As the radio waves ebb, and the sponsor's hour draws to a close, advertising contact with the public is terminated. Only the memories of some exceptionally fine program linger in the minds of the radio audience. On the other hand, the lowliest huckster, who a century ago commissioned some printer to execute even the simplest tradecard describing his wares, achieved the guarantee — if one may use the phrase — of a limited immortality. This naturally depended somewhat on the durability of the paper or cardboard selected, but judging from the volume of material that has accumulated and has been handed down through the decades, the paper manufacturers of the olden days deserve our gratitude for the excellence of their products.

Imagine the consternation and confusion in the American business world if Congress should decide tomorrow that henceforth the dollar would no longer be the basis of our currency, but that a new monetary system with some unit such as the franc or the pound would be adopted. From the standpoint of accounting and business records, there would be a long period of adjustment to the new system. Probably government books would be changed to the new system immediately, but some business enterprises would undoubtedly carry dollars on their records for many months.

Many of the manuscript collections found in the Baker Library center around a particular individual rather than around a certain company or business concern. In such an instance it is usually true that the subject matter of the papers will reach into a wide variety of fields. A case in point is the De Wolf family collection, dealing largely with the activities of James De Wolf of Bristol, Rhode Island. Nominally De Wolf was a merchant, but his interests extended to numerous other spheres, including shipping, estate management, privateering, and politics. In a summary fashion this paper will trace a few of his varied pursuits.

A stroller wandering on Boston's waterfront will find in one of the better known wharving districts a pier that is a prolongation of State Street (known as King Street in Colonial days), the financial avenue of the City. There will be a penetrating tang of fish in the vicinity, and well might this be so for practically the only vessels that put into this wharf are fishermen's schooners and smacks. There is certainly nothing pretentious about this quay, and yet if some of its rotting timbers only had the powers of speech, what a story they might tell. It is, indeed, Long Wharf, the center of Boston's expanding shipping interests from early Colonial days up to the middle of the nineteenth century. However, we do not have to wait for the old timbers to acquire speech in order to ferret out the romance of Long Wharf; for there are references to it in most Boston histories, and in addition there are numerous business papers of the pier's proprietors now deposited in the Baker Library.

Sometime within the next six months it is believed that the new Government Archives Building at Washington, D. C., will be completed; and at this time the Federal Government will finally have a central depository for all of its old and valuable documents. Work began on the massive vault building, located halfway between the White House and the Capitol Building, about a year and a half ago, and the earliest possible completion date is now set for July 1.

“Good morning, Madame! I am working my way through college and have called on you today in order to obtain your help. For the paltry sum of seven cents a week you can assist me in my project, and what is more you can provide yourself with the world's best magazine.” What modern woman has not on a hundred occasions heard these or similar words poured from the mouth of an effervescent young man confidently poised on the front door step. Turn back time one hundred years and we find another American housewife, living in an unfrequented hamlet, who has been greeted by an assuming young fellow with words to this effect, “Madame, are you in need of any pocket sawmills? Horn gunflints? Wooden nutmegs? White oak cheeses? Tin bungholes? Or calico hogtroughs?” Having gained the attention and smile of this housewife, the peddler would then have launched into a laudation of his wares.

Some time ago we published an article on the laying of the Atlantic cable suggested by a copy of the Diary of the expedition, one of the few copies actually printed on board the cable-laying ship, the “Great Eastern,” found in the Baker Library. Another slant on the eventful career of the “Great Eastern” was brought to light in a newspaper clipping from the New York Times.

In the forest region of the State of Washington lying south of the Capital, Olympia, there is a little town, Tenino, that has been receiving in the last three years an amount of newspaper publicity far out of proportion to its size. And well might this be so, for Tenino has added a new page in the history of currency by issuing wooden money, some of which has found its way into the archives of the Society.

From time to time during the life of the Society new fields of endeavor have been opened up, thus leading to a general broadening of the organization's activities. One such added activity that has assumed a position of importance is the collection of business historical material in foreign countries. In the six year period that the Society has been seeking foreign material there has been an influx into the Baker Library of hundreds of documents on business abroad.

During the year 1934, a sister organization to the Business Historical Society, known as the Council for the Preservation of Business Archives, was formed in London, England. The Council officially came into being on May 11, 1934 when a group of influential men of England gathered at the London School of Economics and Political Science for the Foundation meeting. A great deal of preliminary work had been done in the preceding two or three years, but the organization meeting was the first public notice given the enterprise.

Since the publication of an article on the Frederick Tudor papers in the September 1932 Bulletin, the Society has received a great deal of new manuscript material relating to the Tudor Ice Company and other Tudor business ventures from Mr. Frederick Tudor, grandson of the founder of the ice project. Although a few readers may recall the previous article, a digest thereof will help to place our new acquisitions in their proper setting.

In these days we hear much in praise of collective and controlled enterprises. It is, therefore, especially interesting to note that the first business contract signed in this country of which we have record was to establish an undertaking of just such a sort. This event occurred at Plymouth in 1626, when Governor William Bradford, Captain Miles Standish, William Brewster, John Alden, and several others drew up an agreement with the Colony and with the Merchant Adventurers of London, England, whereby they assumed complete control of the trade of the Colony for a period of six years.

Like the majority of the states, Pennsylvania has never completely concentrated her archives. Various groups of material currently administered by a bureau or department, such as the land records in the Land Office, should not be concentrated until they cease to be a part of the Government's daily business. But aside from these, there are tons of non-active files which will some day be moved, when the Archive Division of the State Library can house them. Under such conditions no one can state absolutely and concisely what there is; and as one result of this difficulty, research work that might utilize business documents is severely handicapped.

The status of labor has been markedly changed since the early days of our country. In general it may be said that the worker has tended to acquire a position of even greater bargaining power relative to the employer (indeed, today there are instances where labor holds the superior position.) Of course certain types of laborers have always possessed an advantageous and strategic bargaining power position, but on the whole the tendency toward greater freedom for labor as a class is not disputable. Evidences of this evolutionary movement in the worker's status toward more freedom of contract may be found in the numerous labor agreements and labor indentures in the Baker Library.