ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 27

O'Conor's two terms of office. Negotations for transfer of this
material were initiated by the Archivist several months before
the new Governor was to take office. Governor O'Conor cooperat-
ed to the fullest extent. After removing the papers which were of
purely personal interest, he agreed to allow everything else to
remain in the custody of the State. The papers relating to the
last biennium of his administration were retained at the State
House and the rest transferred to the Hall of Records. The ma-
terial is especially valuable since it gives an excellent picture of
the activities of the State during World War II. Equally impor-
tant is the fact that precedent has been established for the quick
transfer of Executive files, which it is hoped will be followed by
future governors of the State.

The largest accession of county records came from the Tal-
bot County Circuit Court. A number of the records were badly
damaged by mildew and mold as the result of having been stored
in a damp basement room in the courthouse. Several years ago,
the volume records were removed to the attic and placed on
wooden shelves by HRS workers, but the damage had already
been done. A good many of the volumes will require extensive
repair, while others have been so badly damaged that the only
hope of saving the record is the application of special photo-
graphic techniques, such as infra-red photography. Two or three
volumes may be beyond saving by any means.

The Charles County Land Records up to 1790 have now been
transferred to the Hall of Records and photocopied, thus com-
pleting our program in that county. In Dorchester and Queen
Anne's Counties we are slightly more than halfway through, and
in Talbot County we have just begun. We have also acquired
indexes to land records of the three counties last named. The
Talbot index is one which was transcribed and discarded. We
have repaired it and placed it in service in our Index Room.
The indexes for Dorchester and Queen Anne's Counties are photo-
static copies of those now in use at the courthouses.

Other important transfers of county records included the
original papers dating to 1788 from the offices of the Registers