REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, I909. 3 1 



here, the collaborators recommended that Prof. Henry W. i^arnam, of Yale 

 University, who has hitherto acted as secretary of the collaborators, be made 

 chairman of the department. This recommendation was approvd by the 

 Executiv Committee at its meeting of April 19, 1909, and Professor Farnam 

 immediately assumd the duties of the position. 



At the meeting just mentiond Professor Farnam was requested to fur- 

 nish, for the advice of the Executiv Committee, certain special and general 

 reports, which are now available, concerning the work of the department and 

 its probable future needs. But since the details of these matters are yet to 

 be considerd by the Executiv Committee and by the Board of Trustees, fur- 

 ther reference to them would be premature here. 



As to the progress of the work of the department during the year, atten- 

 tion is invited to the full and clear report of Chairman Farnam in the forth- 

 coming Year Book. 



Thus far the only publications of the department issued by the Institution 

 directly are the Indexes of Economic Material in the Documents of the 

 States of the United States. These have been prepard under the direction 

 of the department by Miss Adelaide R. Hasse, of the New York Public 

 Library. Eight volumes for the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, California, and Illinois, respectivly, 

 have appeard and a volume for Kentucky is now in press. 



Probably no department of research under the auspices of the Institution 

 is in close contact with so many scholars as the Department of Historical 

 Research. Its work appeals not only to a large profes- 

 HistorkarRes °^ h ^^°"^^ class, but also to the reading and reflecting public 

 at large. Hence the indirect advantages arising from the 

 stimulus to individual historical investigation generated by the work of the 

 department are already widely diffused and appreciated. 



Search for the sources of American history has been vigorously carried 

 forward during the year in the United States, Great Britain, France, Ger- 

 many, Italy, and Mexico. The comprehensiv "Guide to the Manuscript Ma- 

 terials for the History of the United States to 1783 in the British Museum, 

 in Minor London Archives, and in the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge" 

 has been issued as Publication No. 90 during the year, and similar guides 

 are in press or in preparation therefor. The mass of materials thus renderd 

 available to the historian, the economist, the sociologist, and the statesman 

 should help much to place American history on a higher plane than any 

 hitherto attainable. 



The attention of the Trustees is invited to the interesting and instructiv 

 full report of the Director in the current Year Book, and especially to his 



