Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/104

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
96
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Pilsbry, not to mention many other local collectors. Here are Captain Hall's collections from Arkansas, and the tablets, pipes, copper axes, and other notable specimens from the local mounds. Fig. 13.—W. H. Pratt. In the gallery are collections of minerals and an extensive series of stone-age tools and weapons. In front of this gallery and over the hallway and two front rooms of the lower story is the library, which can be used as a hall for a reasonably large audience. The library is one of the best devoted to science in the West, and has been chiefly secured in exchange for the Proceedings. Nominally it contains more than forty thousand volumes; but this number must be considerably reduced, as latterly single issues of periodicals have been catalogued under distinct numbers. With all reductions made, however, the library is important. Publications in twenty-two different tongues are on its exchange list.

Among the most recent subjects in which the academy has interested itself is an archaeological study of the State of Iowa, planned by the writer. The plan involves several distinct pieces of work:

1. The preparation of a bibliography of Iowa antiquities.
2. The publication of a summary of Iowa archæology.
3. Organization of field work throughout the State.
4. Publication of a final report and an archaeological map.
5. Preparation of a series of diagrams and casts of an educational character for distribution to the higher institutions of learning in the State.

The first two parts of the plan have been accomplished, and the academy is now endeavoring to carry out the third. While the academy has given and is giving considerable attention to archaeology, it is not neglecting other lines of science, and papers of importance in geology, botany, and entomology are in its hands for publication in the near future.

Thirty years is not a long time, even in America. In December, 18!7, the academy will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary by a special meeting. It may then look back with pride over its record. From a membership of four meeting in an office, it has grown