The Business Historical Society has recently acquired a most interesting and valuable little book, a typical page of which is reproduced in the accompanying cut illustrating the industrial life of the sixteenth century.

Our collections are growing with amazing rapidity but there are still many things that should be contained in them.

“The objects of the present work are: First to satisfy an imperious public curiosity, which has thus far been only partially gratified by the public journals.”

Thus begins the preface to The Income Record, A List giving the Taxable Income for the year 1863 of Every Resident of New York.

In the days when New England lived on and through the sea, it was no unusual event for one of her tiny vessels to return home, after having spent three or four years knocking round the world, with its cost paid for and in its hold a cargo bought with a portion of its freight money. The modern imagination is struck with the tale of riches but is apt to relegate to the sphere of romance the chance stories of hardship and adventure that have come down.

The Editor of the Bulletin feels that it is his privilege to acquaint our membership with those opportunities which appear from time to time to acquire small collections of primary business historical material. The funds at the disposal of the Society for the purchase of this rare old material are not yet sufficient to provide for all the collections that turn up, and rather than lose them, we feel sure that some of our members would, as in the past, appreciate being told of the opportunity to add to the collections of the Society.

The Library's constant growth in variety as well as in physical size is nicely illustrated by the recent acquirement of the three books which form the subject of this article. Not only is a very wide range of American material available, but also we are reaching out into other lands and other times.

Something of the determination with which Massachusetts, and particularly Boston, waged the struggle for connection with the West, that is to say, for existence, is mirrored in a rather scarce state document which the Society possesses. The “Report of the Commissioners of the State of Massachusetts on the Routes of Canals from Boston Harbor to the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers” (Boston, 1826) conceals, beneath a mass of engineering data, a vivid story of New England's past.

(That our collections are proving serviceable in a wide variety of purposes is shown by the article which follows, a sketch interestingly recreating from the unlikely medium of a prosaic set of household account books, something of the domestic life of the old New Bedford whalers of a century ago. Ed.)

Announcement has recently been made in the public press of the projected fusion of business literature now contained in the Boston Public Library and the Harvard Business Library. These collections, together with that of The Business Historical Society and others, it is now planned to amalgamate into one unified collection of business material in the new Baker library building of the Harvard Business School.

A small but valuable lot of bank reports makes a noteworthy addition to the library of the Business Historical Society.