DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH.* 



J. Franklin Jameson, Director. 



The following report, the twelfth annual report rendered by the 

 present Director, covers the period from November 1, 1916, to October 

 31, 1917. No changes have occm-red in the staff of the Department 

 during the j^ear. From November to June, when he entered the 

 service of the government, the Department had the aid of Dr. James 

 A. Robertson. He had at that time completed his work upon the 

 section of the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States 

 confided to him, and deserves the expression of the Department's 

 cordial thanks for his aid. 



From the first of November until May, Dr. Frederick J. Turner, 

 professor of American history in Harvard University, was present with 

 the Department as Research Associate. His own researches during 

 that period were concerned with the economic and social development 

 of the Middle West, and were conducted partly at the offices of the 

 Department, but mainly at the Library of Congress. Once a week, 

 in lectures, he presented the results of these studies, and of long-con- 

 tinued previous researches in the same field, to the members of the staff. 

 The pleasure and profit derived from these occasions were much 

 enhanced by his private discussions, at other times, of various portions 

 of the Department's work with the members of the staff who were 

 engaged upon them, while the Director had the great advantage of 

 daily association with Professor Turner and of discussions ranging 

 over the whole field of the Department's work. 



As in previous years, acknowledgment is cordially made of the 

 favors constantly shown to the Department, with the greatest liber- 

 aUty, by the officials of the Library of Congress, and especially by 

 Dr. Herbert Putnam, the Librarian, by Dr. Gaillard Hunt, chief of 

 the Division of Manuscripts, and by Mr. P. Lee Philhps, chief of the 

 Map Division. Grateful recognition is also made of special courtesies 

 extended by the authorities of the library of Harvard University, 

 especially during the sunmaer months, to several members of the staff, 

 and by those of the hbrary of Bowdoin College. 



WORK OF THE PAST YEAR. 



REPORTS, AIDS. AND GUIDES. 



In the last annual report the Institution was stated to be on the 

 point of publishing the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Documents 

 relating to the History of the United States in the Papeles procedentes 

 de Cuba, deposited in the Archivo General de Indias at Seville," pre- 

 pared for the Department by Mr. Roscoe R. Hill, now president of the 



♦Address: 1140 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C. 



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