Reviews & Short Features

REVIEWS OF BOOKS A Manual of Archive Administration Including the Problems of War Archives and Archive Making (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History, Economic and Social History of the World War, British Series). By HILARY JENKINSON, M.A., F.S.A. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1922. xviii, 243, 7 p.) With the appearance of this book the English-speaking world ceases to have occasion to blush for its reputation whenever the topic of discussion is scientific treatises on archives. Yet late as is the appearance of an adequate work of this sort in the English language, Americans, like their English brethren, can not but feel compensation in the knowledge that even the standard continental treatise has now been superseded in point of com prehensiveness by Mr. Jenkinson's scientific volume. Faced with a bulk of war archives which make housing, arrangement, and care impossible on the lines in use for older archives, the editors of the British Series of the Economic and Social History of the World War realized that this new archive problem must be solved if the most fruitful sources for a history of English par ticipation in the war are to be made accessible to the economist and historian. Only a thorough knowledge of past archival problems and their solutions, however, could form the starting point for considering the new difficulties; so Mr. Jenkinson, very wisely, has devoted fully one-half of his book to a definition of archives and to a discussion of the duties of an archivist, the transmission of archives, and the most approved methods of housing, arranging, indexing, calendaring, and transcribing them. The most unqualified praise can be accorded the efficient manner in which this work has been done. No such confusion of terms as is to be found in the only American work of note on the subject can be detected in this volume. To give effect to his statements, Mr. Jenkinson gives examples from the great British depository of archives, the Public Record Office; and, incidentally, students of English history will find here a very succinct and 440 1922 JENKINSON: ARCHIVE ADMINISTRATION 441 convenient outline of the development of legislative, judicial, and administrative departments in England, which is used to illus trate the methods by which certain archives to be found in one department began their existence with another. Part 3 of the work is devoted to " Modern Archives "; part 4 to " Archive Making. " The former considers the principles on which destruction may proceed. The conclusion is reached that no destruction may occur, except in word for word duplicates, once the documents have left the organization whose business files they have constituted. Thus, then, is part 3 linked with part 4, for archives of the present and of the past definitely partake of " archive quality " and so cannot be destroyed, however great the bulk; but documents that are now business files and that, in the course of time, will become archives, may be sorted and diminished in amount before reaching the hands of the archivist. An office conducted along scientific lines would naturally do this anyway if time and adequate labor could be had for the purpose; for the sole aim of keeping such a body of records is " that the Administrator, called upon to take up any piece of business, may not be dependent on his memory, but find a sum mary of all that has been done on this matter in his files. " All documents not serving this end may be discarded. The point stressed, however, is that the office administration alone is capable of selecting those documents which no longer serve its purpose. When the documents have been turned over to the archivist, the period of selection is past. Part 5 deals with " War Archives, " toward which the entire discussion has been tending. These may, in a sense, be termed archives of the future, and, as such, reduced in bulk by their respective administrators. Some practical suggestions for ac complishing this result are given, like the destruction of duplicate letters and carbon copies where one copy will serve the purpose. As the first step in disposing of such an enormous bulk of material as these war records, a summary survey and listing of war organizations and their records should be made. Many useful appendixes occupy the fifty pages preceding the index. Among them may be noted a specimen arrangement of archives; sketches of containers for documents; examples of 442 REVIEWS OF BOOKS Aua-Nov. rules for an archive repairing department; a " Sketch for a Bibliography of Archive Science "; a conspectus of the divisions of administrations and archives, public and private, in England; and rules for transcribing. When the United States government shall have come to the realization that it alone of all the great countries of the world has made no adequate provision for the centralization of its archives under scientific archival care and that private enterprise alone is responsible for practically all the printed or typed guides, inventories, calendars, and transcripts that have been made,— then, and then only, can we hope for a scientific treatise on archives, illustrated by American examples, similar to this most excellent British work. GRACE L. NUTE Reminiscences of Newcastle, Iowa, 1848; A History of the Founding of Webster City, Iowa. Narrated by SARAH BREWER-BONEBRIGHT ; written by her daughter HARRIET BONEBRIGHT-CLOSZ. (Des Moines, Historical Department of Iowa, 1921. xvii, 307 p. Illustrations.) It is somewhat unusual for a book of this character to be so well organized and so well written. The narrator is telling the story of her girlhood experiences, its hardships and pleasures, with an attention to detail which is the more remarkable because of the lapse of years. She states frankly that she makes "no claim for absolute accuracy in dates " and thereby disarms a kind of criticism which is frequently made against the writer of reminiscences. The value of the book lies in its plain, straightforward account of the process of building a new home in the wilderness on the Iowa frontier, just what was being done in Minnesota during the same period. There was the log cabin to be built, food to be secured by rifle or by hook and line, furniture for the home to be provided, and a crop to be put in. One marvels at the amount of labor necessary on the part of every member of the household in order to sustain life, and especially the grinding toil of the women in their efforts to make a home. Life in a one- room partly-floored cabin with flies settling in such swarms upon 1922 ANDERSON: CITY CHARTER MAKING 443 the food at the table that one person is kept busy with a " shooer, " or blackening the rings of drying pumpkin at night; with clouds of mosquitoes making necessary the constant use of a smudge pot; and with other pests such as mice, vermin, and an occasional pole cat, is pictured for the reader in all its stern reality. Chapter follows chapter in logical sequence from the account of the migration by oxcart from Indiana through the settlement in the new location, the platting of the town, and the offering of inducements to draw settlers to the community. The five appendixes contain a biographical sketch of Wilson Brewer, father of the narrator; recollections of Major Brassfield's account of the murder by Henry Lott of a part of Inkpaduta's band; and some poems by Mrs. Harriet Bonebright-Closz. The book is illustrated profusely with drawings of pioneer implements and utensils, apparently sketched from the objects themselves, and thus of great interest to the student of pioneer conditions. The volume is well bound, printed on good paper, and supplied with a table of contents and list of illustrations. WILLOUGHBY M. BABCOCK, JR. City Charter Making in Minnesota (Bureau for Research in Government of the University of Minnesota, Publications, no. i). By WILLIAM ANDERSON, PH.D., Associate Pro fessor of Political Science and Director of the Bureau. With a foreword by CEPHAS D. ALLIN. (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1922. ix, 198 p.) The primary purpose of this book is to assemble in compact form " all the information which may be found necessary to the intelligent drafting, adoption, and amendment of home rule charters in Minnesota. " The volume is reviewed in these pages because the author devotes an introductory chapter to an his torical survey of the " Development of City Government in Minnesota." Not only does this account add to the value of the chapters which follow on the practical problems of present- day charter-making, but it makes a real contribution to Minnesota history. Attention is first directed to the growth of Minnesota cities from 1850 to 1920. The beginnings of local government 444 REVIEWS OF BOOKS Aua-Nov. in Minnesota are then discussed. The incorporation in 1854 of St. Paul and Stillwater as cities is mentioned. " In 1855 the town of Henderson, the home of the industrious J. R. Brown, received the first town charter to be conferred on any community in Minnesota west of the Mississippi. " The demand for town charters increased tremendously in the " boom " period before the panic of 1857. The land speculators who promoted the towns and cities, writes the author, " were interested primarily in enrich ing themselves from the development of sites for future cities. " This business was almost ended by the panic. The problem of rural local government remained and as settlers poured in after 1854 it became serious. " By 1857, " writes the author, " the counties had been much reduced in size and increased in num ber to meet the needs of these people for local government, but the counties were too large, after all, and their organization not adapted for purely local purposes.

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