THE HARRIS LETTERS

RS. Thomas A. Janvier of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has given

MR

the Library an interesting collection of letters, written to her and to her mother, Mrs. Sandwith Drinker, by Hon. Townsend Harris during his sojourn in Japan as our first Consul General and, later, as our first Minister. The earliest is dated November 21, 1856, and the last written shortly after his return to the United States - October 29, 1862. Their style is delightful, and they contain narrative and description which is not in his Journal as printed by Dr. William E. Griffis in his "Townsend Harris" (Boston, 1895). These with the exception of an occasional comment do not relate to diplomatic affairs, but to the scenery, the customs of the people and his estimate of their character, his daily life and the difficulties and hardships and loneliness which he endured, and the ceremonials which were attendant on his intercourse with local officials and the Imperial Government. The present and ever increasing importance of the Far East in world affairs gives especial interest to all information concerning the years. in which our intercourse with Japan was beginning. Our knowledge of those days from European sources is slight, at best, and this enhances the value of the letters of so experienced an observer as Mr. Harris. These facts, also, make valuable his brief comments on diplomatic affairs and on his European colleagues when they had followed him to Tokio.

The first letter contains a description and plan of the house at Shimoda which was assigned to Mr. Harris as a residence and is accompanied by two india ink sketches one a view of Shimoda, the other an exterior view of the Consulate, really our first legation in Japan by Mr. Henry C. J. Heusken, the devoted Secretary and Interpreter of the Consulate and Legation. Another letter describes his first journey to Tokio, his ceremonial entry into the city when the American flag, the first foreign flag to fly in Yedo, was carried in the procession which attended him- his interviews with the Imperial officials, and his state presentation to the Emperor. Still another refers to the gift of a snuff-box from Queen Victoria with it is correspondence of Mrs. Janvier with Dr. William E. Griffis and Professor Brander Matthews concerning the disappearance of the box after Mr. Harris' death.

All the letters are supplied with notes by Mrs. Janvier, which add materially to their value by identifying persons and explaining allusions.

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NEWS OF THE MONTH

GIFTS

URING the month of March, 1920, the Library received as gifts a total of 3,318 volumes, 5,448 pamphlets, 505 maps and 139 prints. Some of the more important and interesting of these gifts were the following:

Mr. John Powell Lenox of Oak Park, Illinois, gave to the Library his "Christ in Art" Collection, consisting of fifteen large leather-bound albums of reproductions of paintings and sculpture. Mr. Lenox had been collecting these photographs and prints for a period of about twenty-five years.

Two rare and important items of early Americana were received as gifts: from Mr. Edward W. Sheldon, "Indian Treaty Proceedings," New York, Parker & Wyman, 1757; and from Mr. William Sloane, “A Sermon preached at Plimmoth in New England, Dec. 9, 1621 [by Robert Cushman]," London, 1622. Mrs. Howard Townsend and Mrs. R. P. Carroll presented a collection. of 130 letters and documents (including 4 on parchment) and 63 deeds, being chiefly the papers of James Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton, Junior, also two maps and 126 letters and documents in the Polari Case 1831–32, etc.

From the Library of Henry E. Huntington came a photostat facsimile of "The Book of Lauues and Libertyes concerning the inhabitants of the Massachusetts, collected out of the records of the General Court for the several years wherein they were made and established," Boston, 1647, Cambridge, 1648; from Mrs. Isaac N. Seligman came "The Journals of Washington Irving (from July, 1815 - July, 1842) edited by William P. Trent and George S. Hellman," 3 v., Boston, 1919 (printed by the Bibliophile Society from the original manuscript journals belonging to the collection of the late Isaac N. Seligman); from the Baron Shibusawa, Tokyo, Japan, through the courtesy of the Hon. Theodore E. Burton, came his work on the Shogunate of Japan in & volumes; from Señorita Josefina Martínez de Ferrari, of Santiago de Chile, came the ten volumes of the "Obras Completas de Marcial Martinez," Santiago de Chile, 1919, and two other volumes by Don Marcial Martinez; and from Mr. Charles R. Flint came the four volumes of "Bartoli Commentaria in Primam Digesti veteris cum additionibus Do. Alexandri de Imola. Do. Andreae Barbatiae. Do. Celsi Hugonis. Nouissimè D. Petri Pauli Parissii illustrata, accurateque castigata," Lugduni, MDLII.

Very interesting and valuable collections of war maps were received, as follows: From General John J. Pershing, a volume of maps showing operations of American Divisions on the Western Front, Copy No. 16, prepared

by Map Room G-3, G. H. Q., under direction of Lieut. Col. X. H. Price, G. S.; from the Instituto Geografico Militare, Firenze, Italy, 112 "Carta del Teatro di Guerra Italo-Austriaco e delle altre zone di guerra e delle terre redente," in portfolio; from the British Embassy, Washington, D. C., a set of 18 maps of the British and Allied battle fronts; and from the Ministère de la Guerre, Service Geographique de l'Armée, Paris, "Une collection complète des Plans Directeurs du front Français de la Mer du Nord à la Suisse," 333 in number. From Mr. Vincenzo Pandolfi of New York came an impression of his etching "The Marketplace, Malines"; from Mrs. Lorillard Spencer, Newport, R. I., two etchings by Emily Burling Waite; and from the Composer's Music Corporation, New York City, 43 musical compositions published by them.

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ADDITIONS AND USE OF THE LIBRARY IN MARCH, 1920

URING the month of March, 1920, there were received at the Library 24,196 volumes and 7,367 pamphlets. (These include the additions to both Reference and Circulation Departments.) The figures for readers, and for volumes consulted in March will be given in a later number of the Bulletin. Visitors to the building numbered 240,909.