The Hall of Records Commission met on March 23, 1999 at the Archives.  Chairman Robert Mack Bell presided over the meeting and welcomed the attendees, including the newest member, Peta N. Richkus, Secretary of General Services. 

Ed Papenfuse reported on special meetings and celebratory events held since the meeting on September 1, 1998.  An exhibit of items from the Peabody Collection was opened at Government House on October 15, 1998.  Special thanks go to Mimi Calver and Carol Borchert of the Archives curatorial staff and Elizabeth Schaaf at the Peabody Institute.  Dr. Papenfuse addressed the Maryland Judicial Conference on October 30, 1998 in Ocean City in celebration of their 50th anniversary. 

For the first time in several years, George Washington's Birthday was celebrated on his actual birthday.  On February 22, in the Old Senate Chamber, the Maryland Senate held a special meeting in honor of the first president's birthday.  The body was addressed by Senator Hoffman who talked about the importance of the day.  Every year on behalf of the Senate and the President of the 

Dr. Papenfuse reported on staff activities since last fall.  The Board of Public Works asked the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property to help with the selection of an artist for the Louis L. Goldstein statue to be located between the Treasury and Income Tax buildings in Annapolis. Twenty-three submittals were received from Maryland artists.  From five finalists, Jay Hall Carpenter was selected.  The Board of Public Works is awaiting final approval on the appropriation before it awards the contract.  The Archives was instrumental in the development of  live audio/video web presentations of the Governor's Inaugural Address, his State of the State Address, and Judge Bell's State of the Judiciary Address.   Such presentations bring visual moments of importance 

Oversize record materials present unique conservation and retrieval problems.  Some parts of the public record, particularly relating to property owned by Maryland citizens, are recorded on large sheets of paper or mylar.  These include subdivisions, condominiums, surveys, and rights-of-way.  For the circuit courts, the Archives has designed and tested a web-based recordation and image retrieval system for oversized materials.  The system will be applied first in Baltimore County, and in the 
remaining counties in the next year and a half.  Dr. Papenfuse demonstrated the system for the Commission.  Index entries are being linked to images of the plats with the capability of printing them on 11x17 paper or through a plotter at close to scale. 

Among recent acquisitions in Special Collections is a trial transcript entitled The Trial of Frederick, published about 1762.
Frederick Calvert, the last Lord Baltimore, was tried for rape and this is the published transcript of his trial.  Although not convicted, he was compelled to leave England and stayed away for the rest of his life.  He died in 1771, with no legitimate heirs, and left all of his property to Henry Harford.  Few copies of Calvert's trial transcript exist, but an individual did manage to purchase one of them and donated it to the Archives. 

Dr. Papenfuse described two recent research projects.  One is a legal collection, A Guide to Six Significant Maryland Appellate Cases, put together last summer for Judge Harrell and encompassed within the Documents for the Classroom series.  The project shows how, on demand, the Archives can bring together 
materials located here and elsewhere in a 

The second project stemmed from a request by the Secretary of the Senate and  Society of Senates Past to put together biographies of living senators who are members of the Society of Senates Past. These biographies were drawn from past editions of the Maryland Manual and the current Maryland Manual On-Line and incorporated in the Archives of Maryland, Biographical Series.  The Society of Senates Past appreciated the project so much that it is funding a summer intern to work with Emily Squires to do biographical research on all past senators. 

The Archives has received a $100,000 grant from the Information Technology Fund to place hard to find and imperiled constitutional, legal, and administrative records on the Archives' web site as images and as searchable text.  The objective of the project, Maryland Legal History On-Line, is to bring on-line every printed document relating to the administrative history of the State of Maryland through 1820.  The first printed materials will come from the 72-volume Archives of Maryland series and
Bacon's Laws of Maryland, the first systematic compilation of state laws, published in 1765. 

Dr. Papenfuse outlined the plans for making the Archives' databases and programs Y2K compliant.  The effort encompasses only work that is currently conducted through the use of non-Y2K compliant dBASE IV programs and databases, all of which must be converted by January 1, 2000 in order for the Archives to function at its current level of management and service to the public.

During the third quarter of FY99 the Archives experienced a definite shift in reference activities.  In person visits declined an average of 11.8%, while reference phone calls jumped an average of 24.4%.  With the staff handling over 100 calls on several days, the daily average of phone contacts rose from 58 to 80 fairly quickly. 

Most reference inquiries pertained to matters encountered daily in reference services, such as genealogy, court records, and vital records.  And, as income tax time neared the Archives received numerous requests for copies of older assessment records on properties that were sold last year.

Other topics of note included local history concerns, such as the Anne Arundel County Almshouse, Eastport, Pierce Mill-Rock
Creek Park, Baltimore between 1924 and the present, Patapsco State Park, and Silopanna Street in Annapolis.  Economic
studies pertained to indentured servants and convicts, garment industry, development of the tobacco trade in the colonial period, and shipping on the upper St. Mary's River. Two groups of students were conducting joint studies, one involving land use in Baltimore over several blocks of time and another concerning household furnishings as found in Eastern Shore estate
inventories between 1790 and 1820. 

Colonial Maryland studies pertained to confiscation acts, physicians, and military uniforms in the 1600's.  Revolutionary period research centered around taxation and inflation and the stamp act crisis.

Miscellaneous topics included historic oyster reefs, Baltimore City Police Department, Maryland National Guard, history of recreation and leisure in Maryland, history of the Bay Bridge, civil rights riots in Baltimore City, and famous assassins. 

COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY 
    (Board of Public Works Files) 1965-1998 [MSA T2967] 
    (General File) 1958-1998 [MSA T2966] 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CERTIFICATION AND ACCREDITATION 
    (Student Record, Nonpublic Schools) var. d. [MSA T1547] 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
    (Annual Reports) 1995 [MSA T289] 

DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SERVICES, PROCUREMENT REVIEW BOARD 
    (Minutes) 1990-1993 [MSA T2508] 

DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL, SERVICES REAL ESTATE DIVISION 
    (Easements, Agricultural Land Preservation) var. d. [MSA T2339] 
    (Land Acquisitions) 1993-1994 [MSA T1565] 
    (Lease File) var. d. [MSA T1564] 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE, BC HEALTH DEPARTMENT 
    (Birth Record, Copies) 1994-1998 [MSA T2625] 
    (Death Record, Copies) 1994-1995 [MSA T2960]