A PROVISIONAL LIST OF THE PUBLICATIONS

OF AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC, LITERARY,

AND OTHER SOCIETIES

FROM THEIR ORGANIZATION

COMPILED UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION OF

R. R. BOWKER

NEW YORK

OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY

PREFACE.

A

LARGE wealth of special literature exists in the regular publications or incidental books and pamphlets of societies organized for publishing in a special field or of whose work publications form an integral part. The number of these societies is legion, and they have existed in America for a century or more. The records of early societies are most inadequate and there has been no adequate record even of societies now current. There have been several noteworthy special bibliographies, notably Griffin's of Historical Societies, and Growoll's of Book Clubs, and several general bibliographies have made an incidental feature of lists of the publications of societies. This was done to some extent in the early catalogues of James Kelly, and a like feature on a more extended scale has been included in appendixes to the later American Catalogues for the periods 1876-84, 1884-90, and 1890-95. The first of these last-named lists was compiled by the present editor with the coöperation of the Smithsonian Institution, of Harvard University Library, of the Boston Public Library, and of the Boston Athenæum Library. These libraries have continued to coöperate in the successive lists, and the Boston Public Library has also included in its comprehensive and useful list of periodicals, etc., currently received in the principal libraries of Boston, issued under the direction of Mr. Jas. L. Whitney, the titles of transactions and other serial publications of societies, though without entry of individual issues.

There is almost no field in bibliography so important to the special student, and there are few so fruitful to the general inquirer, as that of the publications of "learned societies," whose number and importance in this country has grown within the past generation quite beyond precedent in any other country or period. The historical societies, in regard to which the later Western States have taken so advanced and creditable a position, constitute but one of many lines of development. The issues of such societies as the Grolier Club, the Filson Club, the Dunlap Club, are of great importance to the scholar and collector, and they are rarely to be found in ordinary catalogues.

It seemed most desirable that some general bibliography of the publications of American publishing societies should be undertaken, and the present endeavor is the outcome. Like the lists of the special periods referred to, it is based on direct correspondence with the several societies so far as they still exist and word could be had from them. Special bibliographies and the coöperation of the authorities of the

libraries mentioned and of other libraries have also been utilized to the utmost. In addition to the acknowledgment specifically made in previous lists, thanks are especially due to Mr. Wilberforce Eames, of the Lenox Library, for his liberal and generous expenditure of personal time and trouble in the obtaining of material and in the examination of proofs; to Mr. Hérbert Putnam, recently librarian of the Boston Public Library and now of the Library of Congress; to Mr. John S. Browne,