LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

August 4, 1943.

To THE HONORABLE

HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION,
ANNAPOLIS,, MARYLAND

Gentlemen:

The following pages will furnish you with an account of the activity
of the Hall of Records for the past fiscal year. Your attention is invited
at once to the fact that the fiscal "year" was composed of only nine
months, October 1, 1942 to June 30, 1943, in order that the fiscal year
of the State of Maryland might be made to coincide in the future with
that of the Federal Government which begins always on July 1. The
shortness of the "year" will, of course, be reflected in every part of this
report: the large amount of money reverted to the Treasurer, the drop
in circulation, the quantity of new materials received, and so forth.

The Archivist notes here with regret that the Hall of Records
suffered a grievous loss in the death of Judge Carroll T. Bond, Chairman
of the Hall of Records Commission. How large Judge Bond's part
was in the creation and the growth of the Hall of Records will be out-
lined briefly in another part of this report.

An examination of the list of members of the professional staff
will disclose further changes due to the attraction of higher salaries in
Washington. The loss of Miss Elizabeth W. Meade, who had been
Assistant Archivist from the opening of the Hall of Records, to the
National Archives in Washington, was especially regrettable. The loss
of a second secretary in the course of a single calendar year was also
a serious loss since the amount of paper work has continued to increase.

Several projects begun previously were completed during the year.
Our first two publications: Catalogue of Archival Materialf Hall of
Records and Calendar of Maryland State Papers, No. 1 The Black
Books, finally came from the press after many delays on the part of the
printer. Such reviews of these volumes as have already appeared have
been most gratifying, The shortening of the fiscal year and the almost
insuperable difficulties created by the war have prevented the completion
of our publications progam for this year, Unless there is considerable
improvement m the printing situation, no effort will be made during the
coming fiscal year to follow our publications schedule.

All of the records in our custody which we considered to be of the