6 TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

Hall of Records, the Waldo Gifford Leland Award of the Society of
American Archivists, the first state archival institution to be so honored.
The citation reads as follows:

"To Morris L. Radoff, Gust Skordas and Phebe R. Jacobsen of the
Hall of Records of Maryland for The County Courthouses and Records
of Maryland as the most important of a notable series of publications
by this State Archival Agency and as a worthy example to all Archivists
whose responsibilities include the preservation of, and the provision of
adequate guides for records at the County level."

The Prince George's County book was published by the Littleton
Griswold Fund of the American Historical Association as No. 9 in
this series of American Legal Records. It was suggested to the Hall of
Records Commission, by its then Chairman, Chief Judge Ogle Marbury
of the Maryland Court of Appeals. The Hall of Records provided a
modest subsidy and prepared a transcript. It was our purpose to see that
it was well edited and for that we waited almost twenty years. The
legal editor who was finally selected was Professor Joseph H. Smith,
of the Columbia University School of Law and author of Appeals to
the Privy Council from the American Plantation, Colonial Justice in
Western Massachusetts, and other works on early American legal sub-
jects. He was assisted in the political and social aspects of the historical
introduction by Dr. Philip A. Crowl, of the United States Department
of State and author of Maryland During and After the Revolution.

This is a remarkable study of county court procedure in the late
seventeenth century. It will, of course, be for others to evaluate, but I
cannot pass this opportunity to point out that it is a key to Maryland
county court records that has long been lacking. Moreover, the subject
index is a mine of information on the period, as is the splendid proper
name index prepared by Mrs. Carr of our staff.

It is noteworthy that the American Legal Records Series was
launched by Judge Carroll T. Bond in 1933, assisted by Professor
Richard B. Morris, with a study of The Proceedings of the Maryland
Court of Appeals 1695-1729.

Respectfully submitted,

MORRIS L. RADOFF
Archivist and Records Administrator