erate days, Winnebagoes cover their tepees with old carpets and any thing else they can pick up; matted wigwams are now exceedingly rare. The Society has owned this one for several years, but has had no room in its museum to exhibit it. It is doubtful if the mats could now be duplicated. REPRESENTATION AT WORLD'S CONGRESSES. A World's Congress of Historians was held in Chicago, July 10-19, in connection with the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. The Society was officially represented at this interesting gathering by the corresponding secretary. A similar Congress of Librarians, held also in connection with the annual conference of the American Library Association, July 13-22, was officially attended by both the corresponding secretary and the librarian. It was one of the best attended and most enthusiastic conventions of library workers ever held in this country. NEW BUILDING PROJECT. The Society's need of a new building has been so frequently explained in the reports of this Committee, and is so patent to all, that it would seem needless at the present time to repeat the arguments in its favor. On the 10th of January last, the Committee held a fullyattended meeting, and after listening to arguments pro and con unanimously adopted the following resolution: Resolved, That this Society unite with the State University and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters in asking the legislature at its coming session to erect a building upon or near the University grounds, for the proper accommodation of the libraries of the three institutions, as well as of the gallery and museum of the Society; provided that the title of the site shall rest in the name of the Society as the trustee of the state. Frequent conferences were subsequently held by representative committees of the Society, the Regents, and the Academy, together with leading members of both branches of the legislature, the result being that on February 7 the following bill (No. 69, S.) was introduced by Senator Bashford: A BILL to authorize the construction of a building for the accommodation of the collections of the State Historical Society, the Library of the State University, and such other libraries as may be placed in the custody of such institutions, or either of them. The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The regents of the University of Wisconsin are hereby authorized to erect upon that part of the grounds of the State University known as lots one, two, three, twenty two, twenty-three and twenty-four, of block six, of the city of Madison, a substantial fire-proof library building, to be paid for out of the resources hereby provided, adequate in all respects for the present and future accommodation of the library of the university and of the library and collections of the State Historical Society and of such other libraries as may be placed in the custody of such institutions or either of them. The transfer to such building, when completed, of the library and collections of the State Historical Society, and the deposit of the same therein for safe keeping and free public use, is hereby authorized; and no article thereof or part of the same, when so deposited in said building, shall be permanently removed therefrom without authority of law or the consent of the legislature; provided, this restriction shall not prevent the sale or exchange of any duplicates that the society may have or obtain. Before the appropriations herein provided shall be available the site above named shall be conveyed to the state of Wisconsin to be held for the purposes specified in this act, the plans adopted for the accommodation of the library and collections of the State Historical Society shall receive the approval of the library committee of the said society, and the executive committee of said society shall approve of said removal. It shall be competent for the regents of the university and the executive committee of the State Historical Society to enter into any arrangement, subject to the approval of the governor, for the joint occupancy of such building for their respective libraries and for the separate or joint management thereof. SECTION 2. There is hereby appropriated out of any money in the state treasury, not otherwise appropriated, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars to the university fund income, which shall be used by the board of regents of the university for the partial construction of such building, and there shall be levied and collected annually, for four years, a state tax of one-tenth of one mill for each dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property of the state, which amount so levied and collected is appropriated to the university fund income, and, so far as needed, shall be used by the said board of regents for the completion and equipment of such building. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. This bill had many warm friends in the legislature, and several elaborate arguments in its favor were made before the senate committee on education, and the joint committee on retrenchment and reform. It chanced, however, that the state university was in urgent need of other assistance of a costly character, and the library bill, after trembling in the balance for some weeks, was allowed to give way to the university's other and perhaps mor pressing demands. The result of the winter's campaign was, nevertheless, satisfactory to the Society, for progres towards a new building was distinctly made; the needs of the library in this direction were canvassed thoroughly, and found to be actual, and the only argument we heard advanced against a new structure at the present time was one of financial expediency. The committee is clearly of the opinion that the cause of the Society advances with each fresh campaign for a new building, and that the time is now not far distant when its wishes in this respect will be fully met by the legislature, and these priceless collections be given a permanent fire-proof home, worthy of them and of the commonwealth in whose service the Society has zealously been engaged for upwards of forty years. On behalf of the Executive Committee, REUBEN G. THWAITES, Corresponding Secretary. PREHISTORIC POTTERY - MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI BY JAMES DAVIE BUTLER, LL. D. [Address delivered at the Forty-First Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, December 14, 1893.] The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has just added to its museum two hundred and fifty-four specimens of prehistoric pottery. Its purchase of the Perkins collection of copper implements, in 1875, rendered the Society easily first in that department of antiques. Nor was it far behind in the line of Indian curiosities, gathered by Governor Doty, and in relics of the stone age. The treasures of the ceramic art just now acquired form a new departure, and round up the circle of its exhibits. They are also more suited to spectacular display than any species of aboriginal remains which it has hitherto shown. The new treasure-trove consists of two hundred and fifty-four pieces. They were all discovered in southeastern Missouri or northeastern Arkansas, in the Missouri counties of Scott, Mississippi, and New Madrid, and in Cross and Poinsett counties in Arkansas. All were found They had in graves of a depth of from two to five feet. usually been placed one each side of a skull. In transatlantic cemeteries similar vessels, when buried with the dead, were often purposely broken, either as a token of grief or to make them valueless in the eyes of graverobbers. But these Mississippi memorials were laid in the dust unbroken, and probably contained food or drink. Indeed, when exhumed, so many of them were still whole, that only about ten per cent of the number needed to have their fragments glued together. |