Forbes Experiments With Q-Rays

Professor E. W. Forbes '95, Curator of the Fogg Art Museum, will carry on the work which he and Mr. Alan Burroughs of the Minneapolis Museum have been doing with money awarded a little while ago from the Fund. The work has to do with X-rays and has great possibilities.

"We are experimenting with the X-ray row and hope to reach definite conclusions this summer. If we are successful a sure way of detecting forgeries in the old and supposedly valuable pictures. This will eliminate the current doubt and expense, which is so deleterious to collectors and experts today. Another great question, whose ghost our experiments if successful would lay is as to whether or not it is worth while to clean old and retouched pictures."

Usher Will Go to Spain

Professor A. P. Usher, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, has written the following article on his proposed research in Spain:

"The trip to Spain, made possible by the grant from the Milton Fund, is intended to lay the foundations for a study of money and prices in Spain during the period of the price revolution, 1500 to 1660 caused by the importations of gold and silver from the new world. Although Spain distributed the new stock of metals, no statistical study has yet been made of price movements in Spain, nor has there been any substantial study of Spanish Commerce and its relation to the export of specie. The task is so large that the cooperation of a number of research workers will be necessary; candidates for the doctor's degree at Harvard and other universities will doubtless bear the brunt of the work, but it is hoped that others may also be induced to cooperate. Effective planning of the scheme in its entirety makes it essential to examine the material available in the various Spanish archives, printed inventories being as yet incomplete.

Best Material in Nobles' Houses

"For such a study the best material is found in the accounts of institutions and the households of the nobles. The Archives of the great monastic houses, of the five great military orders, and of many ducal houses are known to be substantially complete. The exact nature of these resources is not well known. We know much about the archives of the Indies at Seville and about the archives of the Marta at Madrid. But without further examination, it would not be possible to plan the details of the price series to be embodied in the general index number.

Will Make Circuit of Spain

"The examination of representative deposits of archives will require a fairly complete circuit of Spain. Entering from the north by way of San Sebastian, the municipal archives of Burgos, Yalladolid, and Suinaveas will be visited. There are several important archives at Madrid, both public and private. The archives of the military orders are at Alcala nearby, and if possible the municipal archives at Toledo will be inspected. Leaving Madrid, we will visit Valencia and then proceed northward with stops at Taragona and Barcelona, with a side trip to Saragoza if time permits.

"No attempt will be made to visit the archives in the south, and this itinerary also omits the western towns. It is scarcely possible, however, to examine all the primary municipal archives in the time available for our work."