HISTORICAL REvSEARCH — m'lAUGHLIN. 233 



to be found in this country. Little is known by historical workers 

 concerning the great amount of materials that are here available ; 

 not even a general list of the important collections is in print, and 

 thus it may easily happen that investigators go to England for their 

 sources or send to England for copies when copies are at hand on 

 this side of the water, where they can be easily and readily used. 

 So much has been done by States and by historical societies to gather 

 transcripts of papers bearing on colonial history that a general guide 

 to such materials is needed. Moreover, without some general guide 

 the different States or local societies are in danger of incurring un- 

 necessary expense b}^ copying materials already available. It may 

 reasonably be expected that this report on the transcripts in this 

 country will prevent the needless duplication of work. The task 

 of gathering full information about these transcripts has proved a 

 large undertaking. Mr. W. G. Eeland spent several months in 

 Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina in listing and calendar- 

 ing those papers, and in doing other tasks for the bureau to which 

 reference is made in the succeeding paragraphs of this report. This 

 work is still in progress, but we may expect that before many months 

 the bureau will have in readiness for the printer a comprehensive 

 report on the sources for American historj' in British archives. The 

 first part of this report will, it is thought, be the work of Professor 

 Andrews, a general description of the English archives and a guide 

 to the American materials to be found there ; the second portion 

 will give a list, possibly a full calendared list, of the copies in this' 

 country from British archives ; the third will give reference to 

 printed copies of like materials. I can onlj'^ say that some such 

 guide will be of immense service to the investigators of the future ; 

 it will be likely to lessen the labors of scholars for generations to 

 come, and is one of those undertakings of general usefulness for the 

 advancement of historical science which seem natural to suit the 

 purposes and activities of this bureau. 



III. During the past year considerable attention has been given 

 to discovering and copying official letters from the delegates in the 

 Continental Congresses and the Congress of the Confederation. 

 Much as has been written on the Revolution and the early history 

 of the United States, many of the most important records have not 

 been accessible to the investigator. The papers of the old Con- 

 gresses are now being printed — most of them for the first time — by 

 the Library of Congress. It is highly desirable that, in addition to 

 the reports and journals, there should also be published the letters 

 sent by the delegates to their home governments. The work of 



