AMENDED CHARTER.

PASSED APRIL 8, 1871.

STATE OF NEW YORK, No. 237, IN SENATE. March 7, 1871.— Introduced with unanimous consent, by Mr. Bradley; read twice, and referred to the Committee on Literature; reported favorably from said committee, and committed to the Committee of the Whole.

CHAP. 373.

AN ACT in relation to The American Geographical and Statistical

Society.

PASSED April 8, 1871.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The name or corporate title of the said Society shall hereafter be The American Geographical Society of New York.

§ 2. The object of the said Society shall be the advancement of geographical science; the collection, classification and scientific arrangement of statistics, and their results; the encouragement of explorations for the more thorough knowledge of all parts of the North American continent, and of other parts of the world which may be imperfectly known; the collection and diffusion of geographical, statistical and scientific knowledge, by lectures, printed publications, or other means; the keeping up of a correspondence with scientific and learned societies in every part of the world, for the collection and diffusion of information, and the interchange of books, charts, maps, public reports, documents, and valuable publica

tions; the permanent establishment in the city of New York of an institution in which shall be collected, classified, and arranged, geographical and scientific works, voyages, and travels, maps, charts, globes, instruments, documents, manuscripts, prints, engravings, or whatever else may be useful or necessary for supplying full, accurate, and reliable information in respect to every part of the globe, or explanatory of its geography, physical and descriptive; and its geological history, giving its climatology, its productions, animal, vegetable, and mineral; its exploration, navigation, and commerce; having especial reference to that kind of information which should be collected, preserved, and be at all times accessible for public uses in a great maritime and commercial city.

3. The power given by the act hereby accorded to the said. Society, to take, hold, convey, manage, and make use of its real and personal estate, shall be understood as authorizing said Society to take and hold by gift, grant, bequest, devise, subject to all provisions of law relative to devises and bequests by last will and testament, or purchase real estate to the value of three hundred thousand dollars, and to invest its income, or its personal estate generally, so as to produce a regular annual income sufficient for the accomplishment of the purposes set forth in the first section of this act; but said annual income shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars annually.

4. The said Society shall make an annual report of its proceedings to the Legislature.

I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom, and of the whole of said original law.

[L. S.]

Given under my hand and seal of office, at the city of Albany, this twentysecond day of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and

seventy-one.

DIEDRICH WILLERS, JR.,

Deputy Secretary of State.

BY-LAWS.

CHAPTER I.

TITLE.

The title of the Society is, "The American Geographical Society."

CHAPTER II.

OBJECTS.

The objects of the Society are, "The collecting and diffusing of geographical and statistical information."

CHAPTER III.

MEMBERS.

1. The Society shall consist of Fellows, Honorary, Corresponding, and ex-officio members.

2. Honorary members shall be chosen on account of their distinction in the science of geography or statistics, and not more than twelve of them shall hereafter be elected in any one year.

3. Corresponding members shall be chosen from those who have aided the advancement of geography or statistics.

4. Ex-officio members shall be foreign diplomatic representatives and consuls resident in the United States; and United States diplomatic representatives and consuls in foreign countries.

5. Fellows and Corresponding and Honorary members shall be elected as follows: All nominations of candidates shall be openly made in writing at a meeting of the Society, or the Council, by a member thereof, and, together with the name of the member making them, entered on the minutes. The persons thus nominated, when

approved by the Council and elected by the Society, shall, on payment of the initiation fee, if nominated as Fellows, and without such payment if nominated as Corresponding or Honorary members, become members of the Society accordingly.

6. Persons entitled to become ex-officio members of the Society shall, on the recommendation of the Council, be, by the Society, constituted and declared to be such members.

7. The name of any member of the Society may, on the recommendation of the Council, and by a vote of two thirds of the members present at a stated meeting of the Society, be dropped from the roll of its members.

CHAPTER IV.

INITIATION FEE AND ANNUAL DUES.

1. The initiation fee, including the dues for the current year, shall be, for a Fellow, ten dollars, to be paid immediately on election.

2. The annual dues thereafter shall be, for a Fellow, ten dollars, to be paid in advance.

3. Any Fellow of the Society, not in arrears, may commute for life all dues for fellowship by the payment at one time, if a Fellow, of one hundred dollars.

4. The name of any Fellow of the Society neglecting for two successive years to pay his annual dues, or at any time wholly refusing to pay them, may by the Council be erased from the list of Fellows of the Society.

5. The fiscal year of the Society shall, for all purposes, be the calendar year-that is, commence on the first day of January, and end with the 31st day of December in each year.

CHAPTER V.

OFFICERS.

1. The officers of the Society shall be a president, three vicepresidents, a foreign corresponding secretary, a domestic corresponding secretary, a recording secretary, a treasurer, and fifteen councillors; and these, together, shall form the Council of the Society.

2. The officers and members of Council elected at the next

annual election (except the president and treasurer) shall, at their first meeting, divide themselves into three classes, each to embrace one vice-president, one secretary, and five members of the Council; one of which classes shall hold office one year, one for two years, and another for three years, to be determined at said meeting by lot or otherwise. The president and treasurer shall always be elected annually; and at each annual election thereafter there shall be elected a vice-president, a secretary, and five members of Council, each for the term of three years.

3. All officers of the Society to be chosen at any election may be voted for on one ballot.

CHAPTER VI.

ANNUAL MEETING.

1. The annual meeting of the Society shall be held on the second Tuesday after the first day of January in each and every year hereafter, when the annual election of the officers of the Society shall take place; and if, from any cause, there shall be a failure of the annual election at the time above designated for that purpose, the same may be held on the Tuesday next following—that is, on the third Tuesday after the first day of January in each year-and of which due notice shall be given.

2. Every member of the Society, who has been such for twenty days or more, and who is not in arrears for his dues for the past year, shall be entitled to vote at the said election.

3. At the annual meeting of the Society the Council shall present a general report of its proceedings and of those of the Society during the past year, and the secretaries and the treasurer shall also present their annual reports.

CHAPTER VII.

MONTHLY AND SPECIAL MEETINGS.

1. The Society, unless otherwise specially ordered by the Society or the Council, shall hold its stated meetings for the transaction of business on the second Tuesday of each month of the year, except July, August, and September.

2. The president, or, in his absence, one of the vice-presidents, may, and upon the written request of five members, shall, call a