HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA. TRUSTEES. GOVERNOR B. F. CARROLL. CHIEF JUSTICE EMLIN MCCLAIN. JUDGE SILAS M. WEAVER. JUDGE SCOTT M. LADD. JUDGE WILLIAM D. EVANS. JUDGE HORACE E. DEEMER. JUDGE JOHN C. SHERWIN. HON. W. C. HAYWARD, Secretary of State. HON. A. M. DEYOE, Supt. Public Instruction. ASSISTANTS IN HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT. EDGAR R. HARLAN, Curator. MISS ALICE MARPLE, Assistant Curator. MISS IDA M. HUNTINGTON, Assistant Curator. JOSEPH STEPPAN, Museum Director. MISS SHIRLEY STEVENS, Clerk and Stenographer. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA, To the Honorable Board of Trustees: GENTLEMEN-In pursuance of the requirements of Section No. 2881-b. Supplement to the Code of 1907, I have the honor to submit herewith the Eleventh Biennial Report of the Historical Department of Iowa. Respectfully, EDGAR R. HARLAN, Curator. INTRODUCTORY. This Eleventh Biennial Report of the Historical Department of Iowa presents the detailed business of the two years ended June 30, 1912. The work of the Department has been carried forward along the lines projected at its beginning. There have been no essential changes in policy and none are in contemplation or desired. There has been no surcease of effort in collecting the source materials of the history of Iowa and the middle west, but additional stress has been put upon the work of making these materials ready for the user. The zeal of all the workers has been unrelaxed, and results are measured by their strength. THE ANNALS OF IOWA. The third series is in its twentieth year; it is an eighty-page quarterly devoted primarily to the publication of original materials upon Iowa and western history and biography. It is a medium. of information concerning the Department and its activities, forms an exchange for publications and materials, and is sent cost-free to all Iowa public libraries that desire and preserve it. There are constant demands for complete sets of this most valuable journal. An index for the first eight volumes has been recently printed and distributed. The eight volumes indexed embrace all the series edited by Charles Aldrich, founder and first Curator of the Historical Department of Iowa. His labors ending with No. 5 of the eighth volume, the present Curator thought it fitting to say by way of preface to the index, "The work is issued by direction of the Board of Trustees for the joint purpose of commemorating the life of Mr. Aldrich and of conferring upon the general public the benefit of an adequate and accurate index to his invaluable labors." No publication covering the same twenty years contains as much of the original thought of witnesses of the formative stages of Iowa life, or of inaccessible official record. Materials abound which are ready to be delivered to the public through this journal. Little effort is made at securing the deductions of scholars. The |