ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 19

we wanted. Mr. Skordas has been put in actual charge of the physical
protection of the building, of the staff, and of researchers who might
find themselves in the building during an alert. A shelter has been
provided in the vaults supplied with chairs and lights, and this shelter
has been marked for the guidance of the public in the search rooms
of the Hall of Records and the Land Office, Several drills have been
held and the Commission may feel assured that the staff of the Hall of
Records realizes its responsibilities in this matter and is prepared to
acquit itself of them.

MARYLAND COMMITTEE FOR THE CONSERVATION
OF CULTURAL RESOURCES

Committees for the conservation of cultural resources were organ-
ized early in the year for the protection of art objects, books, records,
old houses and other objects of cultural value which might suffer from
direct military action or from the heightening of normal hazards bound
to occur in war time such as neglect due to the scarcity of caretakers,
thoughtless demands for scrap paper and metal, the increased incidence
of fire due to the expansion of industry and so forth, These com-
mittees were called into existence by the National Resources Planning
Board, an agency of the Executive branch of the Federal government.
The Archivist was asked to call together the custodians of the larger
collections of such objects in Maryland and he was also asked to act as
temporary chairman.

An organization meeting was held at the Hall of Records on Janu-
ary 5, 1942. At this time the Archivist was elected permanent chair-
man, and Lieutenant Charles W. Mixer (USNR), Librarian of the
Naval Academy, was chosen Secretary. Membership was made to
include representatives of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Peabody
Institute, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland
Library, the Maryland Historical Society, the Walters Art Gallery, The
Maryland Institute, the Bar Association Library, the Department of
Legislative Reference, the Archives of the City of Baltimore, the
Maryland State Library, the St. John's Library, the Baltimore Museum
of Art, the United States Naval Academy Library, the Work Projects
Administration and the Hall of Records. A second meeting was held on
March 24, 1942 at the Walters Art Gallery.