Historical News
The Alexander Hamilton Bicentennial
Commission, established by con-
gress in 1954 for the celebration of the
two-hundredth anniversary of
Hamilton's birth in 1957, is pursuing a
comprehensive program of
memorial exercises, publications,
activities in the field of education and
public affairs, commemorative
exhibitions, and the issuance of special coins,
stamps, and medals. Its publication
program is well under way, with
Columbia University undertaking to edit
and publish a complete edition
of the Hamilton papers. In this
connection, the commission is conducting
a "treasure trove search" for
letters, documents, manuscripts, and other
memorabilia relating to Hamilton.
A committee of the American Association for
State and Local History,
under the chairmanship of S. K. Stevens,
executive director of the Pennsyl-
vania Historical and Museum Commission,
has been appointed to direct
the participation of the association in
the work of the bicentennial com-
mission, of which Senator Karl E. Mundt
of South Dakota is chairman.
The Annual Student History Conference,
composed of history students
at Hiram, Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll,
and Mt. Union colleges, held its
spring meeting this year at
Baldwin-Wallace. A student from each school
presented a paper, which was followed by
a critique by a student from
another school and then by a general
discussion. The conference was
organized five years ago at Hiram
College. The Hiram student who pre-
sented a paper at the first conference
in 1951 was present this year as a
member of the staff at Baldwin-Wallace.
The library of the Western Reserve
Historical Society recently received
as a gift the Alfred Mewett collection
of prayer books, missals, graduals,
and other liturgical works. There are
over seventy pieces in the collection,
including many in manuscript dating from
the early fifteenth century. The
library has also acquired the General
Simon Perkins land records and
manuscript map books, with surveys of
towns and individual tracts in the
Western Reserve from 1803. The fourteen
volumes in this collection were
the gift of Mrs. Russell Wilson and
Samuel Watson Smith, direct descen-
dants of General Perkins.