Excerpt from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 74: January, 1950 N December 2, 1949, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania celebrated its one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday. In formulating the plans for this occasion, the Council of the Society felt that the more serious aspects of our work should be stressed, rather than the large functions and ceremonies that accom panied our One Hundredth Anniversary. A centennial is an appro priate time for such festivities, but this off-anniversary year called for a more practical celebration. The Council's main consideration, therefore, was to do something of more than passing interest, some thing that would focus attention on the Society's primary functions. Our F conders recognized these functions clearly, and incorporated them in the Charter of the Society by stating that our purpose was threefold: to collect, to preserve, to elucidate. 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.