Guide To The Materials For United States History In Canadian Archives Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Guide to the Materials for United States, History in Canadian Archives This volume is part of a series by means of which the Department of Historical Research in the Carnegie Institution of Washington is endeavoring to make better known to those who work in American history the materials for that history which are preserved in foreign archives. Guides to the materials in the archives of England, Spain, Italy, and Germany have already been published, a volume for Mexican archives is about to appear, and volumes for France and other countries will follow. The constant relations between Canada and the English colonies, or the United States, during two centuries of conflict and a hundred years of peace, across the longest international line, save one, that the world has ever known, have made it inevitable that the archives of Canada should abound in documents useful, and sometimes highly important, to the history of the United States. Probably few American students suspect the extent of that abundance. It is especially difficult to appreciate in the case of the Public Archives of Canada at Ottawa. That wonderful collection has increased by leaps and bounds, and few persons, even in Canada, are fully aware of the rich claims it has to their pride and admiration. In the effort to make its treasures better known to students one is inevitably hampered by this very rapidity of growth. Fresh accessions will quickly make one's manual out-of-date; but the present need must nevertheless be met. A large part of the Archives of the Dominion consists of transcripts from London and Paris. The originals of these transcripts are, it is true, dealt with in the books on London and Paris archives which Professor Andrews and Mr. Leland have been preparing for the Carnegie Institution of Washington. But Ottawa is nearer than London, and many an American student will find it most practicable to pursue his researches in Ottawa, aided by the calendars published by the Dominion Archives and by the present work, which in respect to the series of transcripts is framed to be the complement of the official calendars. The student finds excellent facilities given him at Ottawa, with the most appreciative liberality. It is also well worthy of note that the Archive establishment possesses a photostat, by means of which copies of its documents, which are mostly in modern and legible handwriting, can be readily and cheaply obtained. The chief author of this book, Mr. David W. Parker, now on the staff of the Dominion Archives, spent eight months, in 1910 and 1911, at Ottawa in the service of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, preparing the sections, on the Ottawa collections, which fill the major portion of the book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.