Anniversary Address

Extract

So much anxiety has been aroused by recent cases where historic buildings and collections of archives have been transported across the Atlantic, or where through apathy and neglect we have allowed their destruction at home, that I think it may be serviceable to the Society if I summarize the general situation, directing attention to the organization of effort to preserve our heritage, to the obstacles encountered in the process, and in a more general fashion to the strengthening and improvement of our methods. And let me say at the outset that our Society is closely concerned in the problem. We have taken our full share during the past twelve months in striving to influence public opinion in the right direction. Our duty is not only to investigate the past, but to hand forward to our successors the fullest measure of our historic assets, confident that as time goes on their value will ever be the more appreciated.