FIRST REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE OF STATE AND LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES.
By Frederick Wightman Moore, Secretary of the Conference.
Reprinted from the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1904.
In accordance with an invitation emanating from the programme committee of the American Historical Association, a conference of state and local historical societies was held in Chicago on the morning of Thursday, December 29, 1904, in connection with the annual meeting of the national association.
The conference was called to order at 10.30 a. m. in the library of Reynolds Club House, University of Chicago, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, who had been designated by the committee as chairman of the meeting. Frederick W. Moore, of the Tennessee Historical Society, was selected by the delegates as secretary.
The chair briefly stated the objects of the gathering to be an informal consultation concerning the problems which beset the societies and the state departments of archives and history. The invitation extended to the organizations and departments had in the main been restricted to those of the West and South, because, in the opinion of the committee, the eastern societies were not as a rule confronted by the questions which troubled those in the newer States. Institutions invited to attend had been asked for suggestions. Many had replied, their letters covering so wide a range that it was apparent that a two hours' meeting would unfortunately not suffice to touch
