Current activity in the Business School is marked by the appearance of the annual Year Book, and the purchase by the Business Historical Society of the Marblehead collection of valuable manuscripts and port records pertaining to New England trade and industry a hundred years ago.

With the recent publication of the Business School Year Book by a committee elected last spring for the purpose the need for a medium of furthering acquaintances within a widely dispersed student group has been filled.

The book is dedicated to W. B. Donham '98, Dean of the Business School, who in a short preface states that the completion of the dormitories has relieved the difficult situation by making possible a high type of social contact among the students. The book, appearing early in the year, will promote friendships during the rest of the college season. The association of names, the recognition of clubs and fraternities will aid considerably in maintaining a permanent record of the classes and class organizations. The volume, bound in red leather, contains the usual group and individual pictures, articles on the Business School Clubs, and the School of Business Research.

Valuable Collection Deposited

A collection of early customs records, many of them manuscripts dating from 1790, has been purchased by the Business Historical Society, it was announced recently. The papers, from the neighborhood to which they mainly relate, have been provisionally termed the Marblehead Collection.

These port records have been sought after a number of years by various collectors and although they were recently located by an agent of the Historical Society, they were bought up by another man before funds were available to the Society. Their second reappearance on the market was the signal for a quick purchase by the agent of the business libraries.

The Marblehead manuscripts provide a background of atmosphere ror the trade of the 19th century. Several documents relate incidents connected with the embargo of 1808 and others describe the magnitude of the carrying trade of the clipper era. The value of the collection will increase as interest in the post-Colonial period deepens. It affords a very thorough source of information on the commercial growth of New England and covers the critical events of the War of 1812.