Quartermaster
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Quartermaster. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in military affairs a regimental officer. In the United States army, he is appointed by the colonel, subject to the approval of the secretary of war. He has the rank and pay of a lieutenant. It is his duty in the field to mark out the camp and to superintend the assignment of quarters and distribution of clothing, fuel, and rations. In permanent quarters he has charge of the barracks or tents. The quartermaster department at Washington has general charge of military quarters. It provides for the transportation of the army, and purchases all clothing, food, tents, horses, and forage. The providing of stationery and medicine also comes within the province of this department. Emergency expenses, such as the employment of spies, interpreters, guides, the pursuit of deserters, the burial of officers and soldiers, and the care and maintenance of national cemeteries, are in charge of the department.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in military affairs, an officer who superintends the issue of stores, food, and clothing, and arregiment ranges transportation for a r when necessary. In nautical affairs, a petty officer, who, besides having charge of the stowage of ballast and provisions, coiling of ropes , etc., attends to the steering of the ship. He is appointed by the captain. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL, in the United States a staff-officer with rank of Brigadier- General. He is chief officer in the quartermaster's department. In England a staff-officer, specially appointed for duties connected with quartering, encamping, embarking , and moving troops. In both armies in the field he is responsible for the surveys and reconnaissance necessary for the conduct of the army, and has the general direction of the railways , postal, signaling, and telegraph services .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 list of the department's duties -- clothing, forage, spies, guides, "the burial of officers and soldiers, and the care and maintenance of national cemeteries" -- has been broken up piece by piece. The US Quartermaster Corps was formed in 1912, lost most transportation work to the new Transportation Corps in 1942, saw common supply purchasing pass to the Defense Supply Agency (from 1961, now the Defense Logistics Agency), and handed the national cemeteries to the Veterans Administration in 1973; a Quartermaster General still heads what remains, and mortuary affairs is still a Quartermaster mission. The regimental quartermaster Collier's described in 1921 is now normally a logistics staff section rather than one lieutenant marking out a camp. At sea the change is subtler: Quartermaster survives as a US Navy enlisted rating, but it is a navigation specialty, with the ballast, provisions and rope-coiling of the old description long gone.
Written for this edition, 2026.