From Mr. Thomas Wilson of Black Earth, Civil War soldier in the Twelfth Wisconsin Regiment, a collection of sixty or more tintypes of members of his company taken at Memphis, has been received. Mr. Wilson also gave to the Society an army overcoat worn by himself and an officer’s sword and sash worn by his brother, Captain Francis Wilson.
Two Spanish War mementos have been deposited in the museum by Miss A. C. Anderson of Madison. One is a Spanish flag taken from the custom house at Santiago by members of Company A, Second U. S. Cavalry, when the city was captured in 1898. The other is a Moro flag captured in the Philippines by the same company.
The class of 1897, University of Wisconsin, has given a three-inch shrapnel shell, properly cross-sectioned, of the type now in use by the Allies in the European War.
By the will of the late W. W. Warner of Madison the Society has received a collection of Indian stone and other implements, and an elaborate Swiss music box. The latter is reputed to be the finest instrument of its kind in the Northwest.
During the current year especial efforts have been devoted to developing the Society’s collection of newspapers. As a result the list of papers currently received at the library covers in a general way every section of the United States and more intensively the middle-western section more immediately tributary to the library. If this policy can be adhered to permanently, future generations of students who come to consult the library will find a much more comprehensive and logically ordered collection of newspapers than do those of the present time.
Along with this reaching out for current issues, the library continues, slowly but persistently, to add to its files of old newspapers. The more important non-current newspaper accessions in the nine months ending July 1, 1917, are as follows:
Boston News Letter (photostat copies), 1719-25.
Cherokee (Kans.) Sentinel of Liberty, 1879-80.
Fishkill (N. Y.) Journal, 1865-89.
Freeport (Ill.) Monitor, 1874-75.
Freeport (Ill.) Bulletin, 1868-69.
Freeport (Ill.) Journal, 1856-57, 1859-60, 1866-80, 1882-1913.
La Crosse Tribune, 1904-06, 1908.
Lexington (Ky.) Western Luminary, 1826-29.
London (Eng.) Examiner, 1808-29.
Milwaukee Freidenker, 1914-16.
New York Citizen, 1854-55.
New York Herald, 1849.
New York Man, 1834-35.
New York Nautical Gazette, 1874-75.
New York Sentinel, 1830-32.
New York Times, 1898.
New York Workingman’s Advocate, 1834-35.
Oconomowoc Free Press, 1858-60.
Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 1791-93.
Portsmouth (N. H.) Journal, 1824, 1828, 1830, 1835-55, 1864.
Richmond (Va.) State Journal, 1871.
Racine Advocate (incomplete), 1842-48.
Rising Sun (Ind.) Indiana Blade, 1843-48.
Seneca Falls (N. Y.) Millenial Harbinger and Bible Expositor, 1860-62.
Shanghai North China Herald, 1910, 1912-14.
Skaneateles (N. Y.) Democrat, 1844-49.
St. Paul (Minn.) Northwestern Chronicle, 1866-72.
The annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association was held at Chicago, April 26-28, 1917. Prof. R. B. Way of Beloit was chairman of the program committee, while Prof. Frederic Logan Paxson of the University of Wisconsin, as president of the association, delivered the annual address. His subject was “The Rise of Sports, 1876-93.” Other Wisconsin men who delivered addresses during the sessions of the association were Prof. James A. James, now of Northwestern University, Theodore C. Blegen of Milwaukee, and Prof. Sherwood of La Crosse. M. M. Quaife of Madison was elected to the board of editors of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review for a three-year term, while all the newly-elected members of the executive committee of the association were educated at Wisconsin. These were Prof. O. G. Libby of the University of North Dakota, Homer C. Hockett of Ohio State University, and Albert H. Sanford of La Crosse.
The important Bancroft Manuscript Collection at Berkeley, California has been placed in charge of Prof. Herbert E. Bolton. Mr. Bolton is a native of Wisconsin and was graduated at the university in 1895.