Excerpt from Rhode Island Historical Society: Incorporated 1822 Aa large central room which is used as a general read ing room, a lecture room, a manuscript vault, museum, offices and several smaller rooms. The books, with the exception of the manuscripts and the extremely rare volumes, are arranged about the rooms in wall cases almost as they might be in a large private li brary, as in effect this is. Members have the privi lege of browsing at will among the volumes with a freedom which is perhaps one of the greatest charms of the library. Books are loaned only to members, but the general public is encouraged to use the library for serious study and to visit the museum and portrait gallery. The Society's library now contains about bound volumes, pamphlets and over manuscripts. The great aim of the Society is, of course, the col lection and preservation of Rhode Island material. To this end are collected histories of the state and of various towns in the state, state and town documents and reports, biographies of Rhode Island men, books by Rhode Island authors. And the reports of Rhode Island churches, schools, clubs, business and charitable organizations. Everything which has a Rhode Island bearing finds a place on the shelves. The department of the library which is most used is the genealogical section. In collecting the 1400 volumes devoted to genealogy, the first aim has been to have every work in which any Rhode Island family figures. Beyond this, however, an effort has been made to obtain a representative collection of American genealogies and genealogical reference books. The industries which center in Providence are constantly drawing to this state men from all sections of the country and the Society tries to meet the wants of these new-comers quite as fully, so far as its resources permit, as of those who are bound to the state by older ties. The section thus developed, together with the collection of town histories, which so far as New England is concerned is practically complete, forms a working library for genealogical research such as can be found in few communities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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