Arrogant knights, dashing Vikings of the North, wild Indian hunters, and colorful naval battles are a few of the stirring scenes depicted in the picturesque advertisements of the early California clipper ships, found in the Society's collection of trade cards.

Perusal of these yellowed but still gay cards reveals that the illustrations are seldom directly tied up with the shipping trade. More often the scenes are pictorial expressions of the ship's name. Robin Hood and his merry men step right out of history to advertise the sailing of the clipper ship bearing the gallant bandit's name.

The New York Historical Society, at 170 Central Park West, New York City, was founded in 1804, and for one hundred and thirty years has been gathering and preserving historical materials, through generous gifts and considered purchases. Its founders were scholarly gentlemen of varied interests, and for many decades the Society was not considered so specialized as libraries tend to be now. In consequence, there are many things here, besides New York material, which a stranger would not expect to find in the library of a society designated the New York Historical.

Elegantly equipped fire engines, automatic ladders, and pumps capable of spouting streams of water far into the air were not available in 1762; but citizens of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, were cognizant of the need for protection against fire; and so they organized the Friendly Fire Society. Detailed regulations of the organization are recorded in the “articles” of the group possessed by the Business Historical Society.

Adventures in the South Seas, narrated in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson's “Treasure Island,” are reported in the log of the Ship Hope for the years 1806 to 1808, now possessed by the Business Historical Society. Opportunity for adventure was derived from the unusual character of the voyage.

Interest in the internal improvement of the country, sectional enthusiasm, desire for personal profit — such were the motives characterizing the early railroad conventions which were a vital factor in the rapid development of our railroads a century ago. Detailed reports of these conventions are available in the almost complete file of the American Railroad Journal, possessed by the Baker Library.

Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, Worcester's first printer and the first historian of American printing, the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester has grown steadily until it is today one of the greatest of all American history libraries. When the present beautiful and modern library building was erected, the museum feature of the Society's collections was discontinued and all efforts were concentrated on the building of a great library for the free use of scholars. Today historians, professors, graduate students, biographers, and bibliographers come from all parts of the country, many of them spending happy weeks or months in our quiet reading room. Hundreds of others write to us each year and are supplied through correspondence with the information they cannot come to Worcester to search out for themselves.

Modern advertisers using rhymes in their copy may have obtained the idea from pamphlets similar to the one issued by Oak Hall, Boston clothiers, in 1850, and preserved in the collection of the Business Historical Society.

Many and varied are the evidences of co-operative anterprise in the early history of our country ranging from husking “bees” to sheriffs' posses; but none is more unique than the community purchase of a hearse by the community of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1812, as recounted in an account book owned by the Business Historical Society.

As a depository of source material relating to a wide variety of subjects, the Essex Institute holds a unique position. For many years it has been natural to turn to Salem for material on ocean shipping. In decades past, Salem wharves were lined with vessels which Salem merchants had built and manned, and which brought rich products from every civilized and barbaric land. There were Eastern ports where the names of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore were scarcely known, but where Salem was supposed to be the great emporium of the West. Letters addressed “Salem, U. S. A.” reached their destinations without delay. In 1825, there were one hundred ninety-eight vessels flying Salem signals, and Salem ships were the first to display the American flag in many foreign ports, as well as to open trade with St. Petersburg, Zanzibar, Sumatra, Calcutta, Bombay, Batavia, Arabia, Madagascar and Australia.

Any attempt to describe the beginnings of the Machine Age in the United States leads the investigator back to the early records of the New England textile mills, for machine building in this country — using the term machinery in its modern meaning — had its origin in the workshops of the first cotton factories. Among the heroes of the period of beginnings are David Wilkinson, — the Pawtucket blacksmith, who, in 1790, assisted Samuel Slater to build the first Arkwright machinery to be successfully operated in the United States, and who, twenty years later, set up one of the earliest independent machine shops in New England, — and Francis Cabot Lowell, who, in 1814, introduced power weaving at the factory in Waltham, thus setting in motion the chain of events that led to the establishment of the great machine shops at Lowell.

In the last number of the Bulletin some space was devoted to the banking problems of 1834. Now, turning to the panic of 1837, we find the course of action in the earlier period had at least some effect on the later crisis. To be sure, the panic of 1837 was world-wide in scope, but America contributed her share to the general disturbance.

Small groups of papers relative to lotteries have been found in many of the collections of business records which have come to the Society and to Baker Library. The items include account sheets, letters, lottery tickets, and broadsides advertising lotteries. When brought together they offer some interesting information on the subject.

In these exciting days when nationalism is shaking the world to its depths, it is interesting to see how an Englishman voiced himself in 1807. The following remarkable letter is among the manuscript possessions of Baker Library. One of the best parts of it is the brief history of nearly thirty years of Russian exchange.