In 1793 there appears a mention of a Uranian Musical Society, which 'was instituted for improvement in sacred vocal music.' Meetings were held every Wednesday, and, judging from the number of prominent New Yorkers included in its membership, the society must have exercised considerable influence. The last mention of it appears in 1798, but there is no evidence that it ceased to exist in that year. Of the Polyhymnia Society, founded in 1799, and the Euterpean Society, which probably first appeared in 1800, we know nothing. According to Ritter, the latter was considered as 'perhaps the oldest musical society in the United States,' and 'as the lineal descendant of the old Apollo.' There is absolutely no evidence to support either of these statements. Mr. Sonneck quotes from the 'Sketches and Impressions' of Thomas Goodwin, published in 1887, the following note on the subject: 'The Euterpean, an amateur orchestra, was already an old organization half a century ago. It had been well managed, and owned a small library and several valuable instruments.... I have a program of its forty-eighth anniversary concert, given January 21, 1847, which would carry its organization back to the last century.' From the fact that the Euterpean Society does not appear among the musical societies in the directory of 1799, Mr. Sonneck is inclined to the opinion that the society was founded on January 21, 1800. Probably in New York and elsewhere in America there were a number of convivial clubs in which music, especially the singing of glees and catches, occupied an important place. The frequency of such organizations in England is an argument in favor of the assumption, for English life was reproduced very much in detail by the American colonists. It is not surprising that they escaped mention in the contemporary press, as their activities were not of any public interest. An exception must be made in favor of the Columbian Anacreontic Society, which was modelled upon the famous Anacreontic Society of London. The latter is of special interest to Americans, since it furnished indirectly the music of 'The Star Spangled Banner.' The New York version of the society probably was more innocuous than its English model, though its affairs must have been marked by a robust jolity. It was founded by John Hodgkinson, a former member of the London Anacreontic Society, whose excellent musical endowments and achievements did not prevent him from being a faithful worshipper of Bacchus, and possibly it numbered also in its membership other graduates of its English prototype. The exact date of its foundation is not known, but it certainly existed in 1795, as we glean from the following item in a concert program of that year: