judge H. W. Beckwith of Danville, who served from 1889 until his death in 1903, with the exception