take charge of these records, the same as formerly authorized under the Secretary of State. This act took effect October 1, 1881.

Mr. Fernow, who has charge of these records now in the new State Capitol, is employed under the direction of the Regents in preparing other portions for publication. Considerable additions have been made from time to time by the recovery of manuscripts properly belonging to the State, which had got separated, and in the procuring of others that have a close relation to our history.

The report on the State Library at the beginning of 1884, notices the accession during the year previous of many thousand pages of manuscripts which had belonged chiefly to Governor George Clinton, and many of them to Governor De Witt Clinton. They consisted of a large quantity of correspondence with men of eminence throughout the United States. These additions will double the number of the former series of twenty-three volumes of the Clinton Papers, but are not of equal value.

A proposition for the collection of the aboriginal geographical names relating to places within the State of New York, with their signification, was submitted to the Regents by Henry R. Schoolcraft, in a letter dated February 6, 1843,' and was by them referred to the Legislature as an object worthy of encouragement. It was proposed as a rule that where these names had been fixed by usage, or legal enactments, that no attempt should be made to vary the orthography, but that in the case of those which were still unsettled, a uniform system of notation should be adopted, differing as little as possible from the common mode, or the ordinary pronunciation of the vowel sounds in English.

It was thought probable that the origin or meaning of these names, along the banks of the Hudson below Albany, might have already in some instances disappeared, although for the most part, the descendants of the native tribes in other sections of the State, had preserved their language as fully as they existed in 1600 when the country was wholly uninhabited by Europeans.

Mr. Schoolcraft was subsequently appointed by the Secretary of State, to make a special report upon the Indians of New York, in connection with the census of 1845.2 His report contains a large amount of information upon the history and traditions of the Indian

1 Report of Regents, 1843, p. 12.

"Appointed under section 15, chap 140, 1845. Report given in Senate Doc. No. 24, 1846, pp. 271.

tribes still existing, and in relation to the traces left by races that had passed away.

The late Lewis H. Morgan, of Rochester, whose researches in the line of Indian archæology and primitive languages have rendered his name familiar in the scientific world, undertook, at the expense of the State, and under the auspices of the Regents, about 1848-50, the collection of specimens of Indian fabrics and manufactures, as made at the present time, in which some of the appliances of civilized life are employed to decorate and improve upon the simple arts of aboriginal times. These collections are preserved in the State Museum, and figures and descriptions were published in the early reports of the Regents upon the State Cabinet. The Regents have at various times, published in their Cabinet Reports, maps of surveys of Indian earth-works, and descriptions of antiquities relating to our aboriginal period, of which there are only historical traces that remain.

In the opening address of Chancellor Pruyn, at the Regents' Convocation in July, 1876, he alluded to the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the battle of Saratoga as an object deserving of attention. Resolutions were passed recommending the subject to the Legislature.

In the next annual report, allusion is made to the proceedings to be held on the 17th of October, 1877, and the hope was expressed that the State would not fail duly to honor both the event and the distinguished services then rendered by General Philip Schuyler, one of the original members of the Board of Regents, who had contributed largely to the success of the event then to be celebrated.'

In 1879 a volume was published under the direction of the Secretary of State, pursuant to concurrent resolutions of the Legislature of 1878, and chapter 391 of the Laws of 1879, containing an account of several centennial celebrations that had been held in 1876 and 1877, viz.:

Proceedings of the New York Historical Society, with the address of Charles O'Connor on the adoption of the Constitution, February 6, 1877. Proceedings at Kingston; First formation of a State Government; The Battle of Oriskany; Centennial of August 6, 1877; Battle of Bemis Heights; Centennial of September 19, 1877, laying the corner stone of a monument to David Williams, one of the Captors of André Schoharie, September 23, 1876; Burgoyne's surrender; Celebration at Schuylerville, October 17, 1877; Cherry Valley Massacre; Celebration of the unveiling of a monument at Cherry Valley, August 15, 1877; The Old Capitol; The New Capitol; Historical and commemorative proceedings relating to the former and to the occupation of the New Capitol.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY FROM 1784 TO 1884, INCLUSIVE, INCLUDING THOSE WHO HELD THE OFFICE EX OFFICIO AS WELL AS THOSE ELECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE.

† Acting Lieutenant-Governor, 1811; Lieutenant-Governor, 1813-22, excepting a part of 1817, when Acting Governor.