THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA, northeast corner of Thirteenth and Locust Streets, chartered, 1891, from endowment fund, left in will by William Pepper, M.D., LL.D., for a free library in the city of Philadelphia: opened temporarily in City Hall; removed to old Concert Hall, 1217-21 Chestnut Street, now in old building of College of Physicians; contains bust of Dr. Pepper, by Carl Bitter, and portraits; a large new library building is in process of construction on the Parkway, Nineteenth and Vine Streets. Growth and usefulness, from its inception, are due to the management of the late Dr. John Thomson, Librarian; now includes a main building, 26 branches, as well as deposit stations and traveling libraries; total circulation for home use in 1916, 2,767,310. Hearty coöperation exists between the public schools and the Free Library; school extension lectures are given to the children of the grammar grades; and “story hours” are weekly events for younger children in the branch libraries. Reference and periodical departments contain works on art, architecture, and archæology, extremely valuable to the practical student and designer; here are facsimiles of many most noted, of early printed books and manuscripts, Bible codices, etc.; the “open shelf” system is used in all departments. Fine buildings of the branch libraries have been developed in their architectural proportions and decoration, on the traditions of French and English Renaissance, or local expression of the Georgian; always with top lighting, considered extremely important: in the basement of the branch at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets is a large and valuable collection of government documents; the Josephine Widener Memorial Branch, Broad Street and Girard Avenue, has reference books of priceless nature and rare prints, issued before A.D. 1500. HISTORIC MEDICAL COLLEGES, HOSPITALS, AND DISPENSARIES CHRIST CHRUCH HOSPITAL, Wynnefield Station, Park Trolley and P. R. R.; Gothic stone building; organized, 1772, by Dr. John Kearsley; endowed by Jacob Dobson in 1804; is a home for gentlewomen, communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Pennsylvania; 150 acres; the Board of Managers include three of the vestry, each, of Christ Church and St. Peter’s Church. COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA, Twenty-second Street, above Chestnut; founded about 1787, and modeled on lines of The Royal College of Physicians in London. A scientific paper was read by Dr. Benjamin Rush at the first meeting. English Renaissance, brick, laid Flemish bond, with basement, cornices, pilasters, and other trimmings of Indiana limestone; finest building of a medical society in the world, with the largest medical library, save one, in the United States, and a fine collection of portraits of presidents of the Society, painted by most notable artists. This is not a teaching institution, but a Medical Society, composed of men of professional distinction.