DEPARIMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 147 



possible under the circumstances. Like the rest of the historical 

 world, it will strive to learn all it can, respecting the uses of history 

 and the methods of its pursuit, from the grandiose and terrible events 

 through which the world is passing, to reconsider its program in the 

 light of this great conflagration, and to prepare itself to meet what- 

 ever needs historical labors of its class can supply for the new world 

 that will emerge from the great conflict. In that new world, we shall 

 be mindful, American scholarship will incur additional and pressing 

 responsibilities because of the extent to which the war will have 

 impaired or dried up all the sources from which in past times the 

 enterprises of European scholarship have been maintained. 



REPORTS. AIDS, AND GUIDES. 



Mr. Leland will do what he can toward finishing that volume of 

 his Guide to Materials in Paris which concerns manuscripts in libraries. 

 Mrs. Surrey will doubtless finish her calendar of papers in Paris 

 archives relating to the history of the Mississippi Valley. Listing some 

 25,000 documents, and indicating the contents of each, though with 

 the utmost brevity, it will make a considerable work. Dr. PauUin 

 will continue his work upon the Atlas of the Historical Geography 

 of the United States; and the inventory of American material com- 

 piled from the printed catalogues of manuscripts in European libraries 

 will probably be completed within the year. 



TEXTS. 



Miss Davenport will progress with her second volume of treaties; 

 Dr. Burnett with the third and perhaps the fourth volume of his 

 "Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress"; Mr. Stock, if 

 possible, with his Parliamentary materials; Miss Donnan with her 

 materials for the history of the African slave-trade. 



MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS. 



The Department will no doubt maintain, in 1919, activities similar 

 to those which, under this heading, have been described above in 

 that part of this report which relates to the year now closed. 



