Annual Report: The Director 2$ Our members and friends heard a varied program of nine lectures by a distinguished group of speakers. The year began with an important lecture on "Albert Gallatin, Citizen of New York," by Dr. Raymond Walters, Jr., of the staff of the Saturday Review, whose definitive biography of Gallatin, based largely on the papers in our collection, had been published recently. A fine illustrated talk on the "Cobblestone Architecture" which is a unique feature of the rural landscape of western New York was given by Mr. Carl F. Schmidt, Architect, an outstanding authority on this subject. This was followed by a scholarly lecture on "The American Press and the French Revolution," by Dr. Beatrice F. Hyslop, Professor of History at Hunter College. Then came Mr. Henry Christman's interesting political study: "The First Republican; the Untold Story of Alvan Earl Bovay." This was followed by a charming talk on "Adventuring among Autographs," by Miss Mary A. Benjamin, author, collector, and best-known American autograph dealer. For the Strawberry Festival we were fortunate in securing the always popular Carl Carmer, author and historian, who talked on "Freedom's River," the storied Hudson, after whom we heard Mr. Carleton Putnam, author of the first of four volumes of what may well prove to be the definitive biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Putnam gave a warm and vivid picture, surprisingly full of new material, of the early years of T. R., and this will be condensed as an article for the April 1959 Quarterly. On the opening of our daguerreotype show, carried out with the generous help of the Eastman House Photographic Museum in Rochester, Mr. Beaumont Newhall, its Director, gave a fascinating slide-lecture on the beginning of photography. The season ended with the always popular St. Nicholas Day party when Mr. Earle Spicer, well-known ballad singer, delighted his audience with a concert of English, Scottish, and American folk songs. Among the sixteen special exhibits of the year the following were the most interesting and popular: The DeWitt M. Lockman Memorial Exhibit; Portraits of the Stuyvesants; C. D. Batchelor's