supported almost entirely by municipal
appropriations, though holding also considerable trust funds ($388,742
in 1905). The other notable book-collections of the city include those
of the Athenaeum, founded in 1807 (about 230,000 vols. and pamphlets),
the Massachusetts Historical Society (founded 1791; 50,300), the Boston
medical library (founded 1874; about 80,000), the New England
Historic-Genealogical Society (founded 1845; 33,750 volumes and 34,150
pamphlets), the state library (founded 1826; 140,000), the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences (founded 1780; 30,000), the Boston Society
of Natural History (founded 1830; about 35,000 volumes and 27,000
pamphlets).

The leading educational institutions are the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the largest purely scientific and technical school in the
country, opened to students (including women) in 1865, four years after
the granting of a charter to Prof. W.B. Rogers, the first president;
Boston University (chartered in 1869; Methodist Episcopal;
co-educational); the New England Conservatory of Music (co-educational;
private; 1867, incorporated 1880), the largest in the United States,
having 2400 students in 1905-1906; the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
(1852); the Massachusetts Normal Art School (1873); the School of
Drawing and Painting (1876) of the Museum of Fine Arts; Boston College
(1860), Roman Catholic, under the Society of Jesus; St John's
Theological Seminary (1880), Roman Catholic; Simmons College (1899) for
women, and several departments of Harvard University. The Institute of
Technology has an exceptional reputation for the wide range of its
instruction and its high standards of scholarship. It was a pioneer in
introducing as a feature of its original plans laboratory instruction in
physics, mechanics and mining. The architects of the United States navy
are sent here for instruction in their most advanced courses. Boston
University was endowed by Isaac Rich (1801-1872), a Boston
fish-merchant, Lee Claflin (1791-1871), a shoe manufacturer and a
benefactor of Wesleyan University and of Wilbraham Seminary, and Jacob
Sleeper. It has been co-educational from the beginning. Its faculties of
theology--founded in 1841 at Newbury, Vt., as the Biblical Institute; in
1847-1867 in Concord, N.H.; and in 1867-1871 the Boston Theological
Seminary--law, music, medicine, liberal arts and agriculture (at
Amherst, in association with the Massachusetts Agricultural C