There has developed within the city limits of Pittsburgh, and the adjoining territory that rounds out the boundaries of Allegheny County, and for more than a score of miles along the three rivers that converge at the Point, a region that is known as “the workshop of the world.” The tremendous industrial and commercial expansion of this area in recent years is well known, but “the roots of the present lie deep in the past” and the origin or background of this development is somewhat shrouded in obscurity.

Business may connote a humdrum, monotonous routine, and yet it need not necessarily do so. Romance and adventure were tied up closely with the shipping business of the middle nineteenth century. Especially was this true when that shipping business happened to center around romantic Hawaii as was the case with the James Hunnewell enterprise, the papers of which are available in the Baker Library.

Since this issue of the Bulletin marks the eighth anniversary of the publication, it provides a fitting time to review the activities of the Society in the last eight years.

Who discovered the first Baldwin apple tree? A reminder of this much mooted question, which was apparently settled some years ago, was brought to light recently, when a map of Wilmington, Massachusetts, showing the site of the original tree was found among the Baldwin papers of the Baker Library.

For over forty years at the beginning of the railroad era, the Taunton Locomotive Works constructed engines of all shapes and sizes for railroads in every section of the country. Fragments of the fascinating history of this company may be recaptured by reading the two locomotive record books and one sales book now in the possession of the Baker Library.

The records of one of the first joint railroad operating agreements in this country, made between the Boston and Worcester Railroad and the Western Railroad in 1839, may be found in the archives of the Society. Under the agreement, freight and traffic was to be handled cooperatively over the lines of the two roads. The contract covered such items as the through fare on the two roads from Boston to Springfield, division of profits on fares and tariffs collected, joint operation of passenger and freight trains, and reimbursement for services performed for each other.

The rapid growth of the sales tax movement in the United States and the results and implications of this development are discussed in a recently published book, “The Sales Tax in the American States,” by Robert Murray Haig and Carl Shoup.