168 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



ington. Besides the extensive series of copies of historical manuscripts 

 which is being made in Paris for the Library of Congress under Mr. 

 Leland's direction, Mr. Golder procured for the same institution a body 

 of transcripts from Russian archives. As in previous years, searches 

 and copies have been made, in Washington archives, by the Department, 

 or under its supervision, for a considerable number of inquirers. 



The Department has endeavored to do its part toward bringing about 

 the erection, in Washington, of a suitable national archive building. 

 At the conference of archivists held in Washington in December, at 

 the time of the meeting of the American Historical Association, Mr. 

 Leland and Mr. Stock made an effective exhibition, by lectures and 

 slides, of the evil conditions now existing and of the remedies sug- 

 gested by European example, in the form of archive buildings and 

 devices. Their demonstration was repeated before the Pennsylvania 

 History Club at Philadelphia and before the American Library Asso- 

 ciation at its annual meeting at Asbury Park, in June. 



PLANS FOR 1917. 



REPORTS. AIDS, AND GUIDES. 



The first work of the Department in the year beginning November 1, 

 1916, should be the issue of Mr. Hill's Descriptive Catalogue (Seville) 

 and of i\lr. Golder's Guide to the Materials for American History in 

 the Russian Archives. Mr. Leland will do all that can be done to 

 finish, within the year, that volume of his Guide to the Parisian 

 materials which concerns manuscripts in libraries. At some time 

 after the conclusion of the present war, the collection of the last 

 remaining data for his other volumes can be undertaken. 



But for conditions incident to the war, the Department had hoped 

 to send a scholar of high qualifications for the purpose, Professor 

 Herbert C. Bell, of Bowdoin College, to make an examination of the 

 archives of the British West Indies (exclusive of Jamaica, already cov- 

 ered by Mr. Perez's researches), and to compile a report upon what 

 they contain. This now seems inexpedient, but it is possible, while 

 waiting, to prepare in London a portion of the same book, for the 

 data to be collected in the West Indies would need to be supplemented 

 by fuller details regarding the papers, relating to those islands, which 

 are preserved among the Colonial Office papers in the Public Record 

 Office at London. The materials in London and the materials in the 

 islands are the necessary complements of each other. A volume so 

 composed, presenting a detailed view of the historical materials in and 

 relating to the British West Indies, would be of high value to all 

 students of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of American history; 

 for the history of the mainland colonies can not possibly be rightly 

 understood, except in connection with the island colonies associated 

 with them in the same imperial system. 



