Jeffrey Chaucer, Knight... The Miller's tale and the Wife of Bath," London, W. Goodbid, 1665, first edition; John Dryden's "The Vindication," London, printed for Jacob Tonson, 1683, first edition; George Herbert's "Jacula prudentum, or Outlandish proverbs, sentences, &c.," London, T. Maxey for T. Garthwait, 1651, the second edition; the translation by Francis Hickes of "Certaine select dialogues of Lucian," Oxford, William Turner, 1634, first edition; and John Singleton's "Description of the WestIndies," London, printed for T. Becket, 1776, first edition. The author of the last named is otherwise known as a member of the first regular theatrical company that came to America. books for children Interesting examples of writings that served for the Old-fashioned instruction or diversion of young people in America a hundred years ago or more are afforded by a collection that was secured of old-fashioned books for children. Most of the volumes are of the early nineteenth century, while some are of the latter part of the eighteenth century. Often of diminutive size, perhaps never provided with covers, or else provided with covers of wood, or of wall papers of various hues, or of cloth of sober tint, illustrated with cuts of type metal, or wood, or copperplate, the pictures sometimes in color, these books are quaint both in appearance and content. They are, however, among the antecedents of a real literature for children and have value as well in the history of education. Also, with these books, are several of the earliest periodicals intended for children. The collection as a whole contains about 200 titles. The following editions of the New England Primer have been added: Boston, Thomas Hall, 1795; New England, printed for the purchaser, circa 1798; Boston, Manning and Loring, circa 1803; Massachusetts, printed for the purchaser 1812; Haverill, 1812; Concord, N. H., 1813; Norwich, Conn., 1816; Amherst, 1823. PURCHASES. Writings relating to American history have, as usual, received special attention. Manuscripts essential to the study of the Indian languages Indian lan- of Mexico and Central America are now available in the guages of Mexico and Central America Library in reproduction, and will be further increased in number and kind, through arrangement that has been made with the archaeologist and philologist, Mr. William Gates, of Baltimore, for photographic copies of items in his own collection lacking in ours. A few early printed books of rare imprint, similar in nature and content to the manuscripts, have been furnished with them, likewise in photographic reproduction. The acquisition, however, is almost wholly, if not quite exclusively, one of manuscripts in facsimile. These manuscripts, written mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in different Indian languages and dialects of Central America and Mexico, comprise dictionaries, vocabularies, grammars, or other linguistic dissertations, when essays of the kind have been found to exist, calendars, compendiums, discourses, sermons, treatises on doctrine, and other treatises, and, in addition, a miscellany of writings of various kinds, the whole affording a wealth of source material for a knowledge of native American languages, giving notable strength and significance to the Library's resources in that field. These manuscripts, dealing frequently as they do with matters of doctrine, are written, as has just been remarked, in native Indian languages. Through the sixteenth century press in Mexico the language and religion of the Spanish conquerors were spread in the regions of their conquest by use of the printed page. The "Doctrina breue' of Zumárraga served that twofold purpose. A copy of this rare book is now ours. Written by the first bishop of Mexico for the instruction of Indians in the Christian faith, it is one of the earliest of the productions of the first press on the American continent, having been issued in the City of Mexico in 1544 by the Casa de Cromberger, a branch of the famous Cromberger press in Seville, 96 years before the appearance of printing in the English colonies, in the issue of the Bay Psalm Book at Cambridge, in Massachusetts. Somewhat later than the "Doctrina breue" of Zumárraga, but still antedating any English settlement, and so any English press in America, is the "Advertencias. Para los confessores de los naturales," of Fray Juan Baptista, printed by Ocharte in the City of Mexico in 1600-1601, a copy of which has now come to us. The author was a Franciscan monk, whose family name remains unknown and who was born in New Spain-that is, in Mexico-in 1555. The text of the book is in two parts, and it is written in Spanish, Latin, and native languages. A third part, which the book was to have contained, was never published. Series" Subscription to the "Americana Series" of the Massachu- "Americana setts Historical Society has secured for us photographic reproductions of printed rarities of American history existing only in a single known copy, or, if in a larger number, these so located as to make their reappearance on the market improbable. Over a score of such reproductions have already reached us. Other additions of Americana, too numerous to detail, have included about 100 early American almanacs, enriching our already considerable collection. Additions to our collections on the European war have War material been so various in kind and so many numerically that within the restricted limits of this report it is possible to present only a summary of them. Publications relating to American participation when not reaching us by copyright have been purchased as they have appeared. Through the considerate action of branches of the United States Government certain official issues that would not reach us in normal course were added documents, maps, transcripts, all source material. Books and pamphlets in European languages, published in PURCHASES: both warring and neutral countries, have come to us en bloc in several collections of considerable dimensions. They include not only writings on military operations, but, more especially, writings on economic aspects of the war and reconstruction. To them have been added books purchased singly, and the volumes that were acquired and made a part of the loan to the American commission to negotiate peace. Among other accessions were volumes transferred from the State Department, and General Staff College, many of them, in particular, dealing with various racial, political, statistical, and geographical considerations. Besides this material and besides the body of foreign official documentary material that has been obtained, we have made important additions to our files of European newspapers for the war period and supplemented purchases of this character by the acquisition of the collection of newspapers made by the National Board for Historical Service. The Library has also added a collection of German "Kriegszeitungen," a representation of other army, camp, and trench papers, sets of drawings by different artists, broadsides and posters, including special lots issued in connection with the outbreaks in Berlin and Munich, and a number of fugitive pieces interesting for the light they give on conditions that existed. Specimens have likewise been obtained of German emergency currency. Acquisition of material relating to the peace conference has had special attention. Any elaborate statement regarding the collections now possessed relating to the war and the events that followed would, however, be a matter for a special report. In the meantime it may be noted that different areas are represented in our war collections in varying degrees. This is due in part to conditions that have existed, and that to some extent still exist, and due in part to other reasons that it has been necessary to take into account in dealing with the problem of selection from a literature no less than prodigious. Material published in the United States is here in the strength that would be expected. We are also strong in publications from Great Britain and France. From Germany we have an exceptional lot of newspaper files, and otherwise material of significance, giving us perhaps at least fair representation. From Austria we have very little, and from Turkey and Bulgaria only negligible returns. Russia and the Baltic regions have been closed to us. Transportation difficulties have been a continued embarrassment in the endeavor to obtain publications from Poland. The number in our possession of the official and other issues of the press in Czechoslovakia and Jugo-Slavia, relating to the creation of these two new States, is small. Practically nothing is here from the southern Balkan countries. From Italy we have a fair representation of official publications, but little else. Portugal and Spain are poorly represented. As to Holland we are better off, and we have a still better representation from the Scandinavian countries. Outside of the United States and Europe we are rather better off in British colonial documents than in other material, with the exception of a fair representation of Japanese documentary material. Australia is, or soon will be, fairly well represented. From Canada we have a considerable number of publications, documentary and private; from Central and South America a moderate representation of publications, mainly documentary. In supplementing the collections already made we shall have much of significance to obtain. But we shall not endeavor to get "everything" on the war. That is not feasible. It is an administrative problem whether we should even endeavor to find space to house an "International Bibliography of the War," which has been initiated, to which cards are to be added at a minimum rate of 1,000 a week for a period of time which can not now be estimated. In face of the tremendous masses of printed material that |