DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. II3 



purposes also, with which this enterprise could be combined. He spent July 

 and part of August in Switzerland, and with the aid of the archivists of the 

 respective cantons and of the secretary of the Department prepared state- 

 ments respecting these archives and their American materials which can be 

 incorporated with the larger work proposed for the German cantons. Grate- 

 ful acknowledgments should here be made of the aid rendered and favors 

 accorded by the Swiss Minister in the United States, Dr. Paul Ritter, the 

 American Minister in Bern, Hon. Henry S. Boutell, MM. Paul Martin and 

 Charles Roch, archivist and sub-archivist respectively of the canton of 

 Geneva, Abbe Leo Meyer, cantonal archivist of Valais, M. Octave Oberson, 

 sub-archivist of the canton of Fribourg, M. Charles Millioud, sub-archivist 

 of the canton of Vaud, and MM. Arthur Piaget and Louis Thevenaz, archiv- 

 ist and sub-archivist respectively of the canton of Neuchatel. 



After and aside from the performance of some needful preliminary labors, 

 the work done on the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United 

 States, from January to May, consisted of two parts, the one relating to the 

 boundary-lines of the States, the other to the plotting of political votes. 

 The former involved, on the part of Professor Hodder and Dr. Paullin, care- 

 ful study of the more important boundary disputes between States, and of 

 statutes and judicial decisions relating to the matter. The representation of 

 political votes is intended to show, on maps of the United States, first, by 

 counties, and in New England by towns, the party complexion of all the 

 presidential elections, and secondly, by congressional districts, the geograph- 

 ical distribution of the affirmative and negative votes on a selected number, 

 perhaps thirty, of the great questions passed upon by Congress in the period 

 from 1789 to the present time. The former, for accurate delineation, re- 

 quires careful statutory and cartographical study of the history of county 

 boundaries; the latter, a minute investigation of the boundary lines of con- 

 gressional districts through more than fourteen successive apportionments, 

 a research presenting far more difficulties than would at first thought be 

 supposed. Beginning in consultation with Professor Libby, Dr. Paullin en- 

 tered on a long investigation of election returns for the early part of our 

 history, in books, newspapers, and archives, and a compilation of results 

 leading to the preparation of election maps in several States. The search for 

 data regarding congressional districts has also been considerably advanced. 

 It is hoped that blank maps of these may be published in advance of the com- 

 pleted atlas, as there is a considerable use of them in university instruction. 



In October, as stated in the opening paragraph of this report, Professor 

 Farrand began a period of assistance upon the atlas. His aid will be given 

 in consultations upon those features of the atlas having to do with the rep- 

 resentation of economic and social history, and in planning the sheets relat- 

 ing to these divisions of our historical geography. 



In Europe the Director had an opportunity to consult with persons occu- 

 pied with the manufacture of photo-lithographic maps of high grade, and at 

 the Hague and Leyden to confer with those who have principal charge of 



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