1975-1986: The Early Years as State Archivist
When Ed Papenfuse became State Archivist, at the age of 31, he was one of the youngest state archivists in the country. The Archives had a staff of 20, was still housed in the Hall of Records Building on the St. John's College campus, and was a unit within the Department of General Services. The Archives had 25,000 cubic feet of records in its care and the new State Archivist told the Washington Post that, by the year 2000, he expected there to be 121,000 cubic feet, a forecast which turned out to have been on the very conservative side!
There have been many highlights to the Papenfuse Years. Here are a few of them:
His tenure began with the celebrations of the American Bicentennial which saw a huge increase in interest in genealogy and history in general, and African American heritage in particular. This interest led to the publication, in 1976, of Alex Haley's best seller, Roots. Much of Haley's historical research had been done at the Maryland Archives, with the assistance and encouragement of Ed and Archivist Phebe Jacobsen. Alex Haley remained a friend of the Archives and its staff until his death in 1992.
One of Ed's missions as State Archivist has been to use celebratory events to keep the state's history before the public and its elected officials. One of the first of his tenure was the 200th Anniversary of the General Assembly in 1977.
In 1978, the Second Conference on Maryland History featured two Pulitzer-prize winning Maryland authors, Alex Haley and William Warner, both of whom were patrons and supporters of the Archives. In the same year, the state of Massachusetts presented Maryland with an accounting ledger of Maryland's 4th Regiment of Continentals from the Revolutionary War. This was just one of many important additions to the state's historical record acquired during the Papenfuse years.
Along with celebratory events, another vehicle used by Ed for bringing the state's history to the public eye has been exhibits featuring Maryland records, images, and maps. One of Ed's great interests is maps and his talk on Watkins Point in 1982, and in 1983, the exhibit On the Map, drew on that interest and expertise.
The granddaddy of celebratory events of these 25 years was the 1983-84 Bicentennials during which the state marked three very significant anniversaries:
An important part of the celebrations was the installation of new interpretive exhibits in the State House. These exhibits featured George Washington's resignation, Annapolis the Capitol, Congress at Annapolis, the Road to Peace, and the Charter of Maryland. In addition, the mannequin of George Washington, with an exact replica of the uniform he wore for his resignation, was placed in the Old Senate Chamber, and the replica of the John Shaw flag was hung from the dome and then in the Silver Room. All of these exhibits were unveiled with great fanfare during the Bicentennials.
The following year, on February 26, 1985, the state marked the 350th Anniversary of Representative Government in Maryland.
An important step in the documentation of the State House took place in 1985, under the auspices of the Archives, when the Department of the Interior sent a Historic American Building Survey (HABS) team to Annapolis to create a complete set of measured drawings of the State House.
During this time, Ed was also busy writing and publishing. Among these
works were:
In 1984, a major milestone for the Archives was its establishment by the General Assembly as a separate agency within the Executive Department, no longer a unit of the Department of General Services. The push was on for a new building to house this new independent agency - the Maryland State Archives. It was certainly needed: Ed's prediction of 121,000 cubic feet of records by 2000 had long since been surpassed. What would the new building look like? There was much concern!
While the "old building," the home of the Archives since its creation in 1935, had been outgrown, its lovely architectural features would be missed.
After much dreaming and planning by Ed and his staff, ground was finally broken for the new building on Rowe Boulevard in the winter of 1983. The band played, the soldiers marched, the audience was attentive and Ed gave a rousing speech. There was a lovely party at the old Hall of Records afterward. Construction took almost three years.
On to the next era...