A nation acquiring new territory is not in every sense of the word in an advantageous position. There are always administrative problems which require information outside the experience of that nation. This was surely the case at the time of the acquisition of Louisiana. The territory had been handed back and forth between the French and Spanish since 1719—the French holding the territory up to 1766 when the Spanish came into power. They governed the territory until 1801 when Napoleon succeeded in gaining control for France once more. But Napoleon found it impossible, because of war on all sides at home, to realize the dream of power in the New World. In 1803 Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France.

There is occasionally preserved, in a mere handful of papers, a story surprisingly complete. This is true of one small group of manuscripts found in the Baldwin collection — a collection frequently mentioned in previous numbers of the Bulletin. The papers here referred to concern the organization of a business enterprise undertaken by Cyrus Baldwin and that astounding old adventurer, Nathaniel Appleton.

The Business Historical Society calls to the attention of its members a recent publication which should be of greatest value and interest. This is the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, which has been published jointly by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the American Geographical Society of New York.