Maryland State House Historic Structure Report
Phase I Project Proposal
The initial phase of the Maryland State House Historic Structure Report Project (HSR) will create an interactive website that contains all of the documents and images pertaining to the Maryland State House. This website will be part of the Archives of Maryland on-line publications series and will include: an online chronology of changes to the State House since its construction, all images of the State House and its grounds, and all records relating to the State House and its grounds. The documents and images will be accessible by records series, by date, and by subject matter. The result will be an interactive website, called mdstatehouse.net, which contains all existing information on the creation, alteration, and maintenance of the State House over time. These documents will be searchable and the interactive website will be accessible to all those working on future phases of the Historic Structure Report. Participants in the project will be able to add to and change documents in the portion of the website that relates to their part of the project.
The website will be a working environment for the future phases of the project, incorporating materials prepared by the architects, engineers, historians, archaeologists, and other preservation disciplines involved in the preparation of the Historic Structure Report. This report will result in the creation of a master plan for the uses of the public spaces in the building building and for its interpretation. After the completion of the HSR, the research and documentation on the State House on mdstatehouse.net will be available to the public as a public history website. It will also result in a new book on the State House which incorporates new scholarship on the building and its dome.
The following is a plan of work for Phase One to be completed or committed in Fiscal Year 2002:
Work completed, July 2000 - January 2001: Acquisition of documentary material and creation of an online State House chronology:
The Archives believes that complete documentation is needed to inform and guide the development of the master plan that is the objective of the Historic Structure Report. In addition, these materials are needed to ensure historically accurate repairs and improvements to the State House.
Staff assessed many collections relating to the State House and its grounds on State Circle for images which have been scanned. This work includes many of the photographs, etchings, sketches, blueprints, postcards, fine arts, and stereo cards of the State House and surrounding grounds available at the Archives. The assembled materials begin with Charles Willson Peale's 1788 drawings of the State House and dome, as well as the initial floor plan published in Columbian Magazine in 1789, and continue up to the present. Staff transcribed and linked documents, including minutes of State House Trust meetings, receipts, published sources, construction proposals, and many others. Many scanned original documents were also transcribed. All of the work on this project is encompassed within Special Collection, MSA SC 5287. As of the end of January 2001, close to 1,000 images, drawings, and photographs had been scanned and placed into an online chronology.
The online chronology divides the history of the State House first by century and then into twenty-five year increments and includes links to the scanned documents and images. Staff has also developed parallel historical chronologies for changes to the State House grounds and to the Old Treasury and Land Office Buildings to facilitate dating of images. All of this work has been done in a web-enabled working environment which will become mdstatehouse.net.
Specific record series which have been searched, completely or in part, include:
MSA S 723 - Comptrollers Receipts and Vouchers for 1902-1905, boxes
29-39
MSA S 1137-1 - Minutes of the State House Building Commission, 1902-1905
MSA S 1137-2 - Minutes of the Executive Committee of the State House
Building Commission
MSA S 171-1 - State House Trust General File, 1969-1972
MSA S 171-2 - State House Trust General File, 1972-1973
MSA S 172-1 - Ad Hoc Committee on Historical Rooms of the State House,
1977
MSA SC 1652 - Sangston Collection Drawings of the State House, 1984
MSA SC 1200 - State House Architectural Drawings Collection, 1969-1970
MSA SC 1197 - Sangston State House Architectural Drawings Collection,
1971
MSA SC 1773 - HABS Survey of the State House, 1985-1986
MSA S 33-36, MSA S 38-49 - Board of Public Works - All files have been
examined except MSA S 34 (Agenda File), MSA S 39 (Plats and Plans) and
MSA S 35 (Minutes 1958-1978).
MSA S 33-1 - BPW Minutes 1865-1883
MSA S 33-2 - BPW Minutes 1883-1905
MSA S 36-3, 36-12, 36-14 - BPW Bond Issues, 1922-1977
MSA S 38 - BPW Historic Sites Survey. Nothing re: State House
MSA S 40-1 - BPW Letterbook 1904-1914
MSA S 41 - BPW Agreements and Contracts 1958-1976
MSA S 42 - BPW General File, includes files for Department of Public
Improvement, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, DGS, Executive
Department, as well as other files relating to the State House.
MSA S 43 - BPW Leases 1940-1971
MSA S 44 - BPW Meeting Files 1966-1972. Nothing re: State
House
MSA S 47 - BPW Special Appropriations, 1885-1896
MSA S 1259-121, MSA S 1259-131 - Maryland State Archives Administrative
Files. Partially completed.
MSA SC 997 - DGS Collection of State House details, 1970
MSA SC 1804: Hayman Collection
MSA SC 1890 - Marion E. Warren Collection: Mostly scanned
MSA SC 182 - The Forbes Collection: Completely scanned
MSA SC 2472: Tom Darden Collection
MSA SC 695: Paul Drumstra Collection
MSA SC 1556: State House Exhibits Graphics Collection
MSA SC 985 - Marion Warren Collection: Mostly scanned
MSA SC 2215: Maryland State House Post Card Collection
MSA SC 1456: Archives' Topic File
MSA S1259-131-1092 - 1998 Historic paint analysis by Matthew Mosca:
Scanned
MSA S1259-131: 1972-present: to be searched.
This phase has concentrated on a systematic search for documentary evidence relating to structural construction and changes to the State House in the records at the Maryland State Archives. It has included exploring existing collections for documents, contracts, receipts, vouchers, work orders, and other correspondence regarding the State House which will continue. To date the Archives has employed one FTE research archivist and one intern during the summer to work on this activity.
Work plan for February - December 2001: Design and creation of interactive website and continued search for written documentation of the State House in the records at the Archives.
The Archives' Information Management Systems staff, under the direction of Dr. Papenfuse, will design and create the interactive website to incorporate the documents, images, and chronology into mdstatehouse.net. This will follow the model of the research website created by the Archives for the Office of the Attorney General for the Potomac River case and the website created by Dr. Papenfuse for his courses on public history.
Research into the files of the General Assembly files from 1772-1999 will continue. The first 100 years are now complete. Also in this phase of work will be the incorporation of existing biographical research and documents into the online chronology, including the work done in the summer of 1998 on Joseph Clark and the research into the design of the Franklin lightning rod. The 1985 HABS drawings will also be placed online.
Among other records still to be searched are: Executive Department and Secretary of State vouchers (MSA S 1029, MSA S 1034, MSA T8-84); Executive Council proceedings (MSA S 1073-32); Scharf Papers (MSA S1485); Private governor's papers such as the Warfield Collection (MSA SC 445); General Assembly and collections of the House of Delegates and the Senate (MSA S 980, MSA S 970, MSA S 986, MSA S 975); Governor's files (MSA S 1040, MSA S 1041, MSA S 1050, MSA S 1058, MSA S 1094, MSA S 1144). A large source of materials that needs to be searched and scanned are the State House Trust files from 1973 to the present. The records relating to the repair and maintenance work that has taken place over the past five years, including the replacement of the acorn, repairs to the dome, installation of the new fire detection and suppression system, engineering investigations of the floors, and the interior renovations of the past year, are a rich source of documentation by themselves.
Other primary source materials that must be included are newspaper accounts, beginning with the Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Republican published in Annapolis. It will also encompass the Baltimore Sun from 1837 to the present. A systematic search of these three newspapers will yield a wealth of important, contemporary information.
This phase will also see the initiation of searches of the records of agencies outside of the Archives, including the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Historical Trust, the Department of General Services, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the the University of Maryland library system. Types of records to be searched will include governors papers, photographs and other images, architectural and engineering drawings and documents, and private collections. Staff will travel to various sites and search for pertinent documents and images. Staff will acquire images and documents and permission to scan them for the website. Copy prints will be made for the Maryland State Archives by staff photographer and added to archival collections at the Archives.
The project will be directed by the Director of Exhibits and Artistic Property who will be assisted by the Director of Biographical Research. Funds are included in the project budget for 1.5 FTE Archivist II positions that will undertake the research tasks. Funds are also included for a portion of the time of a Electronic Reference Archivist to complete scanning work and linking of materials that have been cited. The costs of site development for mdstatehouse.net include a Database Specialist, equipment, and software.
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