Guide to the Manuscript Materials for the History of the United States to 1783, in the British PREFACES The present volume is part of a series, in which the Carnegie Institution of Washington proposes to present inventories guiding the student of American history to such manuscript materials as are to be found in the archives and libraries of foreign countries. The previous issues in the same series have been Mr. L. M. Pérez's Guide to the Materials for American History in Cuban Archives, and Professor W. R. Shepherd's Guide to the Materials for the History of the United States in Spanish Archives (Simancas, the Archivo Historico Nacional, and Seville). The next archives to be dealt with in similar volumes are those of Paris, Mexico and Rome. The project of a comprehensive and detailed Guide to the Manuscript Materials for American History in London Repositories antedates the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In the belief that such a manual would be a boon to many workers in the history of the United States the writer of these lines began in 1899 to plan for it and to attempt to bring it into existence. The American Antiquarian Society was approached, with a view to persuade it to use for the preparation of such a book the income of one of its funds. At a meeting of the council of that society in October, 1900, an appropriation was made, and the society's committee of publication was authorized to proceed. The plan then in mind contemplated three forms of entry under each subdivision of each archive-e. g., of the Public Record Office. First, the body of original papers composing that section should be described, with special reference to the question, what it contained for American history. Secondly, there should be a list of transcripts, made from documents in that section, which were to be found in American archives and libraries. Thirdly, there should be a list of references to documents from that section which had anywhere been put into print. This last portion was first provided for by the society, and the data for the desired list were searched for and noted by Miss Gertrude S. Kimball of Providence. It had at first been planned that the portion of the volume which would have to be made in London, corresponding to the first of the three sorts of material noted above, might be prepared by a competent official of the Public Record Office. This proving impracticable, endeavors were made, and successfully, to enlist for the project the services of Professor Charles M. Andrews, then of Bryn Mawr College, who had already spent much time in London archives, and was preparing to spend the ensuing year in further investigations in England on his own behalf. A few months after this, however, the Advisory Committee on History appointed by the Trustees of the Carnegie Institution urged, as one of the JUL 11 1975 398996 |