DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. IO7 



fall naturally into two classes, the one that of reports, aids, and guides ; the 

 other that of textual publications of documents. Under these two heads, 

 and a third relating to the miscellaneous activities of the Department, the 

 work of the past year and the plans for 191 1 will be successively considered 

 in this report. 



WORK OF THE PAST YEAR. 



REPORTS, AIDS, AND GUIDES. 



During the past year one book of considerable magnitude has been pub- 

 lished by the Institution for this Department, a "List of documents in Span- 

 ish archives relating to the history of the United States, which have been 

 printed or of which transcripts are preserved in American libraries," pre- 

 pared chiefly by Dr. James A. Robertson, now librarian of the Philippine 

 Library in Manila. Dr. Robertson's departure for Manila in January, to 

 take this new post, caused some delay in the proof-reading of this volume, 

 which did not appear till August. The reasons for preparing the work, and 

 for thinking that it would be of value to American historical workers, were 

 sufficiently set forth in my last report. The entries are arranged chrono- 

 logically, in two divisions, the one listing those documents which may be 

 found in print, the other those which may be found in the form of transcripts 

 in any American collection accessible to the public. These entries give the 

 date of the document, its title, or in the case of a letter the names of writer 

 and person addressed, the place of the original in the Spanish archives, the 

 place or places where it may be found in print, or a proper reference for 

 finding the transcript or transcripts. There are 5,332 such entries. All this 

 information, guiding to a great amount of material important to United 

 States history, is presented in the most compact form consistent with perfect 

 clearness. 



Since the book is technically a list and not a calendar, that is to say, since 

 it does not present analyses of the letters and documents referred to, its 

 index can not be to any large extent a subject-index, though subject-indexing 

 has been carried out where practicable. It is chiefly an index to names of 

 writers and persons addressed. Even so, its preparation was a formidable 

 piece of work, carried out with much skill by Miss Helen C. McGown. 



It is worth while to take this occasion to point out that the publications of 

 the Department of Historical Research, publications filled with details, and 

 largely consisting of data relative to individual persons, places, and events, 

 call for much more elaborate indexes than are needed in most publications of 

 other departments, and that the preparation of indexes must have a note- 

 worthy place in the Department's work, consuming a considerable amount 

 of time. 



Of the other publications which have been in preparation during the year, 

 that which is farthest advanced toward issue is Prof. Carl R. Fish's "Guide 



