The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-19

Copyrighted, 1918, by Frank G. Carpenter.
Washington, ID. c.
N/ITIIN the past five years some
M of the most important historical
w work ever done for this nation
has been going on in the library of Con-
gress In Washington. This is the collec-
tien of the raw material OF the history
of the United States and that of the Amer
ical colonies. 1t consists of gathering to-
gether from every available source the
private papers and letters of our Presi-
dents and our greatest statesmen. 1t in
cludes the transcribing from the archives
of foreign countries every document that
relates to the American colonies, as well
as all the material in manuscript form
that sheds light upon the true history of
the making of the American nation.
Already the manuscript division of the
library ranks among the three greatest
manuscript collections of the world. Its
papers and letters now surpass in extent
and value those of any other library or
government of Europe, excepting perhaps
the British museum in London and the
Blbliotheque Rationale in Paris. The work
so far has been in active operation for
only about five years, and the collections
are increasing SO rapidly that our division
of manuscripts will have more of such
material than any other similar collection
in the world.
Indeed, despair OF giving you an ade-
Qnate conception of the enormous amount
of material and of the admirable way
In which it is being made accessible to
the student and author. The correspond
ence, private papers and other docu-
ments already in hand are actually num-
bered by millions. There are more than
one hundred thousand letters Of the
Washington correspondence. there are
thirty or forty thousand of the private
papers and letters of Andrew Jackson,
and there are other papers of almost
every President from the time of George
Washington down to the late civil war.
There are thousands of unpublished
letters of American statesmen and poll
ticians, including the complete papers of
Alexander Hamilton. Duff Green, Salmon
p. Chase and Edwin M. Stanton. The
papers of John Sherman are here, and
those of Gideon Wees, as well as those
of General Sherman and General Nc
Clellan. There are also naval papers.
papers relating to our commercial history
and upward of 100000 foios of transcript
OF documents relating to American colon
ial history. There Is scientific correspond
ence and literary correspondence, the lat
ter including letters of the two Brownings,
Marion Crawford, Mark Twain and James
Whitcomb Riley.
The greater part of the material is new,
and as / shall show furtuer on in my
talk with Mr.. Gaillard Hunt, who is in
charge of this collection, much of 1t will
throw a new light upon history, and
the most of it has never been published.
But first let me give you some idea of
the manuscript division of the national
library 1t is in the northwest pavilion
on the second floor of the building. 1t
consists of a circular reading room about
100 feet in diameter book stacks running
off from 1t containing the hundreds of
great volumes bound in red morocco, in
which these priceless letters and papers
are SO carefully pasted. The reading room
is in the shape of a dome, with circu-
lar mahogany desk in the center, about
which those who handle the manuscripts
must sit. The arrangement is such that
the readers are never out of sight of the
chief of the division or his assistant. The
room is flooded with light, and all hand
ling of the papers is done under the
argus eyes Of the attendants. Even the
private office of Mr.. Gaillard Hunt is
surrounded by glass, and he has the
whole of the workings constantly before
him.
Around the reading room are cases
which contain a card index catalogue to
certain divisions of the collection. This
index is general one. The material is
so vast that 1t would be impossible to in
dex it In detail, and it is only by coming
here in person that the historical student
or writer can get the material for his
work.
Nevertheless, these hundreds of thou
sands of letters and papers have been
MADE wonderfully accessible, and they
are being SO cared for that from now on
they will be practically indestructible.
Come with me into tie book stacks
where the manuscripts are kept. We
are in a great room 100 feet or more
long filled with steel cases. which run