Excerpt from Address of H. R. McIlwaine, Ph. D., State Librarian, Delivered at the College of William and Mary Upon the Dedication of the New Library Building, May 13, 1909 On February 8, 1859, the College caught fire, and in the flames which consumed the building the collection of one hundred and fifty years perished almost completely, including the commission to General Washington. In a year's time the College was again restored, and the new Library started with about volumes obtained partly by purchase and partly by the donations of public spirited individuals. But the war for Southern independence soon breaking out, this number was not largely increased. In 1862 the main building was set on fire by Federal troops, but the books in the Library and the six portraits in the Faculty room had been removed fortunately to the President's house and were preserved. After the restoration of the main building in 1867 the Library was located in the south wing adjoining the chapel and separated from it by folding doors, thus enabling the two to form one hall on public occasions In 1881 the College suspended work for want of funds, and, when it started again in 1888, under-the auspices of the Legislature, the collection did not exceed volumes exclusive of pamphlets. It then began to grow quite rapidly, and in 1905 the collection amounted to about volumes. 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.