ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 5

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

To THE HONORABLE

THE HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Gentlemen:

While many things of note occurred during the year, nothing so
noteworthy as the final settlement of our controversy with the Librarian
of Congress concerning the Maryland Records in his custody. I shall
not go into the details here because each of you has seen the arguments
pro and con, especially during the last few years, which has seen the
Maryland Legislature pass a Joint Resolution urging that these records
take their place again with the Maryland archives and separate resolu-
tions introduced at the request of the Commission by each member of
the Maryland delegation in the Congress of the United States, all with-
out appreciable effect on the Librarian of Congress. It seemed that
thirty years of effort would come to naught.

Then, this year, the Honorable Samuel N. Friedel, member of
Congress from the seventh district of Maryland, became Chairman of
the House Administration Committee, as well as Chairman of the Joint
Committee on the Library. Even more remarkable, he remembered our
problem and promptly scheduled a hearing for May 20, 1969- Mr.
Skordas and the Archivist attended with the Librarian of Congress,
Dr. Quincy Mumford, the Assistant Librarian, Mrs. Elizabeth Hamer,
the Chief of Liaison of the Library with Congress and the legal advisor
to the Librarian.

The hearing proved to be a searching one, and I think that we
were able to make our point clear, namely, that these books were part
of a series of the Treasurer of the Western Shore of which we were
in possession of the major share. The Committee urged us to settle
the matter out of court, as it were, and we did. On November 3, 1969,
the records were brought to the Hall of Records and I signed a receipt
for them. The agreement will be found elsewhere in this report.

Our archival duties caused several brushes with the courts in the
course of the year. A researcher found, what he considered, an error
in the records of the Orphans' Court of Anne Arundel County, now
in the custody of the Hall of Records. His appeal was first to me, but
I explained to him that I had no power to change the record and I
advised him to appeal to the source of the record, namely the Orphans'