COMMISSION ON WESTERN HISTORY

The Harvard Commission on Western History since its inception a year ago, has been making an active effort to get in touch with sources of historical material. The collecting of such material is difficult. The following article reprinted from the Alumni Bulletin, shows however, that contributions of items of historical interest should be more readily made when the excellent facilities for their preservation in the new library are considered.

Results of Year's Work.

The result of the year's work shows, first: that there is no lack of original material which may be secured, and which, from the national view-point, would be as properly housed in the Harvard Library as in any other library in the country. The depositing of the Barlow Papers at Harvard by Judge Peter T. Barlow of New York shows that Harvard men who have cherished literary heirlooms, find a sort of genuine relief in being made acquainted with a method by which such treasures can be scientifically preserved and at the same time be opened to the world of scholarship.

Secondly, the year's work has shown that it is very difficult to interest the average business or professional man in preserving as historical material, private papers and letters which to him seem to have only a family meaning and importance. Of greater difficulty still is the task of sufficiently interesting such men in making a troublesome investigation and reconnaissance of the family vaults or attics in order to sort out and select the kind of material which may be of value.

Now, the proper spirit on the part of those having collections of letters and papers is to make such resources available to historical investigators. Often it is found that owners take a very worthy pleasure in exhibiting to friends such relics; but carefully-made photographs have almost the same value as a mere exhibit, and the handling and exposure to light, and the general exposure to utter destruction by fire is of great consequence in the case of originals.

Advantages of Depository Here.

It should be the desire of any family owning historical papers that they should be housed in a perfectly fireproof building, and, what is of almost equal consequence, that they should be in the custody of those who know how to preserve and handle manuscripts. If the material is to be placed at the disposal of students it is of no little moment that the place chosen for disposal shall be in close proximiy to as many other places of research as possible--that the lesson of this manuscript or that one may be studied in the light of collateral material, either in printed books or in manuscripts whch the students may find near enough at hand to be of immediate, practical value. There will be an unrivalled depository in the new library at Cambridge, where a document or a manuscript is so well reinforced, as it were by the proximity of such other great manuscript collections as those in Boston, Worcester, Providence, etc.

Type of Documents Wanted.

It is not always easy for people to comprehend that the ordinary accretions of the attic, in the form of family letters, old account books, diaries, pamphlets, narratives written for the information of the family, etc., have often greater historical value than formal printed accounts by secondary historians, or autographs of distinguished men. There is sometimes a failure to perceive that an officer's commission in 1750 as a higher value than a printed county history on that period. The Commission, as its name signifies, is interested mainly in getting together material relating to western history, although a vast deal of this material lies in the desks and attics in the "down East" States. The Commission has been very careful to make clear the point that it is not seeking to draw exceptional local material away from those points of which it is more interpretive, but is rather interested in securing typical material and that relating to the larger inter-state and national fields, such as material for the study of the development of western transportation and the great hegira of the Fortyniners. On the other hand, hundreds of Harvard men possess material of local interest with which they would part only in favor of their alma mater. It is of consequence that such men should be appealed to from the Harvard standpoint, and that the material they possess should be transferred from destructible quarters and the curious hands of untrained persons, and placed in the magnificent new building, to be used only by those who can use it scientifically.