Note
In my report for 1904 I gave the reasons in favor of the printing by the Library of this and of similar unpublished manuscript records in its possession. It would save excessive wear and tear upon the originals; it would enable the texts to be studied by investigators who can not come to Washington; and it would encourage that thorough, detailed, and continuing study of them which their value and interest and a proper understanding of American history require. These reasons apply with peculiar force to the Records of the Virginia Company, unique in themselves and unique of their kind, and an additional one, in their case influential; that publication would make them available to persons who would not master the difficult chirography of the original.
Their history is fully told in the Introduction by Miss Kingsbury, and their importance as a document emphasized in the Preface by Professor Osgood. Previous efforts to secure their publication in extenso had not been successful. The present one originated in a proposal by Professor Osgood in behalf of the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association to edit them as a contribution to one of the Annual Reports of the Association; and although the work as issued is an independent publication of the Library, it has had the benefit of his expert counsel. It was at his instance also that Miss Kingsbury, then a graduate student in his department at Columbia, began the undertaking which she has so well accomplished, and which has consisted (1) in a complete transcript of the text itself; (2) in a close study not merely of this but of the numerous collateral and subsidiary documents both here and abroad; (3) in the preparation of the Introduction, Notes, Bibliography, and Index; and (4) in aid upon the proof. The proof has also, however, been read word for word with the original text, and revised by the Chief of the Division of Manuscripts, with the excellent assistance of Miss Minnie V. Stinson of that Division.
Worthington Chauncey Ford
- Chief, Division of Manuscripts
