The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-07
The state Library.

the sale of law volumes published on
state account, and all books added to
the library since by purchase, have been
through the medium of that fund. The
last report of the librarian embraces the
year 1873, and is dated January l, 1874.
The library fund at the last named date
was $5,227.S7. During 1878 was in
creased by l 1853 books and pamphlets, of
which 1,026 were acquired by purchase.
Besides the additions in the line of gen.
eral literature and science, some works of
especial value to students Of the early his
tory of this country and state have been
secured. Among these may be named:
A New Discovery of a Vast Country in
America, by L.. Hennepin, London, 1898,
(ths author being the first white man to
view the Falls Of Niagara; Stith's His
tory of Virginia ; Hamor's Relations /;
FORCES Tracts ; Archdale's Description
Of Carolina; Crawford's Campaigns ;
Memoir of the Boiling family in England
and America Present State Of Kentucky
Discovery of Kentucky by Daniel Boone
Acts of Virginia House of Burgesses,
1873 to 1895; Ohio Historical Collections
Journal of the Council of New York from
1901 to 1775 My Campaigns in America
by an officer attached to the French
army in America during the Revolution
ary war &c., &C.; to which may be added
a complete set Of the New England His
toric and Genealogical Register; Olden
Times /; Fire Lands Pioneer a complete
file Of the Richmond Enquirer from its
first number to the year 1850; q file of
the Richmond Examiner during the war,
and other similar works indispensable to
the completeness and working value of an
American library.
The additions to works on photography,
include the Bibliotheca .Vetustissima,
which gives an account ofworks relating to
America published from 1892 to 1861 ; and
Majors account of the first letter of Col
umbus, which was printed in 1893, and is
the first published account of the discovery
of the western continent.
There have also been purchased the whole
series of Notes and Queries-a fine edition
which will have to many Virginians ad-
ditional value from the fact that it formed
part of the library of the late John r.
Thompson ; a fac simHe reprint of the first
edition of Shakespeare ; and a small collec-
ton Of books whictrare of more than ordi-
nary interest from having belonged, some
to the historian Stith, and others to Col
onel Byrd, of Westoyer, whose book.plates,
with coats-of-arms and autographs, they
bear.
The painted fac similes of ancient and
modern Virginia worthless is already quite
full considering the very recent period
within which that department was COM
menced.
Framed fac simies Of Magma Charter,
of the Roll of Battle Abbey, and of the
Death Warrants of Mary Queen of Scots
and of Charles I of England, attract the
casual visitor but of still higher INTEREST," is
the parole given by CORVALLIS at York
town, and the account books kept, in his
own hand, by Patrick Henry, both as mer-
chant and attorney at law.
In addition to the printed volumes re-
lating to the history of the country the
library is receiving, under in arrangement
entered into by the last committee,
through the fundamentally of the present
chairman, copies in manuscript of papers
belonging to the historian Sparks, which
he had been allowed to copy in 1926 from
the originals in the council chamber OF
this state. The originals having long
since disappeared from our archives, the
committee, through the k~indly-given per.
mission Of Mrs. Sparks, had copies made
from Mr.. Sparks copies. They include
documents of great interest during the
eventful historical era from April, 1878 to
May, 1775, which are especially important
in filling a hiatus in our state papers now
being calendared by DIR. Palmer.
But the most important matter that oc.
cupied the attention of the last committee
or doubtless of any former committee
looking, as it does, to securing new mate.
rial for a correct history of the state, is an
arrangement for obtaining from England
careful abstracts Of documents and papers
on file there, relating to the whole period
of our colonial existence.
These documents are now being prepared
under the supervision of Mr.. W. Noe
Sainsburg of the Public Record office o
Great Britain. They begin with the earlies
mention of voyages to Virginia, som'
thirty years before the settlement at James
town, and are to come down to the out
break of the Revolution Of 1776.
They contain accounts of the voyagers o
SIR Humphrey Gylberte to Virginia mad
by authority of patent granted by Quee'
Elizabeth in 1873, andSir Walter Raleigh
continuation of them in 1884 after tn
death of Gylberte. The name of 81
Philip Sydney appears in connection wit
Gylberte's intended discoveries, and
would seem that Sydney had land in Vii
ginia assigned him by that discoverel
Want of space prevents a further specis
reference to these most valuble documents
Within the past year or two the librar
has been visited far more than in any {
the previous years Of its history. The CO.
lection Of portraits, of ancient books,
rare and curious documents, and fac similt
of manuscripts, constitute an attraction t
every stranger. Our own citizens, ma
and female, coming to the capital of the
native state os a visit, however brief, al
drawn to the library as a place of mo
interest, perhaps, than any other
the city. So with the tides
travellers from the North, pourir
Southwark in the fall and winter in search
health, on returning to their homes in Il
: spring, all flock to the library. To the
Q must be added the crowds Of the curiou
who come to Richmond on excursions
to attend secular or religious gatherin
d and anniversaries. Thus the library
+ constantly exposed to the gaze-oftentim
critical-of thousands annually. Tho
from the North especially cannot fail
discover, in the dilapidated and really ds
gerous ceiling, in the cheap and much-wo
n furniture, etc., etc., matter for CONNIE
d by no means favorable to the state.
ID A resolution was adopted at the last S
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