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itself will answer many queries; it will also serve as a partial index, more complete and accurate than the rather crude typewritten guide which has been in use in the department. Copy for this description is now nearly ready for the printer, and will be pushed through the press as rapidly as the exigencies of state printing will allow.

The description will be accompanied by summarized statements covering important historical manuscript collections elsewhere in the Old Northwest and in other states adjacent to Wisconsin. This will, we feel sure, prove helpful to all persons engaged in research work among Western sources, and is intended as a tentative effort towards some measure of co-operation among the historical societies of this section.

Dunmore's War

At the annual meeting of this committee held two years ago, an offer was received from the Wisconsin Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, to publish for our society such manuscripts in our possession "as would be appropriate for the former society to assist in circulating; it being understood that the Historical Society should edit the publication, and that the expense to the Sons of the American Revolution should not exceed $500."

This offer was accepted by the committee, in behalf of our society. Consultation ensued between representatives of the two societies, it being agreed that the volume should be devoted to a selection of such papers in the Draper manuscripts as appertain to Dunmore's War (1774). This colonial war was participated in by a body of typical American borderers who a year later were utilizing their military experience in the fateful struggle with the motherland. The documents were edited by the secretary and his editorial assistant, Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph. D., and the volume issued from the press in May lasta 12 mo. of xxviii+472 pp. Apart from its historical value, the book was significant in that it was the first considerable publication directly from the Draper manu

scripts, and exhibited the character and scope of that remarkable store of material for the original study of the beginnings of the Middle West.

As the editorial work developed, it was discovered that the Draper collection was richer in the field of Dunmore's War than had been supposed. This led to an extension in the bulk of the volume beyond that at first contemplated. The Sons of the American Revolution generously rose to the situation, and ignoring their agreement to pay but $500, promptly met the printer's bill in full, for $608. They have also invited our secretary to designate other documents that may properly follow the Dunmore publication. It is probable that our large collection of George Rogers Clark papers will be chosen as fitting material for the proposed new volume.

Administrative Details

Professional Meetings

It is the policy of the society to keep in close touch with its contemporaries in the related fields of historical research and library activity, with a view to securing to our institution the benefits of modern ideals and methods. The secretary has therefore sought to have the society represented at the most important historical and library conventions of the year, and when practicable has accepted invitations to address public meetings in this and other states upon topics associated with our work.

He was present at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association held in Chicago upon December 28-30, 1904. Upon the 29th, in response to the invitation of the council of the association, he conducted a conference of representatives from state and local societies; and later was appointed by the council as chairman of a committee to report at the next meeting of the association in Baltimore upon the work and methods of such societies. The committee divided the country between them for purposes of investigation-the chairman taking the Old Northwest and the Eastern states;

Dr. Benjamin F. Shambaugh, of the Iowa society, examining into the condition of trans-Mississippi societies; and Dr. Franklin L. Riley, of the Mississippi society, into the societies of the South. A conference was held at owa City upon May 16 and 17, and it is hoped that the committee may be able to make some practical suggestions to the national body. Co-operation is greatly needed among the various state and local societies; but the subject abounds in difficulties, for the various institutions are widely apart in methods, ideals, personnelle, and resources, and many are more or less hampered by statutory limitations.

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Among the addresses made by the secretary during the year, outside of Wisconsin, were: December 5, 1904, at the banquet of the Illinois Society of Colonial Wars, at Chicago, on "The West in the Revolution;" January 5, 1905, address on The Library as a Factor in Education," at dedication of Carnegie library of Beloit College; July-August, lecture courses at the University of California, on "The Story of New France" and The History of Rocky Mountain Exploration," with public addresses on historical topics at San Francisco and San Jose; October 19, annual address before Indiana Library Association, at Muncie; October 20, address to Indianapolis public school teachers on "The Study of Local History."

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A conference of representatives of historical societies on the Pacific Slope was held at Portland during the third week of August. This was presided over by our secretary, other Eastern participants being Dr. Shambaugh, Dr. Edward G. Bourne of Yale University, and Dr. James K. Hosmer of Minneapolis. Co-operation among the Far Western societies was the keynote of the spirited and hopeful discussion, and arrangements were made for utilizing the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association as the medium thereof.

Late in September the secretary was requested by the regents of the University of California to appraise for them the famous historical library collected in San Francisco from 1862-95 by Hubert Howe Bancroft, upon which the university had acquired

an option for $150,000. He accordingly made a hurried trip to that city, and rendered a favorable report to the regents under date of October 14.' The Bancroft Library is a very considerable collection of manuscripts, books, and pamphlets, probably worth in the market fully $300,000, bearing upon Western North America from Alaska to Guatemala, with excursions into the West Indies and Brazil. It is, very naturally, richest in Californiana, but is also a notable collection upon any one of the other states and provinces within its scope. Its acquisition by the University of California would mean the opening to historical scholarship of one of the most remarkable collections of material, whether private or public, ever amassed in America.' Owing to the distance and the attendant cost, it seemed impracticable to send a staff delegate to the Portland conference of the American Library Association in July last-the first time, for many years, that our staff has not been represented. One of our curators, Mr. Henry E. Legler, was present, however, as secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, and took prominent part in the proceedings. He was elected a member of the publishing board, to succeed Prof, William I. Fletcher of Amherst College. The next meeting of the association will be held in Rhode Island.

We present herewith the usual reports of the local historical societies in Wisconsin, that have come into auxiliary relations with the state society. The new society in Sauk County, which starts off with encouraging prospects, is a welcome addition to the group.3

1 R. G. Thwaites, Report submitted to the President and Regents of the University of California upon the condition of the Bancroft Library (Berkeley, 1905).

2 The Bancroft Library was purchased by the University of California November 27, 1905.

3 In February, 1906, auxiliary societies were organized at Superior and Manitowoc, each of them under most favorable auspices.

Employes under Civil Service Law

At the last session of the legislature all institutions supported wholly or in part by the state—including our own, as trustee of the state were made amenable to the civil service system provided for by chapter 363, laws of Wisconsin for 1905. By the provisions of section 8, "the library staff in any library maintained wholly or in part at state expense" were placed in the unclassified service. Our care-taking employes engineers, janitors, messengers, and housemaids — are placed in the classified service. Pursuant to the request of the state board of civil service commissioners, the superintendent in September last filed with the secretary of said board the names of our present employes in the classified service. Subsequent appointments in this class must be made in accordance with the new regulations.

It is perhaps unnecessary, save as a matter of record, to state that the society, acting as a trustee of the commonwealth, has in its appointments always rigidly maintained the merit system; so that the new law has no other effect upon this institution than to transfer the business details of appointments to the new board.

Jolliet-Marquette Memorial at Portage

It will be remembered that on September 6, 1899, under the direction of this society, the citizens of De Pere unveiled a monument upon the site of Father Claude Allouez's Jesuit mission to the Indians, established at the lower falls of Fox River in the winter of 1671-72.

An event of similar character took place at Portage, the nineteenth of October last. Wau-Bun chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, upon that day presented to the city, with appropriate and interesting ceremonies, a monument commemorating the passage over the Fox-Wisconsin portage of Sieur Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette, on their famous voyage of discovery towards the Mississippi, in 1673. Ad

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