ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 3

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

November 29, 1955

To THE HONORABLE

THE HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Gentlemen:

Since no member of the Hall of Records Commission is new this year,
there is no need to explain the purpose or the content of the Archivist's Annu-
al Report. It should be pointed out, however, that this is the single opportuni-
ty of the Archivist to give a full report of his work and that of his staff to
the Commission. It is not always possible to describe every facet of the work
of an institution of this character even in a report of this length, but the
Archivist has tried as much as possible to do so, though the statistics and the
details which are his materials are oftentimes a good deal less than inspiring.

Your attention is called especially to the report of the Records Manage-
ment Division. This division achieved a staff stability this year which it had
lacked in its first year of operation, and its accomplishments were, conse-
quently, appreciably greater. You will note, too, that while last year we were
uncertain that it would be economical to continue our bindery, the improve-
ment during fiscal year 1956 was such that we ought now to accept record
binding as a permanent function of the Hall of Records.

County and church records have absorbed much of our effort this year
and they should continue to do so in the future. Our long-term program of
providing insurance copies of all the major county record series and of all
the historic church records is only fairly begun. We are now concentrating on
reproducing the land records for the period 1851-1949 and the records of the
Protestant Episcopal Church through the Colonial period, when that church
had been established and acted as the official keeper of vital statistics for the
whole population. That we have already made good progress will be obvious
from an examination of the section of this report dealing with accessions.
That there is yet a great deal to be done is equally evident. At this writing we
have procured copies of all Maryland church records which have found their
way into the library of the Cathedral at Washington; we are now filming all
those records presently deposited in the Diocesan Library at Baltimore; and
our work with individual churches in the Diocese of Easton, where there is
no central depository, is most encouraging. In the case of the land records,
microfilming is now going forward in Baltimore and Howard Counties, and
we expect other counties to begin shortly.