SECRETARY'S REPORT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR 1906. To the Board of Directors of the Illinois State Historical Society: GENTLEMEN-I beg to submit to you my report, as your secretary for the year between the annual meeting of January 24 and 25, 1906, and the present meeting, January 24, 1907. The Historical Society has increased in membership to a very gratifying extent. Interest in the society is expressed by the newspapers throughout the State and we ought to feel greatly encouraged. The society has now a total membership of 427. This includes 363 active members (that is, 360 annual members and three life members); thirty-four editors of Illinois newspapers, who send their papers to the library, and in exchange are made members of the historical society, the donation of the newspapers constituting the payment of dues; and twenty honorary members; or a total of annual, life, honorary and press association or newspaper members of 427. This is an increase of members of all classes for the year; of 99 new members. Our society has lost by death, five of its active members. I wish to suggest to the members of the society that they report to the secretary the deaths of any of the members of the society. I try very hard to keep informed of the welfare of the members but it is not always possible for me to know when deaths occur. Since our last meeting the transactions of the society for the year 1905 have been published and distributed. It is a very valuable volume. Great credit is due to the publication committee for its improvement over our preceding volume. The 1906 volume is still in the hands of the printer, but it is much farther advanced than was the 1905 volume at the time of our last annual meeting. It ought to be ready for distribution within a month or six weeks. The demand for the transactions of the society is very great. It would surprise you to know the number of calls for them that I receive, and the disappointment that is expressed when the applicant is told that all of our numbers, except the latest, are out of print. Old book dealers. are now buying them whenever they get a chance and are asking high prices for them. A State Senator, to whom the society is under obligation for many favors, has earnestly advised asking the General Assembly for a special appropriation for the purpose of having them reprinted. There seems to be some valid objections to this however, as there are in existence, mostly in the State of Illinois, at least 3,000 of each of these publications, all issued within the past eight years. It seems to many of our members, that with so much valuable matter still unpublished, it is wiser to bend all our efforts toward the publication of new or unpublished material. These are matters which it will be the duty of the society and its publication committee to consider. There has been a splendid growth along the line of local historical societies. Our committee on local historical societies will report and give you full information along this most interesting and important line. At the meeting of the Illinois State Library Association, held in this city last May, Capt. J. H. Burnham read an address on the subject of libraries as local history centers, and how librarians can aid the State Historical Society. This excellent paper has borne fruit for the library association has appointed a delegate to this meeting who will address the society upon this subject, a subject upon which too much stress cannot be laid, for if local historical societies are aided by their town or high school libraries, it gives them at least a place of deposit, and where there is no local historical society the busy librarian can add to her tasks the duty of keeping watch for local historical material, books by local authors, manuscripts, celebrations of local historical events and can suggest to the owner of historical material that the State Historical Society library is the place for valuable books and manuscripts, etc. I will leave to the delegate from the library association the duty of pointing out the many ways in which librarians and local societies can be of service to the State society. I wish to report that the Illinois State Commission to the Jamestown Exposition has asked me, as the representative of the Historical Society and Historical Library, to prepare for the Jamestown Exposition an historical exhibit to be placed in the Illinois State building at Jamestown. I am attempting to make an historical map of the State. I find that it is rather an ambitious project. I am, of course, using a great deal of the material from the late Rufus Blanchard's historical map, but I hope to make some corrections and additions. I am receiving most generous assistance from the members of the Historical Society throughout the State and also from several of the county superintendents of schools, whom we are not fortunate enough to count as members of the society. This map will probably be on quite a large scale. It will occupy a prominent place in the Jamestown historical exhibit, and it is likely that the board of trustees of the library may decide to have a number of copies printed for distribution. I also expect to use quite a large number of fac-simile photographs of the papers found in the archives of the southern Illinois counties for the historical library by Prof. C. W. Alvord. These I expect to use in making a manuscript and pictorial history of Illinois as a county of Virginia. In brief, I want to show the growth of Illinois from her Virginia beginnings. I would be very glad to receive suggestions in regard to this exhibit. I wish again to speak to you in regard to changing the time for holding the annual meetings of the society. During the last week in January the weather is likely to be inclement and many of our members are unable to leave their homes. A change in the time of holding the annual meetings would require an amendment to the constitution of the society, but as so many of the members of the society have expressed themselves as in favor of such a change, I beg to submit the matter to you for your consideration. I also wish to suggest that the society is now so large that it would be well if special meetings were occasionally held. The one annual meeting hardly seems sufficient. We have quite a large local membership which, with the membership in our neighboring cities now connected with Springfield by interurban railroad lines, would insure a good attendance on occasional lectures or addresses. These meetings could be held in the library and would be valuable and interesting, and would probably be well attended. As you know, many gentlemen would be willing to come from a distance to address the historical society in the spring or the fall of the year who do not dare risk their health by making the trip in January. Each year some of our speakers fail us on account of the inclemency of the weather. I would also like to have the board of directors consider the subject of quarterly or occasional circulars or bulletins being issued by the society. These publications would be of use and interest in connection with local historical societies, and for many other purposes. The interest in the cause of State history continues to increase. Clubs all over the State are studying State and local history. Each mail brings letters asking for assistance and advice. I, with my most faithful and obliging assistant, try to answer these calls, but such reference work would take more than the entire time of one person if it was as fully attended to as we would like it to be. We were very proud to receive a visit from the Pawnee Woman's Club, who held a special meeting in the library. The members of the club were much interested in the collections of the library. We have had visits from a number of history classes and we are always glad to have the young people come. Their interest and their criticism are both inspiring. A move has been made by the society in the direction of securing a genealogical collection. A committee was appointed for the purpose of making recommendations as to how the society could best proceed to build up a genealogical collection, from its already excellent beginnings. This committee will make its own report and recommendations. As I have said in previous reports the work of the society and of the library are so intimately connected that it is not possible to separate the work of the librarian of the library and the secretary of the society, even in making a report. The library now numbers over 19,000 books, pamphlets, etc. The collection of Lincolniana is daily receiving additions. The number of Lincoln books, pamphlets, broadsides and manuscripts is surprising. It is a never failing source of interest to visitors. I have never known one person, man, woman or child, to enter the library who was not interested in the Lincoln collection. In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact that next year, 1908, will be the semi-centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. As the year 1858 and the "debates" may be in a sense called the year upon which Illinois entered upon her importance as a political power in the United States, the celebration of this semi-centennial assumes a broad signifi cance as a commemoration of an important epoch in Illinois history. A committee will report upon plans for this celebration. The Illinois State Historical Society has no great events to chronicle in its workings for the year 1906. It has received no large donations, but it has gone steadily forward. It has increased in membership, in effectiveness, and interest in it has spread throughout this State and into neighboring states. I call your attention with pride to the fact that nearly all recent writers on western history quote from our publications. If we have done nothing wonderful, we have grown rapidly, solidly and normally. There have been no fitful gusts of interest. Interest in the society and its work has never wavered nor grown weary. We are no longer among the small historical societies. We are young, it is true, but we are lusty and strong. I point with pride to the names of the men and women who make up the membership of the Illinois State Historical Society. There is one point upon which I wish to make a strong appeal to the directors and membership of the society. That is upon the collection of manuscripts. We are so very much in need of original manuscripts, that I would like to beg the president to appoint each member of the society a special committee to collect manuscripts for the library. There is not a town, not a village, but what has some records which by permission of its officials might be deposited in the historical library. There is a law which authorizes county supervisors to deposit records of purely historical value in the historical library or the State university library. There is surely not a member of the society but knows of collections of letters, personal or political, which would be of interest and value to this collection. I feel this need so strongly that I wish to impress upon you gentlemen and ladies, the fact that the collection of original manuscripts, the sources for original investigation, is the crying need of the library and the society. I urge you to devise some means of assisting the board of trustees of the library in collecting such material. As I have before stated the Historical Society has had a most prosperous year, and I congratulate you, gentlemen, upon its flourishing condition and excellent prospects. Respectfully, JESSIE PALMEr Weber, Secretary Illinois State Historical Society. |