It is by a signal exercise of this bounty, my Friends, that we are
called together to-day. The munificence of several citizens of this
ancient city, among whom the first place is due to the generous lady
whose name has with great propriety been given to the institution, has
furnished the means for the foundation of the Dudley Observatory at
Albany. On a commanding elevation on the northern edge of the city,
liberally given for that purpose by the head of a family in which the
patronage of science is hereditary, a building of ample dimensions has
been erected, upon a plan which combines all the requisites of solidity,
convenience, and taste. A large portion of the expense of the structure
has been defrayed by Mrs. Blandina Dudley; to whose generosity, and that
of several other public-spirited individuals, the institution is also
indebted for the provision which has been made for an adequate supply of
first-class instruments, to be executed by the most eminent makers in
Europe and America; and which, it is confidently expected, will yield to
none of their class in any observatory in the world.[A]
[Footnote A: Prof. Loomis, in _Harper's Magazine_ for June, p. 49.]
With a liberal supply of instrumental power; established in a community
to whose intelligence and generosity its support may be safely confided,
and whose educational institutions are rapidly realizing the conception
of a university; countenanced by the gentleman who conducts the United
States Coast Survey with such scientific skill and administrative
energy; committed to the immediate supervision of an astronomer to
whose distinguished talent had been added the advantage of a thorough
scientific education in the most renowned universities of Europe, and
who, as the editor of the _American Astronomical Journal_, has shown
himself to be fully qualified for the high trust;--under these favorable
circumstances, the Dudley Observatory at Albany takes its place among
the scientific foundations of the country and the world.