With the establishment of the Wisconsin Magazine of History it is no longer necessary, as it has been for upwards of a generation, to print historical contributions and discussions in the annual volume known as the Proceedings of the Society. Shorn of this supplementary historical matter, the official report of the activities of the Society and its auxiliaries for 1917 shrinks to a document of less than 100 pages. Copy for this was sent to the state printer in January. Should the Magazine prove, on sufficient trial, to justify the continuance of its existence, the scope and character of the contents of the Proceedings for 1917 will set the standard, presumably, for the issues of succeeding years.
A brief statement concerning four important editorial enterprises now being prosecuted may be in order. Work on the series of volumes designed to constitute a documentary history of Wisconsin’s constitution, which has been prosecuted intermittently by the Superintendent for the past two years, has now reached a stage where it seems likely that copy for one volume can be sent to the printer before the close of the Society’s present fiscal year. Probably four volumes will be requisite to complete the series. After the editing of the first one shall have been completed, the remaining ones may be expected to follow in fairly rapid order. Work on the second volume of the Draper Calendar series, mention of which was made in the Magazine for September, 1917, has progressed haltingly, due to the war-time disruption of the office staff. It now seems safe to predict that the copy will be ready for the printer by the end of the month. The other enterprises alluded to were both
initiated in the autumn of 1917. Dr. Kellogg began work at that time on the preparation of a volume of source material pertaining to the Indian treaties and land cessions which are of more particular interest to Wisconsin. This project has long been in mind, but its execution was necessarily deferred until the search for documents in the Indian Office Files, begun three years ago, should be completed. Dr. Oliver began in September the editing of a volume of source material in the Society’s manuscript collection pertaining to Wisconsin’s activities in the Civil War. With this volume will be initiated a Civil War series of the Collections which will in time, it is hoped, run to many volumes.
A note may be inserted here concerning three items of lesser scope and importance than the foregoing, all of them bibliographical in character. A trenchant and thoroughgoing report on the state archives situation in Wisconsin, prepared for the Society by Mr. Theodore Blegen in the summer of 1917, was sent to the printer early in the winter. Copy for a supplementary checklist of the collection of newspapers in the Historical Library to list the accessions from the time of publication in 1911 of the Society’s monumental Annotated Catalogue of Newspaper Files down to January 1, 1918, has been under preparation for more than a year. It has at length been sent to the printer, and will appear in due time as one of the Society’s Bulletins of Information. Taken in conjunction with the Annotated Catalogue, this bulletin will afford a complete index to the Society’s splendid collection of newspapers, the second largest, it is believed, in America. It is hoped that in the future, annual supplements of the previous year’s accumulations may be issued in connection with the annual checklist of Periodicals and Newspapers Currently Received by the Library. In February, 1917, the Society began the publication of a monthly Checklist of Wisconsin Public Documents the contents of each number pertaining to the state documents issued during the preceding month. This publication has proved of much usefulness, apparently, and is in widespread demand by librarians, students of the social sciences, and governmental departments. A cumulative checklist of all state documents issued during the year 1917 has been prepared and will be issued as soon as practicable.
The project for the initial volume of the Society’s Hollister Pharmaceutical Series, made possible by the bequest of the late Colonel and Mrs. Hollister of Madison, has at length assumed definite and, it is believed, interesting form. According to the original plan, Dr. Edward Kremers of the University Pharmacy Department undertook to translate and edit for the Society Pierre Jartu’s notable treatise on the ginseng plant. In the course of the work this project
has gradually enlarged until now, with the coöperation of Dr. Richtmann, it is proposed to prepare a comprehensive treatise of the several aspects, pharmaceutical, commercial, and otherwise, of the history of ginseng. Such a volume should worthily initiate this unique scientific series for which the Society has long been planning.
Colonel John Hicks of Oshkosh, publisher of the Daily Northwestern and one of the best known newspaper men in Wisconsin, died suddenly at San Antonio, Texas, December 20, 1917. Colonel Hicks was much interested in Wisconsin history, in the making of which he had been for fifty years an active participant. At the time of his death, he was engaged in writing his reminiscences for publication in the Northwestern, and within a few days of his demise had taken up with the State Historical Society the question of possible publication by it of his reminiscences in book form. As a result of Colonel Hick’s public beneficence, statues of Chief Oshkosh and of Carl Schurz adorn his home city, while in several of the public schools are bronze busts of prominent Americans for whom the buildings are severally named.
Mr. William H. Ellsworth of Milwaukee, one of Wisconsin’s best known archeological collectors, died November 6, 1917. At the time of his death Mr. Ellsworth was vice president of the Wisconsin Archeological Society. To the work of that institution he had devoted a large part of his time and means. Valuable archeological collections made by him are found in the museums of Beloit College, in the Minnesota Historical Society, and in the Milwaukee Public Museum.
John F. Appleby, inventor of the Appleby twine binder, died at his home in Chicago, November 8, 1917. Mr. Appleby was one of the notable Wisconsin inventors who have contributed materially to the scientific and economic development of the country. During the decade of the fifties, when the great West was unfolding its agricultural riches, the farmers suddenly realized that the only limitation upon the amount of their wheat acreage was their ability to harvest the crop. The McCormick reaper had already made its appearance, but it served only to cut the grain, leaving it lying loose upon the ground to be bound by hand. Some device for holding the grain and binding it into sheaves was essential before the wheat acreage of the West could be materially increased. After years of experimentation in a little shop in Beloit, Appleby announced the construction of a mechanical twine binder. The original model of his invention, which is substantially identical with the device now in use on scores of thousands of farms in America and abroad, may be seen in the museum of the State Historical Society at Madison.
Mr. Christian Abrahamson, of Chicago, has recently painted a portrait of former Supreme Court Judge J. E. Dodge, of Milwaukee, for presentation to the State Historical Society. A replica of the portrait has also been prepared for the Supreme Court room in the Capitol.