final form, reached me on April 9 (1927). Within 10 days thereafter I was able to announce that the gifts had been accepted by the Trust Fund Board, the acceptance approved by the Joint Committee on the Library, and the securities constituting the first, of them actually delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury. [The cash constituting the second was to be payable, and was paid over, on July 1, 1927.]

John D. Rocke

Two other gifts of very great moment indeed are in GIFTS: the promotion of projects-the first for the acquisition feller, jr. (in copies and facsimiles) of source material for American history, the second for the development of the bibliographic apparatus which forms the basis of our service as a bureau of information in the aid of research. They are from Mr. John D. Rockefeller, jr., whose interest in libraries and the service which they perform had already been evidenced by large contributions, among them of $3,000,000 to the New York Public Library; of $1,600,000 for the rebuilding of the library of the University of Tokyo, destroyed by earthquake; and, more recently, of $2,000,000 to be used for building, equipping, and endowing a library for the League of Nations in Geneva.

The gifts to us are in the form of an assurance that during the next five years we may draw upon him within each year up to a certain limit in the interest of each project. In the case of American history the limit is $50,000 for the first year and $100,000 during each of the succeeding four years. For the enlargement of the bibliographic apparatus the limit is $50,000 for each of the five years. The formal letter of assurance from his representative in such matters is dated May 25, 1927. The period was initiated September 1, and the operations involved are now under way. [As, however, they come within the present fiscal year and not the past one, they are beyond the scope of the present report.] Constituting, not an endowment, but sums of money available in installments for "immediate application," these gifts are not a concern of the Trust Fund Board, but under section 4 of the act are deposited with the Treasurer of

68025 27- -2

GIFTS:

John D. Rockefeller, jr.

the United States, subject to disbursement by me for the purposes specified.

The significance of the purposes will be especially apparent to those who will benefit by the results-in the case of American history, the historian and student of history; in the case of the "apparatus," the librarian, the bibliographer, and the research investigator.

Mr. Rockefeller does not give merely upon impulse; and his decision for these gifts was reached only after an investigation by his experts extending over a year—an investigation which disclosed (1) that in the case of each project work had already been initiated here which sufficed as a demonstration, but also (2) that only by the application of resources more substantial than could be expected from the Public Treasury could this work expand into a dimension of large general utility. In each case, therefore, the contribution might effect results different not merely in degree but in kind from those in prospect through governmental resources alone.

The original sources-in our manuscript division-for the study of American history surpass those in any other single collection. For years past we have been supplementing these by the acquisition of copies (transcript or facsimile) of originals in other libraries and archive offices. But the amounts that could be assigned to the purpose, out of our appropriation for the general increase of the Library, were negligible in comparison with the huge mass of the material desirable. Mr. Wilbur's endowment is applicable; but of the income from it only a fraction 1 is as yet available. The resources provided by Mr. Rockefeller will enable us so to expand the organization and equipment as to assure the presence. here, at the end of five years, of a collection of substantive sources for American history such as has its parallel only in the collections at Ottawa for the history of Canada. The five years will, of course, not complete the work-the mass to be sought is too prodigious; but it should provide rich quarry for the immediate generation of historians.

1

1 Until recently the fraction was one-seventh ($1,000) of the annual income. In October (1927) Mr. Wilbur announced that beginning Jan. 1, 1928, it will be three-sevenths.

With this prospect, added to our existing material and equipment, and the increasing recognition of, and recourse to it, by historians and students of history, the National Library is likely to become not merely a center for historical studies, but the center within the United States. It is the more important that the "chair" of American history provided by Mr. Benjamin shall have an occupant qualified to promote such studies, as well as to aid in the further development of the collections in their interest. In stating that its initial occupant is to be Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, I need add nothing of assurance to those aware of his repute as an historian, his experience as a teacher, his familiarity with historical method and historical sources, and his promotion of historical studies as managing editor of the American Historical Review and as director for the past 22 years of the Department of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution. He will take office at some date before July 1st (1928).

In the meantime the general charge of the work in the field, especially abroad, in the acquisition of the source material for history has been intrusted to a competent historian and executive, Prof. Samuel F. Bemis, who has secured a two years' leave of absence from George Washington University for the purpose.

I must not defer acknowledgment of the courtesy of the authorities of the British Museum in assigning to us a special room for the accommodation of our photostat work there; and of the liberality of Mr. James B. Wilbur (a member of our Trust Fund Board) in meeting personally the cost of a complete photostat outfit and installation for that work and in offering the gift of a similar equipment for a room we expect to be assigned at the Record Office, a further fine contribution by him to our resources for service, which, as noted on the preceding page, he has also enhanced by enlarging the fraction of the income from his endowment applicable to Library

uses.

Dr. J. Franklin Jameson.

apparatus.

The "apparatus" within the purpose of Mr. Rocke-Bibliographic feller's gift is not the ordinary catalogues of our own collections, which are part of the routine, and the proper

Bibliographic apparatus.

care of the Government itself. It is a body of records auxiliary to these, which may aid us to inform a librarian, a bibliographer, or a research investigator

(1) As to what material (literature) exists.

(2) As to where, especially within the United States and therefore within reach, a copy or copies of it may be had.

The main such record will be a union catalogue, on cards, of the contents of other American libraries possessing material important to research. Such a catalogue has already been initiated here, whose utility (within its scope) has already been demonstrated by its disclosure of the existence in a few other American libraries (Harvard, the Boston Public, the New York Public, the John Crerar of Chicago, and some at Washington) of many an unusual book not in the Library of Congress. But though it contains over 2,000,000 cards, these do not represent a like number of different titles; and they cover only a fraction of the books existing in even those few other collections.

The reorganization and amplification of it into a selective" repertorium " of the research libraries of the United States will be the aim. Then, auxiliary to it, various particular records, including one descriptive of the “special collections "-i. e., collections highly specialized in a particular field, existing in American libraries, private (so far as feasible) as well as public.

The undertaking can only in part be carried on within our walls. It will involve much work "in the field "-work in which we shall doubtless have cooperation from the libraries whose collections are involved.

Upon the possible utility of the results I will not dilate. A forecast of them is in the experience already had of the necessity of such apparatus in our informational service. They would be appreciated by any serious investigator who at some crisis of an investigation has been halted because of the lack of a particular book, or information as to where it may be had. That they were appreciated by Mr. Rockefeller's advisers was doubtless due to their familiarity with the problems and needs of research. That the furtherance of them in this large way

should have appealed to Mr. Rockefeller himself is a remarkable token of his interest in promoting the substantial rather than the merely "spectacular," for there

is nothing popularly spectacular in the mere apparatus of bibliography.

The whole subject of benefactions: their history, their Benefactions. various types, their various objects, and the machinery provided for effecting them, deserves methodic study. Especially useful would be a comparative record of those which have been permanently successful, as against those whose intent has been frustrated because of defects in expression, in method, or in mechanism. Material for such a study largely exists in our collections, but it needs to be drawn off, organized, and supplemented. Beginning last May for a brief period a small sum (at first $100 a month) was placed in my hands to be applied to this undertaking. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, considers that a well-organized such collection here would be a valuable source not merely for study, but for the actual guidance of persons contemplating benefactions; and thus itself form a contribution to social welfare. He hopes to interest others in the formation of a fund to constitute an endowment in furtherance of it and of interpretive service in connection with it.

My last report mentioned a gift of $1,000 from the Beethoven Association of New York, to be applied to the acquisition of some autograph score of an appropriate type. As related below (under "Music division ") it was actually applied toward the purchase, at an auction in Berlin, of the autograph score of Schumann's "Spring Symphony." This disposition of it was so satisfactory to the donor that an additional $500 has been voted to us for similar application.

Beethoven. As sociation.

Archer M. Hunt

As this report goes to press an offer has come to us ENDOWMENT: of an endowment not merely generous in amount ington. ($100,000) but so unusual in its provisions that though the formal procedure of acceptance is not yet (November 15) completed, I can not omit mention of it here. It is from Mr. Archer M. Huntington, of New York, and is