issues. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, are now being listed for publication by the Society. South Carolina has been done recently for the Historical Society of that State, and it is expected that arrangements can be made for the intervening states.

The bibliographical lists of almanacs ought to be followed by another series of studies of the work of the individual almanac-makers. Mr. Paltsits began such a series in the Society's Proceedings by his paper on Roger Sherman. Nathaniel Ames and Robert B. Thomas are the subjects of published volumes.

Hidden within these old almanacs is a long chapter, as yet unwritten, of the history of American science, an almost unknown but very illuminating story of the commercial development of colonial printing, and as Professor Kittredge has shown, more entertaining and not less important contributions to what is known about the extension of folk-lore and popular superstitions in this country, and the spread of religious ideas. The Proceedings of this Society should be the most natural place in which to look for information upon these and every other subject associated with the early almanacs.

The foresight of Dr. Nichols placed the Society some years ago in the leading position among collectors of American almanacs. He has strengthened this position whenever opportunity offered, and it is now so secure that it will be easy to maintain its pre-eminence. Strong as it is, the Library contains only forty-two of the sixty-five almanacs which are known to have been issued in Massachusetts before the year 1700. A few of the remaining twenty-three will undoubtedly find their way into this collection in the course of time, but students who want to consult them in Worcester cannot wait upon this chance possibility. Dr. Nichols has, therefore, undertaken to secure photographic copies of each of the issues needed to make the Society's set complete. Thirteen of these have already been obtained, and arrangements

are being made which it is expected will eventually secure the facsimiles of the others.

The photographic reproduction of colonial newspapers is a much more difficult undertaking. A beginning was made in 1898 by the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, which published the first three volumes of the American Weekly Mercury, for 1719-21.

Within the past year the John Carter Brown Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society have undertaken to reproduce by the photostat machine the earliest Newport and Boston newspapers. The eleven issues of the Rhode Island Gazette of 1732 were easily handled, but the copying of 700 numbers, usually of four pages each, of the Newport Mercury, dated between 1758 and 1776, was a difficult undertaking, which has been very nearly completed.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has likewise supplied a set of reproductions of the Boston NewsLetter for the years 1704-08, made from the nearly complete file belonging to the New York Historical Society. Two issues of these years, which were not to be found in that or any other library, were supplied from the collections of this Society, which will also be able to supply twelve other numbers not known to exist elsewhere, to complete the facsimile files of the ensuing ten years.

The Antiquarian Society benefits more than the other subscribing libraries which secure these facsimile newspaper files, in proportion as it has more newspapers altogether than the other institutions. It ought to benefit more than it does. If it is to secure the utmost advantage from the remarkable collections made by Isaiah Thomas and his successors, the Society must not let any other institution take the lead in any movement for utilizing newspaper material. The library building at Worcester ought to become the recognized center, the clearing house for every sort of information regarding American newspapers. The work of making photographic reproductions must be

done in most cases in the place where the papers belong. This Society might very properly and advantageously offer to undertake the task of distribution, and the general business management of every co-operative scheme of this character.

A number of plans for reproducing files of colonial papers are now under consideration. In each case the idea is that from six to ten libraries will agree to share the expense, paying a price for the reproductions based upon the actual cost to the library doing the work. A certain amount of conflict, and very likely a production in excess of the financial convenience of the supporting institutions, is likely to result unless someone, somewhere, will undertake to assume a general advisory control over these various schemes. It belongs to this Society to do this. There is more information concerning the location of individual issues in the Society's possession than anywhere else and all such information ought to be centralized at its building. If this work is not taken up actively, it will either be done haphazard, and in a dozen different centers, or some other institution will undertake to do it, and secure the credit to which the Antiquarian Society has properly a first claim.

GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP,

For the Council.

OBITUARIES.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Charles Francis Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on May 27, 1835, was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in October, 1891, and was elected Secretary for Domestic Correspondence in 1895. He has made the following contributions to the Proceedings: "Battle of Bunker Hill from a Strategic Point of View," October, 1895, "The Confederacy and the Transvaal, a People's Obligation to Robert E. Lee, (1865-1900)," October, 1901, "Address upon the laying of the Corner Stone of the new building," October, 1909. "Correspondence of John Quincy Adams, 1811-14," edited by C. F. Adams, April, 1913.

Mr. Adams died at his house in Washington, March 20, 1915, in the eightieth year of his age. Funeral services were held at the Stone Church, Quincy, on Tuesday, March 23, where his great grandfather and grandfather are buried.

He was graduated from Harvard College in 1856; spent two years in the Harvard Law School, and was for some time in the office of Rufus Choate. He was admitted to the bar in 1858, but never practiced. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he obtained a commission in the First Massachusetts Cavalry. In the last year of the War, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, and entered Richmond at the head of his regiment on April 9, 1865. He was subsequently brevetted Brig

adier-General. After the War, he devoted himself to the study of railroading and published many papers on this subject, among them "Chapters on Erie" in which he recommended government supervision of railroads. Among other things he said: "Finally, a responsible department of the Executive should have charge of the subject, and should be empowered to decide as to the amounts of private capital directly or indirectly paid into construction, and authorize the issue of securities accordingly." This was twenty years before the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission, which does not yet possess the power which Mr. Adams thought it should exercise. From 1869 to 1879, Mr. Adams served on the Massachusetts Railroad Commission, the first in the United States, and was its chairman for seven years. He became president of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1884, and continued in that office for six years.

He was always a student of history, particularly that of New England, and has written many essays and monographs on historical and economic subjects; also a biography of his father and of Richard H. Dana.

He served as Overseer of Harvard University from 1882 to 1894, and from 1895 to 1907. In 1895 he received the degree of LL. D., and in 1899 he was President of the Alumni Association.

Of his characteristics, President Eliot said:

"Charles Francis Adams was not naturally inclined to respect precedents, or to imitate in his own mental processes the methods of other men. He was always independent, and sometimes recalcitrant. No wisdom. of the ages, or of the multitude, necessarily commanded his respect. He was by nature inclined to believe that long-established practices of governments, institutions of education, and financial or industrial organizations were likely to be wrong, or at least capable of great improvement. Thus, he testified in his Phi Beta Kappa address of 1883, twenty-seven years after his graduation at Harvard College, that he should