DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 175 



latter part of September all the Department's work has once more 

 been concentrated at the offices in Washington. 



The main purpose of the Department, as set forth in former reports, 

 is, briefly expressed, to serve the interests of present and future makers 

 of historical monographs and general histories, by providing aids 

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

 show the inquirer the existence and location, or assist him in the use, 

 of bodies of historical sources, or books which themselves present in 

 proper scientific form the full text of important historical materials. 

 Thus the publications of the Department fall naturally in two classes: 

 the one that of reports, aids, and guides; the other that of textual pub- 

 lications of documents. It has been customary in these annual reports 

 to consider, successively, first the work of the past year, in respect to 

 each of these two classes of publications and in respect to the mis- 

 cellaneous activities of the Department, and then the plans for the 

 ensuing year, under the same three headings. 



WORK OF THE PAST YEAR. 



REPORTS. AIDS. AND GUIDES. 



No volumes have been published for the Department during the 

 year, but four manuscripts have been completed. 



A Guide to the Materials for American History in the archives of 

 Switzerland and Austria went to the printer in July; most of the galley- 

 proofs hav^ been received. In this book, as was explained in the last 

 report of the Department, the main portions, relating to the archives 

 of German Switzerland and Austria, were prepared by Professor Albert 

 B. Faust, of Cornell University, after extensive investigation in these 

 archives. The small portion relating to the archives of the French can- 

 tons of Switzerland rests upon investigations made by the Director of 

 the Department. The volume will make about 300 pages and will 

 furnish useful guidance to all students of the history of Swiss and 

 Austrian emigration to the United States and of the diplomatic rela- 

 tions between the United States and those countries. 



Mr. R. R. Hill's Descriptive Catalogue of the Materials for United 

 States History in that section of the archives of the Indies which is 

 called ^'Papeles procedentes de la Isla de Cuba," fully described in the 

 last report of the Department, was then stated to have been finished 

 in manuscript. The manuscript, however, remained for some time in 

 Mr. Hill's hands, in order that the main portions of the work of making 

 the index, which will refer to legajos rather than to pages of the printed 

 book, might be performed by him. The many variations in the spelhng 

 of proper names, and the consequent difficulty of identifying persons, 

 made it expedient that this work should be done by one having Mr. 

 Hill's familiarity with the subject-matter, rather than by an ordinary 



