In January the members of the Business Historical Society will receive the Casebook in American Business History, written by N. S. B. Gras and Henrietta M. Larson and published by F. S. Crofts & Company, of New York. This book is presented to the members of the Society by a generous friend of business education.

The edifice occupied by the Hall of Records at Annapolis was completed only in 1935. Its erection was made possible as part of the Tercentenary Celebration of the State of Maryland. The Land Office was given quarters in the building and moved in during the early part of 1935. The Hall of Records, proper, was opened on October 1, 1935, at which time the present writer, the first archivist of Maryland, entered upon his duties.

The organized collection of business records at the University of Illinois was begun in November, 1936, when Dean C. M. Thompson and a colleague approached several business houses in the southern part of the State.

A recent phenomenon in business is the large corporation. The capitalization of the Northern Pacific at $100,000,000 was considered unwise and even fantastic in the 1860's.

As students continue to re-work the field of American history, they turn up a great variety of new material. Some of it is of limited significance—the sparse gleanings that one expects to find where many careful reapers have been at work. But some of it is rich and important, as unexplored aspects of the past attract attention; and this is especially true of the growing knowledge about business in America's development. It is a striking paradox that while private enterprise was overwhelmingly dominant in American life, historians gave it not the slightest heed; but now, in a period when that dominance has definitely waned, historians are devoting an increasing amount of attention to the role of business in the growth of the nation.