The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-04

Commission. etc, etc.
 In the Report of the Alabama His tory Commission (Miscellaneous Col lections of the Alabama Historical So- ciety, Vol D. 1901. pp. s7-l14, was given as full an account of the State archives as could then be compiled. That compilation was made in 1900. The lists and indica,ions there given have been materially enlarged. and
 still further eniargements are antici- pated when the collections have been thoroughly explored.
 The most interesting and valuable of the State official records are those originally preserved in the chief ex- ecutive department. and the offices of the Secrtary of State, the Auditor, the Treasurer, and the Adjutant General. These consist of correspondence re- ceived, letter-press copy books, legls- 1ative records. constitutional conven- tion records, elections, census returns. pardons. land records and maps, civil official registers, bonds, interpretations. military registers. pension records. vouchers records of Alabama troops in the Indian troubles, 1886, the Mexican War, 1S47, and the War between the States. etc, etc.
 In the 'care" enjoined. the plan of | the Department involves the assort-
 ment. arrangement, labelling, filing, in- dexing and cataloguing of the entire body of the records committed to it's custody" They are thus made easily available for use. consultation and transcription by students. lawyers. business men and others who may have occasion to consult them.
 The act of establishment provides. further, that any State, County or other official Is hereby authorized and empowered in his discretion to turn over to the Department for permanent preservation therein any official books.
 records, documents, original papers.
 newspaper files, and printed books not in current use in their ofices." Some
 rare and valuable books and files have been collected under this authorization.
 but owing to lack of space no special effort has as yet been made to syste- matically bring together the very val uable materials contemplated iu this provision.
 Library.
 In obedience to the resolution of
 your last annual meeting. that the
 Director use all possible effort and
 means in enlarging the strength and
 scope of the library of this Depart
 ment." l have added a number of rare.
 valuable and important volumes to our
 collection. Some of these have been received by donation, while others have been purchased. In order to All gaps I
 have made several purchases through the catalogues of dealers and from
 auction sales. Alabama writers have
 been prompt to respond to requests for
 copies of their works. and several per
 sons interested in our success have presented us with old volumes picked up by them. Two special collections will be described below. The Department is endeavoring in
 every way possible to foster interest
 in the literature of our section. One
 of the most common complaints of our
 Southern writers Is that our people do not buy books, Certainly all historf-
 cal books at least should be purchased
 by the Department. and without wait
 ing for a gift. have therefore uni
 formly purchased every book relating
 to the South or any part of its history.
 This includes subscription to periodi- calls In this way we encourage pub fishers as well as authors.
 Alabama Official Documents and Liter ature.
 In a general way the term Alabama | literature may be said to embrace ev- erything printed or published in Ala bama, or about Alabama, her institu- tions and her people, or written by an | Alabamian. The effort to make a full | and complete collection of such litera- ture has progressed steadily.
 Special energies have been directed to incrasing the following collections: | CD Alabama official and public docu- ments; CD municipal or local docu- ments; (D religious documents and literature; () the literature of benev- olent institutions-as of the Masons. etc; and (5) educational documents. To each class has been added several hundred items. It will not be many years until full files or collections of all classes of Alabama literature WILL be on our shelves.
 With the Curry collection of pamph-
 lets has come a large number of ofa- cial documents which will add to our early issues.
 In the Pickett collection Is a very interesting volume containing large
 number of official documents relating to the old State Bank of Alabama, col- lected by Hon. Francis Strother Lyon. Newspaper Files.
 Through the courtesy of publishers
 we continue to receive practically all current issues of the Alabama newspa- per and periodical press. The old files which have come to us this year are equal in extent and value to the acces- sions of any previous years. Although fully listed elsewhere I mention spec
 ially the receipt of the following:
 Jacksonville Republican" 1s37-1sss. g
 books; Railroad Advocate" 1S31-1s32- l book: Montgomery Weekly Mail"
 1ss2-1S70, books; Alabama State
 Journal" 1s6s-1S74. T books; The
 Montgomery Weekly Advertiser" 1s75-
 1876, 1885, 8 books; Montgomery Daily
 Advertiser" 1s73-1ss5. IS books:
 Clarke County Democrat" 1S56-ls97-
 12 books; Macon Republican" 1s4s-
 1859. books; Southern Champion"
 1s6O-1s61, 1 book: Florence Gazette"
 1S5s-1Ss3, 8 books; Kansas Constitu-
 tionalist," 1s56-1s57. book.
 Bulletin No. 8 hereinbefore referred
 to, contains list of our newspaper and
 periodical collections to September 30.
 1904.
 Curry Donation.
 It is a great pleasure to chronicle
 the presentation of the major part of
 the library of the late Dr. J L.. Nj
 Curry, consisting of about 150 bound
 volumes of pamphlets. and a large
 special collections of books on South