works but no written records or continuing traditions. Fort Ancient, Serpent Mound and the incomparable and inscrutable earth structures near Newark and Chillicothe are described and faithfully diagramed. The researches and conclusions of the archæologist and ethnologist are admirably summarized. The testimony of the prehistoric remains as to the art, mode of life and warfare of the strange and lost race is set forth, briefly of course, but with skillful marshalling of facts and fancies. "There are two widely held and antagonistic opinions concerning the builders of these mounds. One school of archæologists insists that the mound builders were far more cultured than any known North American Indians, that their earthworks were more complicated and better finished, that their arts of fashioning and polishing stone and of fabricating pottery, their agriculture and their architecture, were more advanced, and that their social and religious systems were of a higher order than were those of their successors. This theory leads up to the concept of an extinct civilization and a vanished race. The more modern school confidently insists that 'there is nothing found in the mode of construction of these mounds nor in the vestages of art they contain to indicate that their builders had reached a higher culture-status than that attained by some of the Indian tribes found occupying the country at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans.' "At no time in the history of any of the older nations of the world has the whole population been removed to give place to another altogether different. Continuity is the law of history, and it is difficult to believe that that law has been violated here. It is hardly conceivable that a race should come upon the stage, act its part, and go away to give place to another company of players with whom the first had naught to do." The chapter on the Indians of North America deals with the "red man" of our earliest historic knowledge. His origin, extent of his habitations at time of Columbian discoveries, his racial separation into tribes and groups of tribes. "At the end of the nineteenth century, there were about one hundred and fifty officially recognized tribes in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, gathered upon more than fifty reservations, besides others that occupied state reservations or were scattered among the whites. We have no sufficient data for ascertaining the aboriginal population at the time of the discovery, but, after making all allowances for exaggeration in the early estimate, there can be no question that it has greatly diminished. The popular impression that the eastern tribes have simply been removed to the west is true in but a few cases. In most instances they have been exterminated by war, disease, and failure of The simple and primitive existence and the peculiar characteristics of these children of the forest are entertainingly depicted. This chapter is followed by a valuable and full appendix of statistics concerning the Indians-treaties of the United States with the tribes, the cost to the government in the case of these aboriginal wards, the reservations, their area, number of Indians in each, etc. Mr. Avery's style is most felicitous. We know of no historian more readable in manner or more elegant in rich but simple English. One could easily be persuaded to read these pages for entertainment, no less than for information. Mr. Avery has the true historic temperament as well as the scholarly intellect; there is nothing mechanical, dull or common place in the pages of this recital; once entered upon the opening of this volume, the reader is borne along with an interest as unflagging as that imparted by the shifting scenes of some play. The author has selected the material for his readers from an aimost limitless store-house, with exact discrimination. The work is popular in form, it is, as the author declares, for the reader of general culture, rather than the professional student. The latter, however, is partially provided for by having placed at his disposal a bibliographical appendix, in which are given for this volume alone a list of over five hundred authorities arranged alphabetically and under topical heads, so that sources of information on any given subject may be readily found. The work is profusely illuminated with maps and illustrations. The mechanical execution of the work surpasses that of any history we have seen. The publishers have given the production of Mr. Avery's graphic and fascinating pen a setting worthy the theme and treatment. The volumes are most perfect and attractive specimens of the modern "art of arts." No history of the United States has been honored with such royal encasement. It is worthy the shelves of a sovereign. THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. The twentieth annual meeting of the American Historical Association was held in Chicago, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 28, 29 and 30, 1904. Members were present from nearly every State in the Union, representing nearly all the leading historical societies and the Listorical departments of the leading colleges and universities. The Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society was officially represented by the secretary, E. O. Randall, Columbus, and Mr. A. J. Baughman, Mansfield, life member of the society and also secretary of the Richland County Historical Society. There were also present Miss Martha J. Maltby, Columbus, Mr. Nelson W. Evans, Portsmouth, and Dr. C. E. Slocum, Defiance, all life members of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society. The meetings of the association were held in the Mandel Assembly Hall and the Reynolds Club Rooms of the University of Chicago. The first session of the association was held Wednesday afternoon, and was opened with a felicitous address of welcome by President William A. Harper, of the University of Chicago. During the several sessions that followed, various phases of historical work, both American and foreign, were presented and discussed. Among the topics considered were methods of collection of materials, the best means of organizing historical societies, mutual calendaring of manuscript collections, and the possibility of co-operation among societies in the matter of publications. Also the relation of state historical societies to the state government, the work of American historical societies, the historical congress at St. Louis, the material of American history in the English archives, and the teaching of history in the elementary schools and other kindred topics. The names of some fifty professors of history in the colleges of the country were on the published program. Three foreign universities were also represented. Ettore Pais, professor in the University of Naples, gave an address on Roman History; Paul Milyoukov, professor of the University of Sofia, spoke on the subject of "Russian Historiography," and Friedrich Keutgen, professor in the University of Jena, gave a very useful and interesting talk on the necessity in America of the study of the early history of modern European nations. Especially interesting was the "Round Table" conference, held by the representatives of the various state and local historical societies, at which Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, presided. At this conference formal papers were read on the following subjects: "Forms of Organization, and Relation to the State Government," Thomas M. Owen, director of the department of archives and history, Alabama; Warren Upham, secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society. "The Possibilities of Mutual Co-operation Between the Societies, State and Local," C. M. Burton, president of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society; Benjamin H. Shambaugh, State Historical Society of Iowa. Director McLaughlin, of the Bureau of Historical Research, Carnegie Institute, gave an account of the indexing of manuscripts. W. C. Ford, chief of the division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress, read a paper on "Government Archives in Our New Possessions." Many topics and phases of historical research, collection and collation were presented and considered. Reports show that there is a growing interest in the history of the country, and the consensus of opinion was that more work upon the lines indicated should be taken up by the colleges and other institutions of learning, and to this the two hundred professors and teachers present enthusiastically assented. Among the social features of the meeting were a luncheon in Hutchinson Hall, Wednesday at 1 P. M.; a reception by the Chicago Historical Society Wednesday evening, and a reception Thursday afternoon by President and Mrs. Harper, at their residence, corner of Fifty-ninth street and Lexington avenue. President Harper is an Ohio man, and was formerly connected with Muskingum College, at New Concord. His wife is also a Buckeye, and when a girl lived in Mansfield. She is the daughter of the Rev. David Paul, who was the pastor of the Mansfield United Presbyterian Church from 1858 until 1864, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the Muskingum college. The American Political Science Association and the American Economic Association held their annual meetings at the same time, in the halls of the Chicago University buildings. NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING. Apropos of the need for a building for the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society, we note with much interest and not a little envy the announcement that the New York Historical Society is erecting a building for its future home on Seventy-sixth Street, opposite Central Park, New York. The site of the building was bought in June, 1891, at a cost of $300,000. Some difficulty was experienced in raising the additional money necessary to begin the work of the construction. Dean Hoffman, father of the present president of the society, was the leader and director of this undertaking. He induced several prominent New Yorkers-among them Archer M. Huntington, Miss Matilda Wolf Bruce, J. P. Morgan, F. Robert Schell, the late John Alsop King, Cornelius and George W. Vanderbilt-to contribute large amounts. The building committee was appointed in June, 1901, to receive and report upon plans for the proposed building. This committee decided to erect the central portion, 135 x 115 feet, on the lines of American colonial architecture, from the plans of Messrs. York & Sawyer, at an estimated cost of $400,000. The cornerstone was laid by ex-Mayor Seth Low, November 17, 1903. The work has been going on with more or less interruption, but it is expected that the building will be completed as far as the first story this spring. The building when completed will be the finest of its kind in the country. It will be of pink Milford granite, three stories high, affording ample shelf space for nearly 500,000 volumes and several special rooms for exhibits of various sorts, and will contain an auditorium on the main floor, capable of seating 400 persons, a lecture room, reception, lounging and committee rooms. On the second floor will be a large museum, two large lecture galleries and a reading room. The plan of this central portion of the building is so drawn that at some future time extensive wings of the same general style of architecture may be added. The New York Historical Society was founded on November 20, 1804, on which date Egbert Benson, De Witt Clinton, Rev, Dr. William Linn, Rev. Dr. John N. Abeel, Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, Dr. David Hoo sack, Anthony Bleecker, Samuel Bayard, Peter G. Stuyvesant and John Pintard met in the picture room of the old city hall, in Wall Street, to organize this society, whose principal object should be to collect and protect materials relating to the natural, civil and ecclesiastical history of the United States in general and the State of New York in particular. The society was incorporated by an act of the legislature of February 9, 1809. It is now one of the richest historical societies of the country in its accumulation of books, pictures, manuscripts and objects of art. Its library comprises over 100,000 books, pamphlets and manuscripts. At present the society is housed in its own property, a small, unpretentious building, which it has occupied for a century, which is literally packed with the invaluable collections which the society has purchased or from time to time have been bequeathed to it by distinguished donors. The securing by the New York Historical Society of such worthy quarters as it will soon possess is an object lesson which it is hoped the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society may be able to follow at no distant date. With a home such as the life and work of our society now deserves it, too, would be the beneficiary of innumerable collections of books, manuscripts and archæological relics and endowment funds. Provided with proper permanent quarters the Ohio State Society would soon occupy the same relation to Ohio archæology and history that the New York Society now bears to the Empire State. THE MAUMEE VALLEY PIONEER AND HISTORICAL The Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Association held its annual meeting at the court house, in Toledo, on February 22. The association is comprised of earnest pioneers and other loyal, patriotic citizens, living along the historic Maumee. They are endeavoring to keep alive the fires of patriotism and preserve the historic landmarks of the eventful locality in question. There was a good attendance of gentlemen and lady members. Mr. D. K. Hollenbeck, of Perrysburg, the president, called the meeting to order, and the Rev. N. B. C. Love, trustee of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society, delivered the invocation. The report of the treasurer showed a balance of $38.96 on hand. The following members were elected as trustees for thee years: D. K. Hollenbeck, J. L. Pray and C. O. Bringham. A committee of three, consisting of Julius Lamson, David Robinson, Jr., and J. Kent Hamilton, was appointed to confer with the electric roads, with a view of their contributing toward the fund for buying the unpurchased portion of Fort Meigs, which the association hopes to obtain entire, and, without destroying its historic character, transform into some sort of a public park. The association already owns nine acres, which is about one-fourth of the entire fort tract. The committee on Fort Miami reported that the association should no |