African explora

The papers of Col. Charles Chaillé-Long were a gift from Chaillé-Long's his niece, Mrs. C. A. Swann Sinclair, of Alexandria, Va. tions They date from 1865 to 1915 and consist of about 150 manuscripts, diplomas, commissions, correspondence, and articles of the distinguished soldier explorer. Col. Chaillé-Long's life and experiences were romantic and exciting, as well as useful. His explorations in Egypt and around the headwaters of the Nile proved valuable to both science and geography. As chief of staff of Gen. Gordon of Khartoum, on Gordon's first African expedition, he performed many difficult services with bravery and honor. In 1882 he was United States consul at Alexandria, Egypt, during the massacre of July, and his herculean labors in saving the lives of Americans were acknowledged by the Government. There are interesting manuscript articles by Col. ChailléLong on Egypt and the Orient, and a scrapbook of news clippings of more than ordinary value. Among his correspondents were Weir Mitchell, John Hay, Whitelaw Reid, Gen. Paul H. Orillat, Dr. Ardouin, Lord Charles Beresford, Gen. Baratieri, and various Egyptian officials of high rank. From the literary executors of the estate of the late Rossetti manuCharles Lang Freer, of Detroit (Mrs. A. H. Freer and Miss Katharine N. Rhoades), the Library has received a group of original manuscripts of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. There are 23 poems which were printed in his works, mostly in "The House of Life," and five that are not found in his collected works; two original autograph letters; numbers one and two of "The Germ" and three and four of "Art and Poetry." Of the omitted poems is the one "Sacred to the Memory of AS," written on both sides of four leaves of paper.

Another accession is a group of letters from Lydia Maria Child to John Greenleaf Whittier.

script poems

Translations

from newspapers

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Powers

The Library has received as a gift from the National Central Board for Historical Service (a board created by the American Historical Association for war work and now disbanded) a collection of about 20,000 typewritten cards, containing summaries and translations of articles appearing in newspapers and periodicals published in the countries of the Central Powers during the World War and the first months of the armistice. These summaries and translations were made primarily for the use of Government departments and the Military Intelligence Office in Washington and the Headquarters of the American Army in France. They were dictated by Dr. Victor S. Clark personally to stenographers, and were subsequently read and obvious errors corrected. They were indexed under headings agreeing loosely with a plan drawn up by the Col. House Inquiry in New York, with which the board cooperated. While each translation or summary is sufficiently complete to be intelligible and useful without referring to the paper or publication from which it was taken, the original files are available in the Library of Congress, wherever it may be necessary or desirable to make comparisons.

soldier in the World War

By cooperation with the Library, the Universities of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Vassar College, and Pomona College have obtained photostat copies of the cards. Princeton University has carbon copies.

Letters from a A letter written to accompany a Christmas package for A soldier in France" fell into the hands of Private John F. Callahan, Third Division, Company G, Fourth Infantry, at Camp Stuart, Newport News, Va. He had been a member of the New York City fire department, was 31 years old, a good penman, fond of writing, saw things as they were, and told about matters with a line drawn between personal experience and rumor. His companions in arms were a truck driver, a jeweler, a bookkeeper, a bartender, an Italian laborer, and a "gunman” refugee—"all with

one purpose-to whip the German." His letters to one of the Red Cross workers, making 151 pages closely written, cover the period from November 22, 1917, to June 18, 1918, during which time he was wounded in the Marne battles, was promoted to be a corporal, entered Germany with the victors, and in due time returned to duty with Hook and Ladder Company No. 15, New York City. No phase of camp life escaped this alert soldier, and his philosophy of war is both shrewd and witty. The letters come to the Library as a gift from Miss Clara Morehouse, to whom they were written, and are material of high value to students of the World War from a social standpoint.

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Interesting also are the notebooks of recitations for soldiers World War in war huts in France and England, used by E. H. Sothern, which are welcomed as a gift from him. There are also letters of Mrs. Sothern (Julia Marlowe).

A collection of several hundred German broadsides, issued in Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, and Poland, together with Austrian and Italian broadsides, were purchased. Transcripts of documents in foreign archives, relating to Foreign scripts the colonial history of the United States, have been received during the year from England, France, Spain, and Mexico.

On August 2 this division sustained a heavy loss in the sudden death, at his workbench, of Mr. William Berwick, the head of our manuscript repair section, whose skilled workmanship and knowledge of manuscript repairing was levied upon by all sections of the country. His record of nearly a quarter of a century of work in the Library shows the repair and binding of the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, William T. Sherman, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and dozens of other great collections of the papers of eminent Americans. His response to calls from outside the Library included the organization of a force for salvaging the manuscript remains of the great fire in the New York State Capitol Building, the

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DOCUMENTS:
Accessions

repair of the Wills of George and Martha Washington, of the Michigan State Constitution, of the Apprentice Book of the Cutler's Guild of London of the sixteenth century, of George Washington's ledger of private accounts, of the Treasury Department's records of the purchase of Alaska, and of the land grant by the United States to the Marquis de Lafayette. Mr. Berwick's death is a serious loss to the Government.

DIVISION OF DOCUMENTS

(From the report of the Chief, Dr. Harris)

The collection of material.-During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, the accessions to the Library through the Division of Documents were as follows:

In addition to the above, 2,787 maps and charts have been received by official donation.

The total number of volumes and pamphlets handled during the year was 57,906, as compared with 40,865 for the

preceding year. The difficulties of transportation and the high costs of printing and labor have continued to restrict the acquisition of important material by the Division of Documents. The receipt of foreign material is showing a distinct increase over the preceding year, while the receipts from the other sources are about the same as in the preceding year. A large amount of effort was expended in clearing up the accumulation of arrears of material received through transfer and other special sources during the war period.

The collection of confidential material published by the allied governments, especially Great Britain and France, mentioned in the preceding annual report, has received numerous and important additions during the year. In time, this group will form an important section of the Library's collection of war material. To this foreign material should be added important federal publications, which show many of the activities of the various war services.

As part of the division's work in building up a representative collection of war material, exchange relations have been developed with the Imperial War Museum at London, the Bibliothèque-Musée de la Guerre at Paris; the Commonwealth War Memorials Library at Melbourne, Australia; the University Library at Christiania, Norway, and the University of British Columbia, at Vancouver. Besides these special receipts, the governments of Great Britain, France, and Italy have taken special pains to supply the Library with fundamental sources on war conditions in their respective countries.

During the year special want lists have been made up relating to Argentina (5), Australia, Belgium (4), Bolivia, Brazil (6), Bulgaria, Chile (3), China (2), Colombia (5),