Page:Final Report of the Northwest Territory Celebration Commission.pdf/22

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

ment of interest to everyone but particularly for juveniles.

OUR FIRST GREAT WEST—T. Bod!ey (Filson Club.

THE OLD NORTHWEST AT THE KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH OF FEDERAL UNION—A. L. Kolmeier (Principia). A scholarly treatise of the causes of Union as the greatest single fact in American history.

ANGLO-FRENCH BOUNDARY DISPUTES IN THE WEST—Theodore C. Pease. A volume principally of documents from French. English and Spanish archives illustrating the diplomatic struggles for the Mississippi Valley lands of which part became, finally. Northwest Territory of the United States. A rather long introduction sets this material in its broader historical setting.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE DISRUPTION OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE—Griffin.

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787—B. H. Pershing. The prize winning book in the national competition. To be published shortly. Some of the chapter headings are: The Old Northwest Under Foreign Flags. The Old Northwest Passes Under American Control. Free Institutions for a Free People. Building Homes in the Wilderness. An Experiment in Territorial Administration. Etc.

These are all books which the Commission feels are worthy of any reader's time or a place on any library shelf.

Several current books were submitted which either from the standpoint of glaring historic inaccuracies or of poor writing were not considered of sufficient merit to be recommended or included in the list.

Aside from the text book before described herein, the Competition did not pay anything toward publication of any of these books.

This record is seemingly quite unusual and has been commented upon generally by the Book Review departments of the metropolitan press.

To the authors and to the publishers of these books the Commission extends its thanks and deep appreciation.

Moving Picture

While the Commission did not—or has not as yet carried out its tentative plans for a mammoth moving picture spectacle, such as the "Covered Wagon", etc., it has, in complete two reel form, a "talkie" of the trip of the caravan.

This was made possible though the cooperation of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.

The camera crew started at Ipswich with the caravan and completed its trip on the arrival at Marietta. This film is made available to all schools and organizations in the area served by the company, and a print is in the files of the Commission as a matter of record.

Numberless thousands of feet of amateur films were taken and are being used in various public ways.

History-Biographies

This item has already been covered under the headings "Adult Contest" and "Historical Novel".

Caravan Pageantry

This proved, as was intended, the major feature of the celebration program; the method by which the nation at large was made most conscious of the commemoration, and by which the

20