12 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS

At the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists
held in Montgomery, Alabama, in October, 1940, the Archivist was
elected a member of the Council. He was also appointed to the
Committee for the Preservation of the Records of Emergency
Agencies whose chairman is the Archivist of the United States.
The Assistant Archivist and the Archivist attended the annual meet-
ing of the American Historical Association in New York City in
December, 1940. The Archivist became a member this year of the
newly formed Society for State and Local History; he is a member
of the Nominating and Membership committees of this organization.

In addition to the visitors to the Hall of Records who came
singly as researchers or tourists, we also received during the year
a large number of groups both from Maryland and elsewhere. Dur-
ing certain seasons of the year, when the tourist traffic is heavy,
we find ourselves functioning as a museum with about half the staff
giving dozent service. We offer the same hospitality to all these
groups although, to be sure, we are sometimes aware that the very
young—and the very pretty— are restless to be off to the Naval
Academy. We are especially anxious to interest the local historical
and patriotic groups of Marylanders not only in the records which
we have but in the preservation of other materials in their own
localities and in their homes, We were especially happy therefore
to entertain a very large and interested group of the Women's
Eastern Shore Society of Maryland who came on June 9, 1941. A
delegation from the American Penwomen came on October 28, 1940.

The Archivist spoke to the Women's Club of Annapolis and
Anne Arundel County on October 28, 1940, where a demonstration
was given of the care of manuscripts by Mrs. Ruth Krebs. On
November 13,1940, Mrs. Krebs, Mr. Allison Trader and the Archivist
gave a daylong demonstration of repair, microfilm and photostat
work of the Hall of Records at the C. Burr Artz Library in Fred-
erick. An address on "The Hall of Records and the Eastern Shore"
was given by the Archivist at a Maryland Day meeting of the
Women's Eastern Shore Society of Maryland in Baltimore. The
Archivist spoke on the "Historical Value of Local Records'' at the
dedication on May 11, 1941, of the new home of the Carroll County
Historical Society, in Westminster; on May 14 he talked to the