Child Memorial Library.

The subscription for the memorial to Professor Child has resulted in a sum of more than ten thousand five hundred dollars for the endowment of the Child Memorial Library; and this sum has been handed over to the corporation and is already drawing interest. Besides this money, two manuscripts and more than three hundred dollars for the purchase of books have already been received. These with the special library of the English Department, which contained more than six hundred volumes and which is now merged in the Memorial Library make at the start a library of nearly one thousand volumes, some of which are rare and valuable. With the income which the fund has already earned and other monies at the disposal of the Department, there are already several hundred dollars for the immediate purchase of books. A very handsome book plate has been designed with which every book in the library will be marked. The inscription on this bookplate reads: "To Harvard University in Memory of Francis James Child First Professor of English."

At present the Child Memorial Library is in Sever 2, keys for which can be given for the present to advanced students only. The Department hopes soon, however, to obtain larger and more dignified quarters, which will make it possible to throw the library open more freely. With the Child Memorial Library will be kept the libraries of the Departments of German and of Romance Philology and Literature, and books of reference for courses in Comparative Literature this union of special libraries will save the purchase of many duplicates, and will further the comparative study of literature for which Professor Child's influence has done so much.

Professor Kittredge, Assistant Professor Gates and Mr. Gardiner are to constitute the committee on the Child Memorial Library. The visiting committee of the library will consist of these three members with the addition of a member of the Graduate School and an undergraduate. It will report each year to the Department on the state of the library.