“ The history of the society since that time has been one of earnest effort in the formation of a library and museum, a gallery of paintings, a department of antiquities, and other features in which it has been eminently successful. ”

“ In the department of antiquities there is the Abbott collection of Egyptian antiquities, considered one of the greatest in the world. The society spent the first five years of its existence (1804-09) in old Federal Hall, on Wall Street. ”