DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH * 



J. Franklin Jameson, Director. 



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

 covers the period from November i, 1907, to October 31, 1908. The regular 

 staff of the Department has remained unchanged throughout the year. As 

 to place, it seemed that greater efficiency would be secured, from June to Sep- 

 tember, by removing to a cooler climate than that of Washington, as had 

 been done in the previous summer by removal to Cambridge and Boston. 

 Accordingly we removed to Ithaca, where, through the kindness of President 

 Schurman and the professors of history, we were given the amplest use of 

 the library of Cornell University and adequate office accommodations. 



The general plans of the Department continue to be as set forth in my first 

 annual report. The Department is still mainly concerned with publications 

 intended to aid investigators in American history without trenching on 

 ground already occupied or likely to be occupied by local agencies. These 

 publications fall 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 1909 will be successively considered 

 in this report. 



WORK OF THE PAST YEAR. 



Reports, Aids, and Guides. — In February the Institution published the sec- 

 ond edition of Van Tyne and Leland's "Guide to the archives of the Govern- 

 ment in Washington." Greatly enlarged by more detailed researches, espe- 

 cially in the cases of the Department of State, the Post-Office Department, 

 and the Navy Department, it makes a volume of 327 pages, as over against 

 228 pages in the first edition, having also a much fuller index than the latter. 

 Seldom has the sum total of any Government's archives, of equal extent, been 

 so comprehensively and fully described before. Beside its use by private his- 

 torical investigators, the portions of it relating to the different Departments 

 at Washington have been of much use to their officials, some of whom have 

 expressed high appreciation of the work. Data supplementary to it, when 

 received, are systematically filed for subsequent use, the Government archives 

 in Washington being constantly regarded as one of the Department's main 

 objects of attention. 



* Address, Bond Building, Washington, District of Columbia. Grant No. 477. $20,000 

 for investigations and maintenance. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 3, 4, 5, 

 and 6.) 



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