GENERAL CATALOGUE PUBLISHED FOR PHI BETA KAPPA

Alumni may be interested in the Phi Beta Kappa General Catalogue, 1766-1922, recently issued by Dr. Oscar M. Voorhees, Rutgers '88, who edited the volume.

The General Catalogue is a bulky volume of 1473 pages (in 6 pt. type), published for the United Chapters of the Unionist-Gazette Association of Somerville, N. J., and in each of three parts deals with the names and records of over 55,000 persons. It is almost needless to remark that the statistics presented are nowhere else accessible.

The volume is prefaced by a thirty-page introduction, which gives interesting material concerning the earliest years—facsimiles of documents, and portraits of John Heath and other "founders"; and shows the growth of the society from its very modest beginning on December 5, 1776, at William and Mary College, in Virginia, to its present-day nationwide importance. In the first fifty years the chapter list increased to 7, with 3,265 members; at the end of a century to 24 chapters, with 13,000 members ; in 1922—the 146 th year to 93 chapters, with 55,761 members, of whom 40,830 are living. Six chapters have been added since the book went to press.

The catalog proper consists of three parts: the 93 chapter catalogs, p. 1-896, which supplementary and addenda bring the membership lists down to the end of 1922; the geographical directory, p. 901-1231, which groups all numbers by residence according to states and cities; and the general index, p. 1233-1473, which lists all numbers alphabetically with their chapter corrections, all married women being listed under both their maiden and married names.

In the chapter catalogs, or statistical records, each member is listed under the class year" (or year of admission if an alumnus or honorary member), with information as to college degrees and other honors, profession, and residence ; also, if deceased, the date of death. An ingenious system of abbreviations makes available these facts at a minimum expenditure of space, and of effort in reference. Each of these divisions of the catalog forms a considerable volume in itself, and each has its peculiar value to make the book indispensable to chapter and college library archives, and to the members of the society, as a complete biographical record of its 150 years.