114 RIlPORTS OF INVEISTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



(each person engaged in foreign researches sends monthly reports of prog- 

 ress to the Director) warrant the expectation of an abundant harvest. 



There is more than the usual prospect that the systematic description of 

 materials which that report will present will be immediately followed up by 

 fruitful studies of a monographic character, because of the active manner in 

 which the general subject is being at present pursued, by individuals and 

 by organizations such as the Pennsylvania German Society. Indeed, the 

 fact that it was being so actively pursued, yet without the systematic archive- 

 work which should properly precede, was one reason why this expedition on 

 the part of the Carnegie Institution of Washington was resolved upon at the 

 present time. A public-spirited member of the society named supplied Pro- 

 fessor Learned with a special fund to be applied to any purpose connected 

 with his mission which the Department might approve. At our suggestion it 

 was devoted to procuring for the society photographs of early documents 

 which he should select from among the most important of those he found. 



Professor Andrews spent the summer in London and did all that could 

 be done to finish the recasting of his "Guide to the materials for American 

 history to 1783 in the Public Record Office," a recasting made necessary by 

 official action in reclassifying the Colonial Office papers, the chief section 

 of his work, and the Home Office papers. But his efforts to bring his long 

 task to a conclusion have again been frustrated, not only by the fact that 

 this reclassification, begun two years ago, is not yet completed, but by further 

 official decree that the Treasury section and that of the High Court of 

 Admiralty shall be reclassified. The book must obviously wait till it can 

 be brought into accord with the new system. Much sympathy must be felt 

 for Professor Andrews, who will in the end have been compelled to recon- 

 struct nearly every section of his manuscript, and who has already devoted 

 to it more time than a scholar of his eminence would ever willingly devote 

 to the details of such a task. 



Prof. W. H. Allison's inventory of Protestant manuscript materials for 

 the religious history of the United States, especially those in the archives of 

 denominations and missionary organizations and in the libraries of theologi- 

 cal schools and denominational colleges, was reported a year ago as nearly 

 finished. Unfortunately the duties of his new position at Bryn Mawr gave 

 him little chance to work upon it during the ensuing academic year. Attack- 

 ing it again this summer, he has now nearly finished it. It presents data from 

 nearly all the significant collections in the country. Those from depositories 

 east of the Mississippi and north of the Potomac rest on careful personal 

 examination. In the case of only one collection known to be of value has 

 access been denied. 



Bringing material together from repositories which, on the whole, are 

 much less known to historical students than public archives and the libraries 



