18 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The largest number came
during the months of August, September and October and the next
largest during April, May and June (it is pleasant to note that
researchers who can choose their own time come to Annapolis at
its most beautiful seasons). During the year 191 items were circu-
lated which had come in during the year and most of the new
material came in too late to be known widely.

New records and new finding media, which have recently been
made available were also helpful in replying to the increasing
number of requests for information received by mail. The total
number of such requests was 515. They came from forty-three
States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Maryland led with
84, followed by Ohio, 45, New York, 44, and Pennsylvania 42. Re-
quests by mail are primarily for genealogical material so that it is
not surprising to find that the testamentary records form the largest
group of materials required to answer these requests. Military
records are next in demand in the following order: Revolutionary,
War of 1812, and War Between the States.

PRESERVATION AND REPAIR

At the very end of the fiscal year the Hall of Records installed
a Barrow Laminator which is a piece of machinery composed of
two principal parts, an oven and a set of rollers by means of which
acetate cellulose sheeting may be heated and pressed onto paper.
The Archivist has been satisfied by tests made at the Bureau of
Standards in Washington that no harm is done to the records so
treated and that they are preserved better by this method than by
the slower and more costly silking process. At present, lamination
has been substituted for silking at the National Archives in Wash-
ington, the Virginia State Library and the Delaware Hall of Rec-
ords; in Virginia and Delaware the Barrow process is used. In
addition to lamination we have begun to use a new method of
removing acids from the manuscripts which we hope will result in
preventing decay. The attention of the members of the Commission
is called to the fact that even if lamination did not have the ad-
vantages over silking which we think it has, the old process would
doubtless have to be abandoned in any case when the present stocks
of silk in this country become exhausted.