Omaha daily bee., 1913-10-26

American colonies now hidden away in
the archives OF foreign governments As
II IL now, the man who wants to write
about colonial America has to go to Eu-
rope for part OF his material Within
very short time copy OF everything
in Europe will be accessible in the ma
tlonal library.
All Copied ny Hand.
asked Mr.. Hunt n all this work had
20 be copied by hand. lie replied;
The manuscripts which have come
from the British archives have all been
made I'm that way, and the arrangement
for the French archives Is the same. The
Mexican papers win be copied IN tyne
writer. and great many Of the other
archives have been photographed and sent
on in facsimile. There is considerable
doubt as 10 the advlsahility OF usinS pho
tography Many OF the documents are
bound and photography does not give
complete reproductions. Another danger
is that the photographs may fade In time,
while the ink and paper we now use In
copying will last indefinitely Another OBJ
lection to photography is that the paper
must necessarily be thicker than writing
paper. and several hundred thousand pho
tographs would be very unwieldy.'
I looked over some OF tho volumes OF
manuscript with Mr.. Hunt The most
OF them are l2xl5 inches In size. They
are made OF Manila rope paper, cut with
the grain, and are 40 bound In red mo-
rocco that they form beautiful volumes
Each volume has its own case, and the
workmanship OF inserting the manuscripts
ls cxauisiteiy beautiful. Many Of tho pa
pers come tattered and torn. They have
to 10 cleaned and covered with crepeunc'
which makes them practically indestrucu-
BILE. Each letter is mounted on separate
sheet and Il the writing is on both SIDES
OF the page II Ia on hinges. II is the
finest manuscript preparing Of the world
and Is better than that OF the vatican
which has long stood at the head as TO
the beauty OF its manuscript preserva-
ton.
only Three Great Ones.
During my chat with MIR. Hunt | asked
as TO the other great manuscript oolleo-
tons of the world. lie replied:
There are only three really great his
torical collections, that OF the British
museum In London, the Blhliotecaue
Rationale In Paris and the one we have
here. I do not know which Is the largest
but the British museum has been at the
OF collecting for more than 300 years,
while the Parislans have been working
NJ Il even longer. Our collection began
only ten years ago, and at the present
rate OF progress II will soon have q
larger and more complete collection than
they have. We shalt have more docu-
n ents relating 70 the history OF the
United states than the British have re-
lstlng to the history of England"
These papers are separate and apart
from our government archives, are they
not3"
yes. These are private papers and
letters. The official archives arc the
papers Of the government As far as
they are concerned we are lamentably
wanting. Not single department of
our government has all Of it's archives,
and not one OF them knows as to what
II has and what II has lost. An In
ventory has never been taken In
deed. there Is not country in Europe
that does not keep it's official doou-
ments In better shape than we rs
Age of Docu1aents.
What is the olHsst official document
In existencef'
ut Is not 40 very. very old People
Old not begin TO write until modern times,
and the earliest written English docu-
nient dates back only to the thirteenth
century. The first English author who
wrote was chaucer. He lived in the
fourteenth century. ard that 10 not long
ago The earliest modern official docu-
nent In any language is In the archives
at Milan. Italy. This was written on
re rchment paper about A. D. s2a by King
Ctho and Queen Agatha. There IL an
other document written Just a little later
In the archives OF Dresden. and another
In those OF Magdeburg.,"
Tell mo something about the vatican
collectioasT'
"The vatican r. a library of itself II
composed exclusively OF manuscript
that is, OF manuscript books written
mostly before the age Of printing. These
books are chiefly religious and are not