The New International Encyclopædia/Massachusetts Historical Society

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A learned association with headquarters in Boston, the oldest historical society in the country, having been organized in 1781 and incorporated in 1794. Its objects are the collection, preservation, and diffusion of the materials for American history. The first volume of “Collections” was printed in 1792, and this has been followed by fifty more, together with about twenty volumes of “Proceedings.” The society has a museum of relics and antiquities, and a fine library of 30,000 books, 60,000 pamphlets, and many rare manuscripts, including the Parkman collection of thirty volumes of manuscripts relating to the history of the French in Canada.