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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

Polk papers

Eustis papers

bursing the society for the original outlay on the papers, and they were transferred to the Library on July 1, 1910. The eleven volumes average one hundred folios each, but many of the folios contain two or more of Madison's microscopic drafts of his letters. Eight of the volumes are of letters of Madison, 1780-1835; one is of letters to Madison from Joseph Jones, 1780-1804; one from Edmund Randolph, 1781-1812; and one from John Armstrong, 1804-1814. Added to the Madison papers already in the Library, the whole collection is now brought up to 91 volumes, making it one of the most comprehensive in the possession of the government. Mr. Frederick B. McGuire, one of the original owners of the papers, has given the Library the manuscript catalogue of the papers, as well as a printed copy of the catalogue. This will facilitate reference to the papers immediately and be of material assistance in preparing a complete calendar in the near future.

Hardly less gratifying than its action with reference to the Madison manuscripts was the transfer by the Chicago Historical Society of the papers of James K. Polk, which it had acquired in 1901. These constitute 24 volumes of Polk's Diary and a miscellaneous collection of about 450 letters to and from him. In 1903 this Library acquired the main Polk collection, estimated at 10,500 documents, and one volume of the Diary. The propriety of coalescing the Chicago Historical Society's collection with that of the government appealed promptly to the society, and the transfer was effected under arrangements similar to those observed in the case of the Madison papers.

During the year the manuscript collections have benefited by several notable gifts:

Mrs. Anna Parker Pruyn, of Albany, the widow of the Hon. John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, LL. D., in the course of her life collected about 500 letters to and from her great uncle, William Eustis, of Massachusetts. Soon

after her death, on October 7, 1909, her daughters, Mrs. Eustis papers William Gorham Rice, of Albany, N. Y., and Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin, of Boston, Mass., agreed to deposit the collection with the Library for the use of students under its rules. An important accession to the Library's historical manuscripts has thus been gained from a most gratifying source, for Mrs. Pruyn's activities in collecting were well known, and the Library takes satisfaction in adding her name to the list of those who have enriched its stores.

William Eustis was born in Cambridge, Mass., June 10, 1753, graduated at Harvard, and was a pupil of Dr. Joseph Warren before the Revolution. He entered the army in 1775 as surgeon in Knox's regiment, and served till the end of the war, being hospital physician and surgeon from 1780. After he left the army, he was much engaged in political and diplomatic affairs, but he retained a high rank in medicine, as the letters in this collection show-one in particular, dated New Rochelle, N. Y., October 8, 1808, being from Theodosia Burr Allston, the gifted daughter of Aaron Burr, in which she says: "You are my oracle, my 'magnus Apollo' the bare idea of being under your care raises my spirits and relieves me from all doubt and suspense."

Doctor Eustis embraced the Republican creed in politics and was a staunch follower of Jefferson and Madison, and many of the letters throw interesting light upon the progress of political affairs in Massachusetts. On March 7, 1809, he became Secretary of War in Madison's Cabinet. When the war of 1812 was precipitated the equipment of the War Department was totally inadequate to the task of managing an army which had suddenly been enlarged to a war basis, but no increase in the department force was provided for by Congress. Doctor Eustis resigned December 3, 1812, but the President's confidence in him remained unimpaired, and in 1814 he was appointed this country's representative at The Hague. In 1818 Doctor Eustis returned to the

United States. He was in Congress in 1821 for the second time, and in 1823 was elected governor of Massachusetts. He died in Boston, February 6, 1825.

His papers, collected by Mrs. Pruyn, extend over a period of nearly fifty years, from 1775, soon after he entered the Revolutionary army, to 1823. Among the papers written by him are: A letter to his medical preceptor, Dr. Joseph Warren, in 1775; his rules for business in the office of the Secretary of War; many of his military instructions while he was Secretary of War, and of his official despatches to the Secretary of State when he was minister at The Hague; and private and political letters up to the time he became governor of Massachusetts, in 1823. Of the letters addressed to him, a few groups may be mentioned: Those from John Quincy Adams, before and while he was Secretary of State, relative to political and diplomatic affairs; thirty-one letters from Sylvanus Bourne, 1813-1817, relative to American diplomatic and consular affairs in the Netherlands; several from Richard Cutts, 1814, relative to political affairs; from Samuel Dana, 1814, on political and financial subjects; nineteen from Gen. Henry Dearborn, 1802-1815, on political and military subjects; a number from Alexander Hill Everett, 1816-1819, about politics in Europe; seven from Albert Gallatin, 1802-1817, on diplomatic and personal subjects; several from George Joy, 1815-1818, dealing with personal and diplomatic questions; from Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, 17821803, relative to the Medical Department of the army in the Revolution and political affairs; from Levi Lincoln, 18031820, on national and local political conditions; from Mrs. Madison, 1815, on personal subjects; from Samuel Latham Mitchill, 1805-1817, on political questions; from James Monroe, 1815-16, official instructions; from Baron de Nagell, 1815-1818, on personal and diplomatic questions; from William North, 1802-1816, on personal and political subjects; from Robert Smith, 1803-1808, on official subjects; from

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