38 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT

RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS
Historical Records

During the ten years which have passed since the Hall of Re-
cords was established, all of the objectives of the Tercentenary Com-
mission have been fulfilled or now are close to fulfillment. The pur-
pose of the Memorial Hall of Records was to gather in one place for
preservation all of the historical records of the State, "historical"
being defined as the period preceding the adoption of the Federal
Constitution. At this time all of the records of this period created
by State governmental agencies are at the Hall of Records. No
town records survived except those of Annapolis, which are also in
our vaults, and those of Baltimore which are well cared for in the
Archives of the City of Baltimore. The county records, which came
in slowly at the beginning, are now being received as rapidly as they
can be handled. All the county records of Southern Maryland are
here; for Western Maryland only two counties, Baltimore and Fred-
ick, had any considerable body of records and they are at the Hall
of Records. In addition, we now have all or most of the records of
the following Eastern Shore Counties: Kent, Queen Anne's, Somer-
set and Dorchester. The rest will come as scheduled.

Many of the counties have sent their records for a later period
and State agencies have deposited all of their non-current records,
some when they are only two or three years old. As a result the
Hall of Records is now fast filling up. When the original purpose
of the Hall of Records will have been fulfilled completely, the build-
ing which was provided for the purpose will be full. This does not
mean, of course, that there will be nothing left to do. Care and ser-
vicing of the records is a continuing process; there is no end to the
preparation of useful finding aids.

Modem Non-current Records

Another question now poses itself. Should the original objec-
tives, the collecting and care of historical records, now be enlarged
to include all non-current records? As a matter of fact, we have al-
ready accepted records from the counties for the period after 1788
and for almost all the State agencies until the quite recent past. So
long as there was space in our stacks there was no need to make a