Excerpt from The Progress of Ethnology Of the first class of works, it has been sufficiently demonstrated, that a small proportion were intended for works of defence that another portion were sacred places, or in some way connected with religious or superstitious rites, while a third and much the larger number are entirely inexplicable in our present state of information. John Russell Bartlett (October 23, 1805 - May 28, 1886) was an American historian and linguist. In 1831, he was one of the founders of the Providence Athenaeum, and was elected its first treasurer. That year he was also elected to membership in the Rhode Island Historical Society. The following year he was ordering books for the newly founded Providence Franklin Society, an early lyceum. Over the course of his life he became involved with a number of other organizations including the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and being elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1856.