The Department of Licensing and Regulation supervises many of the State's licensing and regulatory
boards. Created in 1970, the Department consolidated over thirty State agencies and boards responsible
for licensing and regulating businesses, professions, and trades.

The oldest of the Department's agencies date to the nineteenth century: the Bureau of Statistics and
Information (1884); and the State Board of Examining Engineers (1892). More boards were established
in the twentieth century: the Board of Examiners of Public Accountants (1900); the Board of Barber
Examiners (1904); the State Board of Commissioners of Practical Plumbing; the Maryland State Board
of Censors (1916); the State Athletic Commission and Maryland Racing Commission (1920); the Board
of Examiners and Registration of Architects, and the Board of Hairdressers and Beauty Culturists (1935);
the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, and the Real Estate Commission of Maryland
(1939); and the Maryland Home Improvement Commission (1962).

Some early regulatory agencies became obsolete. Functions, for example, of the Examiners of
Horseshoers, formed in 1898, and the Board of Examining Moving Picture Machine Operators, estab-
lished in 1910, were discontinued. Enduring agencies operated as separate entities.

The first effort to bring together licensing and regulatory boards came in 1951, when the Central
License Office was authorized to house five boards (Chapter 280, Acts of 1951). The Office provided
office space and clerical services to the Board of Barber Examiners, the Board of Examining Engineers,
the Board of Examiners of Motion Picture Machine Operators, the Board of Electrical Examiners and
Supervisors, and the State Board of Commissioners of Practical Plumbing. Boards that licensed and
regulated health care and environmental professionals were placed under the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene as that department was organized in 1969. A year later, the Central License Office was
abolished and all remaining licensing and regulatory boards became part of the Department of Licensing
and Regulation (Chapter 402, Acts of 1970). As new boards were established, they were placed under
the Department's supervision: the Maryland Board of Examiners of Landscape Architects (1971); the
State Board of Registration for Foresters (1972); the State Board of Registration for Professional Land
Surveyors (1977); the State Commission of Real Estate Appraisers (1990); the State Board of Certified
Interior Designers (1991); and the State Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigera-
tion Contractors (1992).

The Department is organized into four divisions: Financial Regulation; Labor and Industry; Occupa-
tional and Professional Licensing; and Racing. The Division of Financial Regulation controls the operation