At a joint session of the American Historical Association and the Business Historical Society held at Soldiers Field, Boston, December 30, 1930, business history was discussed for the first time in any comprehensive fashion under such auspices.

The sun arose on the morning of Tuesday, August 31, 1858 upon a strange scene on Boston Common. A scaffold reared its ugly head close by the flag staff and a huge tank was placed conveniently near. By nine o'clock throngs were gathering in the streets, pressing for a view of the Common. However, the crowds were not such as one would expect at an affair heralded by the erection of a scaffold. Rather were they a jubilant and excited gathering: now and then could be heard exclamations of surprise and no few were wagering and betting as though a horse race were the attraction of the day. A race it was indeed, but a race of fire engines and not of horses. The City of Boston was holding a trial of engines before procuring two or three for the use of the City.

In a discussion of the ever present tariff problem one often reflects on the determining factors in the tariff policy of our country. The correspondence of Justin S. Morrill, ardent protectionist and author of the Morrill Tariff Act of 1861, sheds considerable light upon this subject. The material covers the period between 1867 and 1897. It has been acquired by the Baker Library through the courtesy of John Spargo, President of the Vermont Historical Society.

The specimens of Portland Clearing House Association currency reproduced on the opposite page were issued during the panic year of 1907.

Business depressions bring in their wake such a train of privation and misery that we are usually blinded to the fact that they occasionally produce incidental benefits. Foremost among the few good results which have flowed from the present business depression is the stimulation of research into the history of the business cycle. Economists and business men alike are attempting to learn as much as possible about similar crises of the past. They are asking themselves whether the depression of 1930 is worse than that which occurred in 1894 or 1840, in what respects it differs from or resembles those catastrophes. They are even wondering how their predecessors felt after the first stock-market crash of 1792.

Two eighteenth century technical treatises — Mechanick Exercises: or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, 1703, by Joseph Moxon, and The Practical House Carpenter, 1796, by William Pain — have been presented to the Society by William Butler, one of our members.