DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH * 



J. Franklin Jameson, Director. 



The following report, the fourth annual report of the present Director, 

 covers the period from November i, 1908, to October 31, 1909. The regu- 

 lar staff of the Department has remained unchanged throughout the year, 

 the historical (as distinguished from clerical) workers being the Director, 

 Mr. Leland, Miss Davenport, and Dr. Burnett. In addition, it has had 

 through most of the year, December to September, the aid of Dr. James 

 A. Robertson, and through about half of it, January to June, that of Mr, 

 David W. Parker. 



From November to October the Department occupied the same rooms in 

 the Bond Building as hitherto — three rooms greatly crowded and much ex- 

 posed to noise and dust. From the latter part of June to the middle of Sep- 

 tember its office work was carried on in excellent quarters in the beautiful 

 library building of Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine, where the libra- 

 rian and his staff showed us every courtesy and gave us unusual privileges. 

 Most grateful thanks are due to the president and faculty of the college for 

 placing such rooms and such opportunities at our disposal. The practice of 

 removal in summer costs the Department something in money and in remote- 

 ness from the Library of Congress, but the cost is, in the case of at least a 

 part of the staff, compensated by the superior efficiency with which one can 

 work in such a climate as that of Maine. 



The general plans of the Department continue to be those which were set 

 forth in my first annual report. Its main function must be to do, for as many 

 first-rate investigators in American history as possible, what they can not 

 easily do for themselves and what is not likely to be done for them by other 

 agencies already existing, either by providing in print materials hitherto dif- 

 ficult of access or use, or by shortening and improving the pathway between 

 the workers and the materials for their work. 



The principles on which an endowed department of historical research 

 should operate are clear; their application presents some difficult problems. 

 It is necessary, in order to avoid duplication or other unprofitable action, to 

 form a judgment as to what existing agencies are likely to do. It is not hard 

 to acquire the necessary information on which to base such a judgment, 

 especially as many of them have local fields of work, or fields otherwise well 

 defined. It is also necessary to form a judgment as to what lines of investi- 

 gation in American history are, at the same time, best worth following and 



_ * Address, Bond Building, Washington, D. C. Grant No. 540. $20,500 for investiga- 

 tions and maintenance. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 3, 4, S, 6, and 7.) 



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