DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 97 



DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH * 



J. Franklin Jameson, Director. 



The following report covers the period from November i, 1906, to October 

 31, 1907. 



Those general thoughts on policy which underlie the work of the Depart- 

 ment were stated with some fulness in the last annual report. It is not need- 

 ful to do more in the present report than to recall the leading features of the 

 policy therein advocated. Its chief principles were, that a department of 

 historical research in an endowed institution should leave to individual his- 

 torical scholars the preparation of monographs and general histories, and 

 that it should aid them to as large an extent as possible* by the more primary 

 work of locating and describing important original materials, and by the 

 printing of the chief of them ; that accordingly its publications should con- 

 sist of two classes — on the one hand a series of reports, aids, and guides, 

 reporting on materials on American history in archives domestic and foreign, 

 or otherwise mediating between the worker and his sources of knowledge, 

 and on the other hand textual publications of documents ; that in dealing with 

 archives or other large collections of material the first stage should be the 

 preparation of comprehensive surveys, to be followed later by calendaring 

 or printing of what is most valuable ; that all this should be planned and 

 conducted with constant regard to the scope and work of other historical 

 agencies, with avoidance of duplication, with help and cooperation whenever 

 practicable ; and that meanwhile individual inquirers engaged in work having 

 real scientific worth should be aided in such ways as the advantageous posi- 

 tion of the Department in Washington would make possible. 



WORK FOR THE PAST YEAR. 



Reports, Aids, and Guides. — In the winter and spring Mr. Leland, with 

 assistance from Mr. J. H. Russell and Dr. C. H. Lincoln, completed the 

 manuscript of the revised edition of the first publication of the Department, 

 Van Tyne & Leland's "Guide to the archives of the Government of the 

 United States in Washington." This involved prolonged examination of 

 many portions of the scattered government archives which had not been 

 explored previously, and the preparation of descriptions so much fuller that 

 the new volume will be about two-thirds larger than the original issue. In 

 particular, the statements regarding the historical material in the Bureau of 

 Indexes and Archives in the Department of State, in the Archives of the 

 Post-Office and Navy Departments, and in the Library of Congress, are 

 much more ample. The volume is now in the press. 



_ * Address : Bond Building, Washington, D. C. Grant No. 402. $18,700 for investiga- 

 tions and maintenance. (For previous reports see Year Book No. 3, pp. 65-79; Year 

 Book No. 4, pp. 232-237; and Year Book No. 5, ppl 186-201.) 



