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torical societies that accomplish great results as collecting agencies. There are also a very few state departments that are able and willing to foster and direct the various important lines of research which are necessary to the publication of valuable contributions to history.

The latter field seems to be the special province of the university, with its corps of graduate students and its large number of alumni, as well as its various other literary affiliations, which reach to every part of the State. These circumstances afford to persons who are well trained opportunities as well as incentives to contribute their part toward the development of historical work in the different States. Three fourths of the contributors to the publications of the Mississippi Historical Society are alumni of the State University. In the near future the proportion of contributions from this source will doubtless become even greater.

The idea of publishing at the University of Mississippi the finished products of historical investigation was derived from the Johns Hopkins University, and the utilization of the State Historical Society was at first only a means to this end. The society developed rapidly, however, and within a year the historical work under the direction of the secretary and treasurer of that organization embraced so many different kinds of activity that the office became very burdensome. Then followed a process of differentiation, which culminated in the creation of the Department of Archives and History, the model for which was furnished by the then newly created Department of Archives and History in Alabama.

In the opinion of the writer the organization for historical work in Mississippi is unique, and contains at least one idea which is original. It is that of two coördinated, state-supported agencies, one with headquarters at the State University, the other with headquarters at the State Capital, and both of them working successfully and harmoniously in their respective fields. These agencies bring to bear upon the historical work of the State two of the influences—academic and political which are the most powerful and progressive in any Commonwealth.

The Mississippi Historical Society has issued annual volumes of Publications since its reorganization. Its energies are primarily directed to the publishing of finished products of historical research. Seven volumes of Publications have been issued, the eighth being now in the press, each of which has been more valuable than the preceding one. The volumes which have been published are well bound in cloth and contain 154 contributions, aggregating 2,742 pages. Volume VIII will contain 28 contributions, which will make a book of about 550 pages.

A general classification of the contributions that have been published by the Mississippi Historical Society, with the number of con-