Guides and Indexes

• Guide to the Baltimore City Archives: This guide written by City Archivist William LeFurgy is your go-to guide for understanding the governmental records located at the Baltimore City Archives.
• List of Record Groups and Manuscript Collections: This is a simple list with links to the online Guide to Government Records catalog listings.
• The Guide to Historical Record Groups: This guide contains detailed descriptions of what each record group and their series contain.
• Annual Reports of City Agencies: This guide details all the annual reports in our collection and where to find them. Organized both by year and by department.
• Container Listings: This searchable pdf gives container listings for selected record group series.
• Subject Card Index: Created by the WPA-HRS inventory
• Name Index: Created by the WPA-HRS inventory- contains every name mentioned in the historical records
• WPA-HRS Index Books: Created by the WPA-HRS inventory, this is the chronologically arranged description of every record indexed by the WPA.
• WPA-HRS Bonds and Contracts Index Book (1907-1917) and WPA-HRS Bonds and Contracts Index Book (1917-1924): Created by the WPA-HRS inventory, these are a indexed descriptions of contracts and bonds entered into by different departments of the city government
• WPA-HRS Record Groups Conversion Chart: Helps convert WPA-HRS numbers into current records groups and series.
• Passenger List Index contains cards indexed from the Passenger lists created by vessel captains coming into the port of Baltimore 1833-1866.
• Guide to Security Microfilm: Written by William LeFurgy, this guide covers all microfilming completed before 1985.  The reels are currently located at the Maryland State Archives, and many are in the process of being digitized.
• Index of Records, Plats, Atlases and Miscellaneous Drawings: provides access to a majority of the maps in the collection
• Governing Baltimore: A Guide to the Records of the Mayor and City Council at the Baltimore City Archives
• Mayor’s Papers: Folder-level inventory of mayor’s papers through 1971; Schaefer’s Papers;
• City Hall Papers Index: Created by the WPA-HRS, this is the index to the papers from the construction of the new City Hall, built between 1867 and 1875.
• Suspicious Deaths in Mid-19th Century Baltimore: An index (arranged by surname of the deceased) to the coroner’s reports from 1827, 1835-1860, 1864, and 1867.