Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/163

 THE NEW HAMPSHIRE

that, "The Society shall * * * at each Annual Meeting, appoint a commit- tee of seven, * * * which shall be called the Historical Committee whose business it shall be to procure or prepare brief biographical sketches of persons locally or generally eminent in any of the walks of life, [particularly of resi- dents of New Hampshire.] This com- mittee * * * shall copy into books prepared for the purpose, all such pa- pers ; and also all" such sketches of local or family history, family records, collec- tions of sepulchral insciiptions, copies of documents, letters, family papers and manuscripts tending to preserve or eluci- date the history of persons, families, or places in New Hampshire, as the Com- mittee or Society are able to prepare or procure."

This feature of the Society's work is not known to appear in the work of any other similar Society, and is believed to be sui generis. Of course it entails upon the committee a large amount of labor. Nevertheless, no difficulty has thus far been experienced in obtaining men for the purpose. After deliberation and ex- periment by the first committee, a demy folio was the size selected for these vol- umes, being the size generally used in Register's offices.

The work is conducted in this way : After the election of officers at the An- nual Meeting, the Chairman of the Com- mittee takes what manuscripts there are on hand, of which there are generally more than enough to fill a volume, as- sorts and classilies them, arranges them in the order in which they should be cop- ied, and makes as equitable a division thereof as he is able, between the mem- bers of his committee. He writes in such notes of explanation and connection, cross-reference and so forth, as seem nec- essary to the highest availabilit}^ of the volume. He has the paper ruled and the headings printed to order, makes an es- timate of the number of pages each mem- ber will need for the work assigned him, and then distributes the documents and folds of paper to his associates. Each member of the Committee is at liberty and is desired, to add any new matter he may see fit, and to elucidate by foot-notes

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any part of the work assigned him. Af- ter the copying has been completed, the folds are returned to the chairman, who arranges them in order, pages the whole in pencil, numbers each article, prepares an elaborate table of contents, exhibit- ing all which the volume contains, pre- pares a title-page, and any such preface or introduction as may be needed for an explication of the contents. He then prepares an alphabetical index of all the names of persons contained in the vol- ume, showing where and how many times they occur. The pencil-marks are then all carefully erased, and the volume goes to the binder, where it is bound in thu strongest possible manner, in Russia leather, and paged with a machine. These volumes vary in size from about 590 to 734 pages. One volume forms the report of the Historical Committee for a year. The fifth volume is now in prepar- ation. The manuscripts thus copied are disposed of in three ways :

1. All such as are new or recent, and of suitable proportions to be folded, are folded of a uniform width, labeled on the outside, and the number, page and vol- ume where copied stamped on each.

2. All such as are in pamphlet form are stitched in covers, labeled and stamp- ed in the same way, and are catalogued and put in jackets like the printed pamph- lets.

3. All such as are ancient, and on sin- gle sheets, are mounted in volumes, uni- form in size and style with the volumes of Historical Collections, and the place where the copy is to be found, indicated as above. In place of all papers included in the last two classes, a memorandum is put in the file of those of the first class above, so that the file when made up will contain either the original document, or a memorandum showing where it is, of every article in the volume. These in- clude only papers owned by the Society. Some are borrowed, and the originals returned to the owners.

To all the Manuscripts in the posses- sion of the Society, an index is made, in which every manuscript is entered, some several times, and this index exhibits what the manuscript is about, when and by whom written, by whom presented,

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