picturesque description of the historical significance of these writings. It is so illustrative that I quote some passages: The news-writer rambled from coffee room to coffee room, collecting reports, squeezed himself into the Sessions House at the Old Bailey if there was an interesting trial, nay, perhaps obtained admission to the gallery of Whitehall, and noticed how the King and Duke looked. In this way he gathered materials for weekly epistles destined to enlighten some county town or some bench of rustic magistrates. Such were the sources from which the inhabitants of the largest provincial cities and the great body of the gentry and clergy, learned almost all that they knew of the history of their own time. Purchases from the Deneke collection to the extent of 76 items, embracing some rare Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing material and the "Phöbus. Ein Journal, der Kunst, 1808," 12 parts; a collection of civil war material from the J. W. Eldridge collection, containing important contemporary prints and periodicals; 43 issues of the Kelmscott press. For other notable purchases see the reports of the manuscript, music, map, print, and document divisions. Every opportunity that offered has been taken advantage of to perfect our collection of early American session laws, and considerable additions have been made during the year in the laws of Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Rhode Island, etc. A considerable portion of our current expenditure must still be for serials. Among those purchased during the past year (to mention only examples) were the "Berg- und Hüttenmännisches Jahrbuch der K. K. Bergakademien zu Loeben und Přibram und der K. Ungarischen Bergakademie zu Schemnitz;" "Gazeta de Lisboa. Historia annual, chronologia e politica do Mundo & especialmento da Europa;" "Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Botanik;" and (in a different category) a set of the Hansard's Debates of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope, 1886-1909. The scientific serials (especially transactions and proceedings of societies) which formed the Smithsonian Deposit when brought over from the Capitol showed numerous defects-missing sections, missing volumes, and even missing sets. During the past decade many of these have, with the aid of the Smithsonian authorities, been made good. In many cases the missing material had merely been temporarily withdrawn and was in the Smithsonian building. In many others, however, it had never been received even there; and in numerous cases, doubtless received there and forwarded to the Library, it had disappeared in the confusion of the collection while at the Capitol. Incessant solicitation has filled many of the gaps. (Over 1,700 fragmentary volumes were completed in 1908–9 and over 2,000 in 1909-10.) The point has now been reached where the remainder must be filled, if at all, by purchase, and the duty of the Library to prosecute this purchase is quite obvious. Lists of the desiderata (aggregating 227 printed pages) have therefore been placed with our representatives abroad and are being rapidly reported and acted upon. The notable purchases of music include, besides the Martorell Collection, 127 of the choicest items from the sale of the library of M. Weckerlin, librarian of the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique at Brussels; and the purchases of manuscripts, the Madison and the Polk papers, the William Short papers, as well as various similar groups (Clinton, Gerry, etc.), noted in the report of the Manuscripts Division. The collection of maps and atlases has been enhanced by various individual items of importance and one of great distinction, to wit, the Lafreri Atlas (1554-73). Among the reproductions received during the year have been two beautiful examples of map work, hand facsimiles of two unique originals in the Dépôt de la Marine at Paris. These are described in detail in the List of notable accessions to the Map Division forming Appendix IV of this Report. It is not primarily to purchase that we may look for the development of our collection of prints, and the only expenditure in this department has been for (1) a few representative examples of contemporary or recent etchers and engravers; (2) photographs of masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Occasions are frequent in which the owner of precious Deposits material, book, manuscript, or print, while unwilling to make a decision for the final relinquishment of it, desires, pending this decision, to place it where it will be safe (particularly from fire), fitly accommodated, administered by expert and sympathetic custodians, and made useful. If the material is "family papers," there may be an additional consideration in the confidential character of part of it, which during some interim should be distinguished from the rest and reserved from the public. The Library of Congress is in a position to aid in such problems by offering to the owners of the collections hospitality for them, pending the decision as to their final location. It does this, of course, in the hope that this decision will be in favor of itself; but that, even if not, the material will in the meantime have been preserved to history and been doing useful service here through exhibit and reference. The collections thus deposited have until this year been chiefly collections of prints (as, the Garrett and the Bradley collections) and collections of manuscript family papers. Within the past fiscal year, however, there has come to us under a similar arrangement a notable collection of printed books. It consists of the Incunabula brought together by the late Mr. John Boyd Thacher, of Albany, N. Y., and represents one of the four specialties upon which he lavished his efforts as a collector and bibliographer (the 60811-10- 3 other three being autographs, Columbiana, and the French Revolution). These efforts were directed to the acquisition of many examples of dated issues of the presses prior to the year 1500 in Europe; and of the earliest issues of the press of Mexico, Canada, and some of the other regions of the Western Hemisphere. The European Incunabula alone total 928 volumes-the one of earliest date being a Durandus (Fust and Schöffer) of 1459-and represent over 500 presses. Although the fifteenth century issues constitute, both in numbers and intrinsic importance, the major portion of the deposit, certain notable groups of related material accompanied them. Among these were numerous early products of the sixteenth century presses as well as a considerable collection of works on the history of printing and also Mr. Thacher's general bibliographical apparatus. His interest in the discovery of America is evidenced (in the deposit) by his printed material relating to Columbus and the early explorations and early cartography, including some 34 editions of Ptolemy. These groups aggregate upward of 800 volumes. The interest of such a collection for exhibit and study is obvious; and the loan of it by Mrs. Thacher to the Library is a notable compliment to it and a generous service to the public, who as students or sight-seers will benefit by the presence of the collection here.a a The extent of the possible benefit can be estimated only by an itemized exhibit of the collection in a catalogue. It may, however, be indicated in a superficial way by a comparison: The collection of incunabula formed by Gen. Rush C. Hawkins and now deposited in the Annmary Brown Memorial building at Providence, R. I., is (justly) regarded as offering as excellent an opportunity as could conveniently be found in one place for the study of early printing and the comparison of early presses. The catalogue of it (by Mr. A. W. Pollard) shows about 542 entries (including a few later than A. D. 1500 and therefore not strictly incunabula). A similar catalogue of the Thacher Collection would show about 820 incunabula proper. The Hawkins Collection includes some 80 printers (67 of them represented by 15th century imprints) not in the Thacher Collection [though of these eight, including Le Roy, Lettou, Pynson, and Wynkyn de Worde, are represented on the Library's general shelves]; but the Thacher Collection includes over 240 not in the Hawkins Collection. As against 141 places represented in the Hawkins Collection, there are 126 represented in the Thacher, as against 49 "first issues" of a first press, 35. Such a comparison takes no account of the relative importance of the particular printers or presses, the rarity of the particular issues, or the condition of the particular examples, and is in other respects unscientific. It may nevertheless be suggestive. DIVISION OF MANUSCRIPTS (From the report of the Chief, Mr. Hunt) Appendix III lists in detail the accessions of the year, including the British transcripts. The latter are accompanied by a summary description of what the Library now contains of this nature and the aids to its use. MSS: Accessions The most important accession (effective July 1, 1910) has Madison papers been the volumes of Madison papers heretofore owned by the Chicago Historical Society, the title to which has now passed to the United States. These are the greater part of the papers which were bought by the late J. C. McGuire, of Washington, from John Payne Todd, Mrs. Madison's son by her first husband, and constitute the third and only remaining group of papers left by Madison not hitherto in the government's possession, the two other groups being those which the government bought from Mrs. Madison in 1837 and 1848. After Mr. McGuire's death the papers were offered to the government by his estate, but at that time no funds could be found available for their purchase, and they were, accordingly, sold at auction in 1892, eleven volumes of them passing into the hands of an autograph dealer in New York, from whom they were bought for the Chicago Historical Society by the late Marshall Field-a timely act of generosity on his part which probably saved them from dispersion among private collections and consequent loss to historical science. It was always an embarrassment to investigators of the important periods of history which Madison's long career embraces that, while the great bulk of his papers was here, an important part of them was in Chicago, so that satisfactory study was possible only by a resort to both places. This inconvenience and the equitable claim of the national government to the papers of the Presidents were placed before the Chicago Historical Society last spring and met with cordial acquiescence on its part. A satisfactory pecuniary arrangement was made by reim |