DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 165 



portant typical measures of national legislation, extending over the 

 period from 1789 to 1914. Volmninous notes have in the meantime 

 been made for the expository letter-press which will accompany these 

 two sets of maps, and which Dr. PauUin is now preparing. 



At the beginning of October Professor R. H. Whitbeck, of the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, on leave of absence from his university, began a 

 series of four months' assistance to the Department in the work of 

 preparation for the Atlas. He has addressed himself chiefly to those 

 maps which illustrate the physical bases of American history and some 

 of the phenomena of the social and economical, especially the industrial, 

 history of the United States. 



TEXTUAL PUBLICATIONS OF DOCUMENTS. 



The volumes of "Letters of delegates to the Continental Congress" 

 have advanced during the year in three respects. Dr. Burnett has 

 expended much labor upon the careful and scholarly annotation of the 

 letters alread}^ collected and copied. The final processes in the prepa- 

 ration of text and notes, in typographical respects, for publication 

 have been well advanced. Thirdlj'^, additional letters have been copied 

 whenever knowledge of them has been obtained, or whenever access 

 has been given to collections not previously available. Although Dr. 

 Burnett's collection had already, many months ago, been made as 

 complete as it could apparently then be made, it is obviously desirable, 

 up to the last practicable moment, to add further materials which may 

 come to light. Often this occurs through the kindness of dealers in 

 autographs. An especially important addition has been made through 

 the favor of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in according access to his remark- 

 able autograph collection. Another considerable addition has been 

 made from the papers of James Duane, through the kindness of Mrs. 

 Wilmot Townsend Cox. 



Returning to the office of the Department in the last days of the 

 period reported upon. Miss Davenport brings with her the material 

 which will complete the first section of her collection of "Treaties 

 between European powers which have a bearing on American history." 

 This collection, including at the beginning the papal bulls relative to 

 America, extends through the treaties of Westphalia of the year 1648, 

 and will illustrate the whole course of conduct of the European powers 

 with reference to America down to that date. As all but the last of 

 this material has been sent to the Department, in installments from 

 time to time, it has been possible for Miss Sanderlin to bring near 

 to completion the final preparation of text, introduction, bibliogra- 

 phies, and notes for all but the last part of the collection. 



In respect to the series of "Proceedings and debates of Parliament 

 respecting North America from 1585 to 1783," the copying, or cutting 

 and mounting, of the entries respecting America in the Journals of the 

 House of Commons and House of Lords in the Parliament of Great 



