150 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



put forth, of the grounds upon which the work of the Department is 

 based and of the fundamental ideas which have influenced its plans. 

 This address, entitled ''The Future Uses of History," was subse- 

 quently published in the "History Teacher's Magazine" for February 

 1913. Briefly expressed, the main purpose of the Department is to 

 serve the interests of present and future makers of historical mono- 

 graphs and general histories, in proportion to the estimated impor- 

 tance of their work respectively, by the provision, in fields which are 

 not already sufficiently covered by other agencies, of aids belonging 

 to one or the other of two main classes — either books which guide 

 the inquirer to the location or assist him in the use of bodies of 

 historical sources, or books which themselves present in proper scien- 

 tific form the full text of important historical materials. Thus the 

 publications of the Department fall naturally into two classes, the one 

 that of reports, aids, and guides, the other that of textual publications 

 of documents. It is customary in these annual reports to consider, 

 successively, first, the work of the past year, and then the plans for 

 the ensuing year, each under two headings, designating the two classes 

 of publication just described, and a third relating to the miscellaneous 

 activities of the Department. 



WORK OF THE PAST YEAR. 

 REPORTS, AIDS, AND GUIDES. 



Three volumes have been published by the Department during the 

 year. The first, issued in November 1912, pubhcation No. 90 a, is 

 the first volume of the " Guide to the materials for American history 

 to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain," a volume of 

 346 pages, prepared by Professor Charles M. Andrews, of Yale 

 University. This volume comprises a general introduction upon the 

 Public Record Office, its system and contents, and an elaborate 

 survey or list of the American material, for the colonial and Revo- 

 lutionary periods, contained in what are technically called the State 

 Papers, namely, the State Papers Foreign— and at the end of the period 

 the beginning of the Foreign Office Papers— the State Papers Domes- 

 tic and Home Office Papers, the State Papers Miscellaneous, and the 

 Colonial Office Papers, the latter occupying the largest portion of 

 the volume. A special feature of the book is the care with which the 

 compiler, besides presenting the detailed lists which make the main 

 substance of the volume, enters upon full explanations of the work- 

 ings of the various offices, such as the Board of Trade and the office 

 of the Secretary of State, by whose operations with respect to the 

 colonies the papers under consideration in each section accumulated, 

 and from which thev have descended to the Public Record Office. 



