most progressive Danish settlement in the State.1 Here is also located the Elk Horn High School and College, a progressive Danish preparatory school supported by the church.2 The Danish population of Marshall and Hamilton counties dates from the years immediately following the period we have discussed. The Danish city colonies and rural settlements in the northern and the northwestern parts of the State are of more recent formation. In late years Danish immigration has been very small, and no new settlements have been formed in Iowa and rarely elsewhere in the country. The chief influence of the Dane has been in the southwestern counties of the State. To their material development he has contributed a large share.

THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

IOWA CITY

GEORGE T. FLOM

A brief account of Elk Horn is given by P. S. Vig in Elk Horn i Iowa, 1875-1900, pp. 1-9. On pages 10–52 is given a history of the Danish Lutheran Church at Elk Horn, which was organized in 1876.

2 An account of the early days of its history appears in The Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. XI, pp. 20–24; also in The Register and Leader (Des Moines) for May 29, 1904. The Principal of the school is Rev. Th. N. Jersild, to whom I am indebted for some facts relative to the Elk Horn settlement.

STATE AND LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

At a meeting of the American Historical Association held in Chicago in December, 1904, Professor Henry E. Bourne, of Western Reserve University, and chairman of the Association's general committee, presented a report upon The Work of American Historical Societies.1 This was based upon an inquiry conducted by him into the scope and work of the principal societies, and was an interesting and suggestive preliminary survey of the field. As a result of the Bourne report, the Council of the Association appointed Mr. Benj. F. Shambaugh, Mr. Franklin L. Riley, and the undersigned, as a sub-committee of the general committee, charged with reporting at the 1905 meeting upon The Best Methods of Organization and Work on the Part of State and Local Historical Societies.

The task thus assigned was found to be far from a holiday undertaking. As Professor Bourne pointed out: "They [the societies] are as diverse in aim and organization as the localities where they work or the periods when they originated." To attempt to prescribe a set of rules for the common conduct of institutions widely divergent in origin, personelle, purpose, and income was obviously impracticable. The committee, therefore, has been only able to extend and supplement the Bourne inquiry, to present in detail the con

1 This report appeared in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics for April, 1905, also in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1904, pp. 117-127.

siderable mass of data obtained, and to offer a few practical suggestions based upon this data and the individual observations and experiences of its members.

STATISTICAL

The committee were convinced that they could not act intelligently without first making as thorough an investigation as possible of the resources, activities, and aims of the historical organizations of the country. A blank was prepared for this purpose, following the general lines of the Bourne inquiry, but much more detailed. This, with an accompanying letter, was mailed early in February, 1905, to the secretaries of societies concerned-the mailing list being compiled from the Bibliography of Historical Societies published by the American Historical Association in 1895, the Carnegie Institution's Handbook of Learned Societies, and other sources.

By agreement between the members, Mr. Riley undertook to secure and compile reports from the societies in the Southern States; Mr. Shambaugh from those of the transMississippi States (except Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas); and Mr. Thwaites from those of the Northern States east of the Mississippi. The committee held a two days' session at Iowa City, Iowa, May 16-17, 1905, discussed the replies, and arrived at certain conclusions which are presented below.

The majority of the active organizations reported promptly; others required prodding; even to the present date, a few have failed to respond to continued requests. Reluctance to reply has generally been traceable to two widely divergent reasons: serene self-content on the part of conservative and comfortably endowed organizations displaying

small interest in a coöperative movement of this character; or to indifference bred of hopeless local conditions. In the responses of a few of the older societies was noticeable a tone implying that we had committed an impertinence in thus inquisitively intruding into their placid lives. The net result was the receipt of a body of useful, although quite unequal, data from nineteen national organizations (exclusive of the American Historical Association) having more or less to do with historical work, eight sectional, sixty-one State, and one hundred ten local. While there are regrettable omissions, it may confidently be asserted that practically every important historical society or department in the United States is included in the several lists which have been prepared.

Of the national societies engaged in the collection and publication of historical material-for obvious reasons the American Historical Association is not included—easily the most important in library and resources, is the American Antiquarian Society. Its substantial building at Worcester, Massachusetts, contains 120,000 volumes and a valuable collection of manuscripts, portraits, and antiques. The American Geographical Society, at New York, is housed in a $200,000 building and possesses a library of 40,000 volOther flourishing bodies are the American Numismatic and Archæological Society of New York, the Daughters of the American Revolution (with a large building in Washington, now in process of construction), and the Jewish Publication Society of America.

umes.

The list of sectional societies embraces many that are doing important work. The wealthiest and most effective

of these is the New England Historic Genealogical Society, of Boston, housed in a building worth $65,000 and having

a library of 66,000 titles. It possesses, also, notable collections of manuscripts, and a large museum of portraits, curios, and antiques. The Confederate Memorial Literary Society, of Richmond, owns a museum and grounds valued at $60,000, and an interesting library of printed and manuscript material relating to the history of the South prior to the War of Secession. The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, while as yet not engaged in collection or publication, has a promising future as the proposed medium of coöperation between the various historical organizations on the Western coast.

As a class, the State societies and departments were the most punctilious in their replies. Not all of the responses were satisfactory in character; but while there are serious gaps, enough information was elicited to enable the committee to present a fairly complete survey of the situation.

It was found that twelve societies or departments own their own halls-those valued at $100,000 or over being: Wisconsin, $610,000; Iowa Department, $400,000; Massachusetts, $225,000; Pennsylvania, $200,000; and New Jersey, $100,000. Thirteen are housed in their respective State capitols, seven are quartered in State universities, and six in other public buildings. The largest State appropriations are given to Wisconsin, $32,000; Minnesota, $15,000; and Iowa, $15,000.1 The Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin societies are of course the wealthiest

1 This includes both the State Historical Society at Iowa City and the Historical Department at Des Moines.