The Board minutes provide a continuous narrative history of the institute from its founding to the time of the affiliation with The Johns Hopkins University. They chronicle the construction of the original buildings, the shaping of the institute's administrative structure, and they document the changes that took place in subsequent years. They also record the establishment of other major cultural institutions in the city, many of them founded by men closely connected with the Institute or with George Peabody himself. Enoch Pratt, the Institute's treasurer, founded the Enoch Pratt Free Library; William and Henry Walters, both trustees of the institute, formed the Walters Art Gallery; Peabody persuaded Johns Hopkins to found The Johns Hopkins University; several Peabody trustees were instrumental in creating the Baltimore Museum of Art; and Director Harold Randolph and members of the Peabody faculty formed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.