information, both historical and current, not only on the great questions of legislation in which all are interested, but also on any special subject which is of interest to any individual legislator.

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has recently spent about eleven thousand dollars for improvements in the way of increasing its storage and office capacity in the catalogue, newspaper, and manuscript departments. New shelving, catalogue cases, drawers, lockers, and other modern conveniences have been installed in these departments. The ethnographical material in the museum is being reclassified and relabeled according to modern methods. The Society has in preparation volume nineteen of its Collections, a new volume of Draper manuscripts, and the Proceedings of the Society for 1908. The annual meeting was held October 15, and, with a few exceptions, no changes were made in the official staff.

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA

At a meeting of the Board of Curators on Wednesday evening, January 6, Mr. John E. Brindley was elected to the position of Research Assistant in The State Historical Society of Iowa.

Professor F. H. Garver, of Morningside College, and a member of The State Historical Society of Iowa, read a paper on the Story of Sergeant Charles Floyd, at the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association at Richmond, Virginia, on December 30.

Mr. John E. Brindley, of the State Agricultural College at Ames, who has for some time been engaged in research work for the Society, of which he is a member, has been appointed Legislative Reference Assistant to the Curator of the Historical Department of Iowa.

Much interest was manifested in Mr. Curtis's fine collection of photographs of North American Indians on exhibition in the rooms of the Society during the months of October and November. The photographs were arranged according to subject, and a catalogue was printed for the convenience of visitors.

The Society has recently issued four neat folders describing its nature, purposes and activities. One folder contains a list of the

members of the Society; another describes and enumerates the publications; a third deals with research in the Society; while the fourth is a description of the library.

Mr. W. O. Hart, of the New Orleans bar, and a member of The State Historical Society of Iowa, is the author of a pamphlet called Fragments of Louisiana Jurisprudence. It consists of a number of lectures delivered by Mr. Hart in 1907 in the law college of the State University of Louisiana.

The biography of Augustus Caesar Dodge, by Louis Pelzer, was distributed early in December. This is the third volume to appear in the Iowa Biographical Series and is a book of three hundred and sixty-nine pages. Augustus Caesar Dodge served the people of the Territory of Iowa as Delegate to Congress; he was Iowa's first Senator; and he represented the United States as Minister to Spain. Hence Mr. Pelzer's volume is a valuable contribution, not only to Iowa history, but to the diplomatic history of the Nation as well.

On Thursday evening, December 3, Mr. Irving B. Richman delivered an address on Some Researches in California History, before the members of The State Historical Society of Iowa and their friends, in the auditorium of the Hall of Liberal Arts. Mr. Richman, who is a Curator of the Society, has been engaged for some time in gathering material for a history of California, and he told in an entertaining manner of his experiences, and of some of the romantic episodes in the history of this interesting State. Preceding the address a dinner was given at the Burkley Imperial Hotel in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Richman and other guests of the Society. At this time brief remarks were made by Governor Garst, Mr. Richman, President A. B. Storms of the State Agricultural College, and President Charles E. Shelton of Simpson College.

The following persons have recently been elected to membership: Mr. Paul A. Korab, Iowa City, Iowa; Judge Horace M. Towner, Corning, Iowa; Mr. E. B. Limpus, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. J. G. Henry, Des Moines, Iowa; Professor Bohumil Shimek, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. C. B. Robbins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Mr. Willard J. Welch, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. T. Will Runkle, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Mr. O.

A. Byington, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. Clifford Powell, Red Oak, Iowa; Miss Edna Stone, Logan, Iowa; Mr. John Springer, Iowa City, Iowa; Mr. J. L. Gillin, Iowa City, Iowa; Hon. W. L. Harding, Sioux City, Iowa; Hon J. A. White, South Amana, Iowa; Hon. G. W. Clarke, Adel, Iowa; Mr. Chas. J. Deacon, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Mr. Kenneth Colgrove, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Miss Gertrude Branson, Iowa City, Iowa; Hon. A. F. Dawson, Preston, Iowa; Mr. C. F. Clark, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Hon. C. G. Saunders, Council Bluffs, Iowa; Hon. Frederic Larrabee, Fort Dodge, Iowa; Mr. Lowell Chamberlain, Des Moines, Iowa; Hon. A. B. Cummins, Des Moines, Iowa; Hon. Robert Hunter, Sioux City, Iowa; Mr. Wesley Martin, Webster City, Iowa; and Hon. A. C. Savage, Adair, Iowa.

NOTES AND COMMENT

The seventeenth annual meeting of the Iowa Library Association was held at Cedar Rapids, October 20-22.

Dr. Karl F. Geiser, formerly of the Iowa State Normal School, is now Professor of Political Science in Oberlin College.

The American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association and the Bibliographical Society of America all held their annual meetings at Washington, D. C., and Richmond, Virginia, December 28-31. On December 30, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association held its semi-annual meeting at Richmond.

An international congress of administrative sciences will be held at Brussels, Belgium, in 1910 during the International Exhibition in that city. The purpose of this congress is to bring together from all over the world those interested in both the theory and practice of the administration of government in all its branches. It is expected that the proceedings will be published in a series of volumes.

On November 5 and 6 there was held at Iowa City a joint meeting of the Iowa Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, the Iowa Anthropological Society, and the Iowa Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society. The principal addresses were by Professor Oscar Montelius, the Curator of the Royal Museum of Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden, and Professor Frank B. Tarbell, of the University of Chicago.

A thorough investigation of the management of farms in Iowa is soon to be begun by Professor M. E. McCulloch, formerly of the State Agricultural College, under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture. Before taking up a more intensive study, Mr. McCulloch will gather information concerning the agricultural history of the State, its climatic and physical features, the acreage and yields of the various crops, facilities for marketing and prices received. After this preliminary general work is accom

plished, he will take up a careful study of the types of farming that prevail in the various sections of the State with reference to the adaptability to local conditions, their effect on the fertility of the soil and on the standard of living of the farmer. Detailed investigations will be made of the management of farms which seem especially successful, and the results will be published. The work will be one of great magnitude and will doubtless do much to promote intelligent and scientific farming in this State.

GEORGE C. DUFFIELD

On September 4, 1908, George C. Duffield, a prominent Iowa pioneer, passed away at his home near Keosauqua, Iowa. Mr. Duffield was born in Ohio in 1824, and came to Iowa with his parents in 1837 and located in Van Buren County. He served with the Third Iowa Cavalry during the early part of the War for the Union. He attended the first Republican convention held in Van Buren County, and was a delegate to the first Republican State Convention at Iowa City in 1856. He was a worthy type of the men who built and developed Iowa.

JOHN W. JAYNE

John W. Jayne, one of the oldest residents of Johnson County and a member of The State Historical Society of Iowa, passed away at his home in Lone Tree on July 26, 1908. Mr. Jayne was born in Pennsylvania on January 28, 1820, and came to Iowa during the fifties, first settling in Muscatine County. When the war broke out he enlisted in Company B of the 8th Iowa Infantry and served during the early years of the war. Most of his life since that time was spent on his farm or in business at Lone Tree. He was a member of the first Republican State Convention held in Iowa, and although he never held any important office, he always took an active interest in politics. He collected a large private library and was a man who read widely. Mr. Jayne retained his physical and mental vigor to a remarkable extent even to the date of his death.