the museum display of Staffordshire china, she has loaned four rare deep blue pieces from her own collection and a pressed glass Henry Clay cup-plate of a design rarely seen at present.

Mrs. William F. Webster of Minneapolis has given the society a number of old-fashioned dresses, fans and slippers, a piece of printed cotton portraying the state funeral of Lord Nelson, and other valuable museum objects. Perhaps the most interesting articles included in the gift are two enormous dresses of the hoop-skirt type from the Civil War period.

A satin shawl with a design depicting the St. Paul ice palace of 1887 worked in the corners is the gift of Mrs. James J. Hill.

From Miss Grace E. McKinstry of Faribault the society has received as gifts and deposits several interesting old bonnets, and bits of fine lace. She has also deposited a number of copies of early American newspapers.

Mr. Jacob Liesenfeld of Comfrey has deposited in the museum a spinning wheel for flax which was made by a local carpenter at New Ulm about 1865.

A child's vest and trousers of buckskin, heavily worked with beads, have been deposited in the museum by Mrs. Frank H. Jerrard of St. Paul. They are presumably of Sioux origin.

Mrs. William I. Nolan of Minneapolis has presented to the society a model of the Minnesota State Capitol done in cardboard and plaster of Paris by Mr. Emile Voegeli of Minneapolis. The reproduction was made for a reception of the Dome Club in honor of Mrs. J. A. O. Preus.

The iron bar and hasp from the round tower at Fort Snelling and specimens from the site of Lieutenant Pike's stockade near Little Falls are interesting gifts received from Mrs. James T. Morris of Minneapolis.

Mr. William L. Hilliard of Lengby has presented to the society for its World War collection a heavy American trench knife of the modified bolo type which was adopted by the army as the result of its Philippine operations. This weapon was used in

the World War, and its acquisition offers an opportunity for comparison with several trench knives of other types in the collection.

An interesting newspaper broadside published by the St. Paul Daily Globe on Christmas morning, 1886, which consists of sketches of St. Paul in 1853 and in 1886 and a fanciful portrayal of the city as it was expected to look in 1919, is the gift of Miss Marjorie Knowles of St. Paul.

A composite photograph of members of the Minnesota Boat Club made by Charles A. Zimmerman in 1884 or 1885, together with a key list of the subjects, is the gift of Mr. Charles P. Noyes of St. Paul.

Mr. Charles W. Brown of Lake Gervais, has presented framed enlarged photographs of Colonel and Mrs. Andrew R. Kiefer and the saddle and bridle used by the colonel during his service as commander of the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War.

Through the courtesy of Mrs. Charles C. Lyford, Mrs. Eugene A. Hendrickson of Minneapolis has given to the society enlarged photographs of her late husband, a pioneer of Ramsey County, and of her father, the late William G. Ward, who was a member of the Minnesota Senate for several terms.

Mrs. Albert C. Clausen of St. Paul has presented an oil portrait of her late husband, who, at the time of his death in April, 1921, had been secretary of the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission for twenty years.

NEWS AND COMMENT

The prospects for a national archives building in Washington appear to be brightening. The United States Bulletin Service, a publication of the Babson Institute designed principally for business executives, in an article on "Government Building" in its issue for November 15, states that, according to present plans, the first building in Washington to be considered "will be an archives shelter to provide a fireproof and centralized storage point for the valuable Government documents now scattered in various buildings around town. . . . Another objective to be reached in the archives shelter is the release of office space now utilized by the departments to store these important papers. If business men begin to take an interest in the archives problem, perhaps the records of our national and state governments will in time be cared for as efficiently as are those of the most insignificant governments of Europe.

The claim put forward recently in a French paper that the United States had never paid the purchase price of Louisiana and also owed large sums to France as a result of loans made during the American Revolution is effectively demolished by Professor Lester B. Shippee of the University of Minnesota in a communication in the Minneapolis Journal for March 29.

The department of historical research in the Carnegie Institution of Washington is collecting the material for an edition, in several volumes, of the correspondence of Andrew Jackson, to be edited by Professor John S. Bassett of Smith College, Jackson's biographer. All persons who possess letters of General Jackson or important letters to him, or who know where there are collections of his correspondence, or even single letters, would confer a favor by writing to Dr. J. F. Jameson, director of the department named, 1140 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C.

"The Political Career of Ignatius Donnelly," by John D. Hicks; "Coördination of Historical Societies Within the States, " by Joseph Schafer; and "The Internal Grain Trade of the

United States, 1860-1890, " by Louis B. Schmidt, are among the papers read at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, which was held in Washington from December 27 to 30.

Anyone seeking a clear statement of the importance of history and the historical method in modern life can find it in a pamphlet entitled Why We Study History, by Carl Russell Fish, published by the extension division of the University of Wisconsin (Madison, 1921. 10 p.).

"The Small Historical Museum, " by Frank H. Severance, secretary of the Buffalo Historical Society, in Museum Work for December, contains many valuable suggestions for the work of local historical societies.

"Jane Grey Swisshelm: Agitator," by Lester Burrell Shippee, in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review for December, is a valuable contribution to Minnesota history, for Mrs. Swisshelm edited an antislavery paper in St. Cloud from 1857 to 1862. This number of the Review contains also a survey of "Historical Activities in the Trans-Mississippi Northwest, 1919-1920," by John C. Parish, and a "Report of Inspection of the Ninth Military Department, 1819. " This report, which was made by Colonel Arthur P. Hayne, describes the posts and garrisons on and west of the Mississippi River and concludes with a dissertation on the utility of cavalry for military operations on the frontier. The March number of the Review contains Theodore C. Blegen's paper on "Cleng Peerson and Norwegian Immigration" which was read in part at the last annual meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, and a suggestive essay on "The New Northwest - the area from the Arctic Ocean to the mouth of the Missouri River and from Hudson Bay and Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains-by Orin G. Libby.

The "Importance of the West in American History" was the subject of an address by Professor Clarence W. Alvord before the history division of the Minnesota Education Association. on November 5. The sessions of the division were held in the auditorium of the Historical Building, St. Paul.

Those interested in state and local historical activities will find many useful suggestions in the Proceedings of the Indiana State History Conference held under the auspices of the Society of Indiana Pioneers in December, 1919, which have been published as number II of the Bulletins of the Indiana Historical Commission (1920, 102 p.). A second conference was held in December, 1920.

The Illinois Centennial Commission has published a report of its activities under the title The Centennial of the State of Illinois, compiled by Jessie Palmer Weber, secretary of the commission (Springfield, 1920. 489, xxiv p.). The volume contains accounts of numerous meetings and celebrations, with addresses and papers in full. Among the papers may be noted an interesting account of his experiences in editing The Centennial History of Illinois, by Clarence W. Alvord, and a scholarly article entitled "Establishing the American Colonial System in the Old Northwest," by Elbert J. Benton (pp. i-xxiv, inserted between pp. 222 and 223). The book should be useful to states contemplating similar celebrations.

The Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, a set of thirty-nine volumes published from 1877 to 1915, contain papers and original material pertaining to the history of the Northwest as a whole, especially during the French and British periods. It may interest some of the readers of this magazine, therefore, to know that any college or university or any member of the American Historical Association can obtain a set of this publication from the Michigan Historical Commission, Lansing, by paying the cost of transportation. The price to others is one dollar a volume.

The Life and Times of Stevens Thomson Mason, the Boy Governor of Michigan, by Lawton T. Hemans (Lansing, 1920. 528 p.) is a recent publication of the Michigan Historical Commission. The work is a contribution to the history of the state during the decade of the thirties.

The Daughters of the American Revolution of Michigan have started a series of historical collections with Michigan Military