GIFTS TO THE LIBRARY

Mrs. E. Hayes Trowbridge of New Haven has presented to the College Library the superb work, "Japan, described and illustrated by the Japanese. Written by eminent Japanese authorities and scholars, edited by Captain F. Brinkley of Tokyo, Japan. With an essay on Japanese art by Kakuzo Okakura, Director of the Imperial Art School at Tokyo, Japan."

It is the de luxe edition, issued in ten magnificent volumes, published by the J. B. Millet Company, Boston, at $50.00 per volume. The aim of the work is to give "from the Japanese themselves their own account of their country and its civilization." The text is written mainly by Japanese having special knowledge of their subjects. The illustrations are the work of native artists and photographers, and the binding is from materials imported from Japan. Collotype prints of Japanese flowers and xylograph prints illustrating Japanese art were printed in Tokyo. The han colored photographs were the work of more than 350 native artists.

The covers were made and printed in Tokyo, after a design competed for by students of the Imperial Academy, and the tassels and cords were furnished by the proprietors of a silk manufactory which has been in existence for two centuries.

The Honorable John Adams Aiken of Boston has presented to the College Library a portrait of John Ledyard, appropriately framed, and bearing the following inscription, surrounding the seal of the College:

Born at Groton, Connecticut, 1751. Member of the first class in Dartmouth College. While a Freshman, absents himself without permission for three months in rambles among the Indians of Lanada and the six nations. Leaves the College in a canoe made with his own hands and descends the Connecticut alone to Hartford. A sailor before the mast, goes to Gibraltar and the Barbary coast, returning by the West Indies. Appears in' London and there meets Captain Cook, then about to sail on his last voyage around the world, who appoints him Corporal of Marines. On this expedition is absent four years, visiting the South Sea Islands, China, Siberia, the westtern coast of North America, twice entering the Arctic seas in the quest for the northwest passage. Returns to America, publishes his travels and endeavors to enlist merchants in commerce with the East. Is next seen in Spain and in Paris, there meeting Thomas Jefferson, American minister at the Court of France, whom he impresses with his project for the exploration of the territory between the Pacific and the Mississippi, which twenty years later was traversed by Lewis and Clark, under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson, then President. Unites with John Paul Jones in an undertaking to establish trading posts on the northwest coast and to traffic in furs, which fails for want of adequate capital. Determined to explore western North America, presents himself at St. Petersburg and from Empress Catherine secures a passport across her dominion to Bering Strait. Reaches Yakutsk on the Lena, when he is recalled because of the jealousy of Russian fur-traders, and under guard sent back to the confines of Poland where he is dismissed with the command never again to enter the Empire. Resolves to explore Africa, and while fitting out his caravan dies at Cairo, 1788, at the age of thirty seven. In College he was a favorite with his fellow students, not unduly diligent in study, facile in acquisition, impatient of discipline. Elsewhere men paid tribute to his kind and lovable disposition, his unselfishness and philanthropy. He foresaw and foretold the commercial future of western North America and the Far Fast. His was the Dartmouth spirit. This imprint is No. i of a series of twenty, and is given by John Adams Aiken, Dartmouth '74, to Dartmouth College.