In sending copies of Dr. Henrietta M. Larson's Jay Cooke—Private Banker to its members, the Business Historical Society has taken a definite step forward. For the first time in its eleven years' existence, the Society has, with this presentation, been instrumental in distributing a significant historical volume prepared by a trained business historian and dealing with the business career of an important business man.

The advertisement which is reproduced on the opposite page is an interesting recent acquisition for which the Society has to thank Mr. Lee M. Friedman of Boston. Written by a shoe merchant who was, to say the least, rather eccentric, the advertisement is amusing and almost incomprehensible. Yet it reflects the strong personal flavor which was characteristic of newspaper advertising until long after 1849, while in its use of a headline and illustration and in its general arrangement, the copy represents a distinct technical advance over the prevailing copy of the period.

Detroit is the oldest center of civilization in the vast area of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. Mission and trading posts there were at Chequamegon, Green Bay, Michilimackinac, Chicago, and possibly elsewhere, but all save Detroit were destroyed either temporarily or permanently. The missions at Chequamegon and Chicago were abandoned soon after their establishment, and except for the presence of a few independent traders, the modern settlement of these places dates from the nineteenth century. Michilimackinac, settled earlier than Detroit, still remains a center of civilization; but there have been several removals of the settlement as originally founded, and the present one on the Island dates only from 1780, while the place has steadily dwindled in relative importance from the commercial center of a wide region to a mere summer resort.