Ambrose Heal published in 1925 a book entitled London Tradesmen's Cards of the Eighteenth Century, and in the preface to this very fine volume he made the comment that “it is perhaps remarkable that no book has hitherto been published dealing with tradesmen's cards. … Not only has no book ever been published on the subject, but references in archaeological journals and collectors' magazines are of the scantiest nature and hard to track.” What Mr. Heal said six years ago is equally true today of American material, with one important exception. In 1927 a volume entitled Early American Trade Cards, from the collection of Bella C. Landauer, with critical notes by Adele Jenny, was published in New York. In this volume there are forty-four illustrations, taking us into the history of American trade cards from about 1730 to 1877. Recently Mrs. Bella C. Landauer made a generous gift to the George F. Baker Library of several hundred trade cards of the latter part of the nineteenth century. These cards supplemented two previous gifts, for there were some trade cards in the Trotter Collection, and Mr. Charles H. Taylor has given a number of such cards to the Business Historical Society.

Last month the century-old title controversy was revived when Mrs. Pinchot, wife of the Governor of Pennsylvania, in a radio talk, made the assertion that she had always objected to the use of the expression “First Lady”; declaring that “it is a foolish, high-hat kind of a label, whether it is the first lady of a city, a state, or of the whole country — and is not especially appropriate in America.”

Tunnel — what imaginative pictures are conjured up in our minds on hearing this word! To most of us come visions of trains swooping through impassable mountains. Few of us would think of a tunnel as a foot-path or carriage-way under a river, but the first successful tunnel was just such a project under the Thames River.

During the past month both Mr. Howard Corning, Curator of the Manuscript Department of the George F. Baker Library, and Mr. Frank C. Ayres, Secretary of the Business Historical Society, spoke over stations WBZ, WBZA and WIXAZ. This broadcast was arranged through the courtesy of Mr. E. J. Rowell, Coöperative Representative of the New England Radio Market News Service.

There is an old saying that “every cloud has a silver lining,” but no doubt it must have been difficult for German business men to see any ray of hope during the dark years succeeding the war when the mark plunged down on the exchange until it was practically worthless. In fact, never in the history of the world has a currency depreciated to such a degree.