Essays
ecpclio, Remembering Maryland - 2 years ago
The Forgotten Mothers of Maryland © by Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist & Commissioner of Land Patents, retired Georges de la Tour, ca. 1640. The Repentant Magdalen, National Gallery of Art Writing history is an exercise of contemplation and imagination, of projecting back in time in an effort to understand why and how people behaved, how they viewed the world about them, and what the major influences were that affected their daily lives. Here a repentant Magdalen reflects on what? Her past sins? Whether or not there is true forgiveness? Is it merely an artist's stud...
The Maryland Charters of April and June, 1632
ecpclio, Remembering Maryland - 2 years ago
Maryland at 400: Revisiting the Maryland Charter and The meaning of Liberorum Hominum (Free Men) ©Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland state Archivist, Retired Figure 1: Duke of Kent, Charter Day, June 23, 1984, St. Mary’s City, presenting Governor Harry Hughes with a facsimile of the Official Recorded Original of the Maryland Charter from Patent Roll 8 Charles I, Part 3, no. 2594, British National Archives C 66/2594 On Charter Day, June 23, 1984, during the 350th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Maryland, the Duke of Kent, representing the British Crown, presented a f...
Unknown, Remembering Maryland - 2 years ago
Where is Watkins Point? (Draft for comment) Fig. 1: Gerard Soest, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore and his Grandson Cecil with a Slave attendant, 1669-1670, courtesy of the Maryland State Archives Commission on Artistic Property. On July 29, 1669, Charles Calvert (1637-1715), son of the Proprietor of Maryland and the colony’s governor, turned over the reigns of power to his uncle, Chancellor Philip Calvert (1626-1682) and left with his two year old son for London. He took with him the details of the negotiations he had conducted with Edmund Scarburgh of Virginia that appeared to...
ecpclio, Remembering Maryland - 2 years ago
Reality, Critical Thinking, and Access to A Permanent, Truthful Record of the Past
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 2 years ago
Virtual Reality, Critical Thinking, and Access to A Permanent, Truthful Record of the Past ©Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Archivist of the State of Maryland, retired First presented September 10, 2003, revised April 5, 2018 At a University of Maryland Law School luncheon several years ago, Barbara S. Gontrum, introduced the faculty to “New Library Initiatives.” In a softspoken, persuasively engaging presentation, she outlined a wide range of services, electronic, paper, and human, that the library
provides for the study of the law. She reminded the faculty of the great cost of mainta...
Maryland Day 2018: Putting Maryland on the Map, 1673
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 2 years ago
A Birthday Present for Maryland: A New Book about Augustine Herrman’s Map of Virginia and Maryland, 1673 In October of 1659, Augustine Herrman, an expatriate Bohemian tobacco merchant born near Prague, but now living and working out of New Amsterdam, reported on a diplomatic mission to Maryland. Merchants in New Amsterdam had close ties to the Chesapeake where they carried on a vigorous trade in imported goods (including yellow bricks from Holland) and tobacco. Herrmann reported back to his superiors that there was definitely a need for a good map of the area. He wrote that First...
Reflections on the History of the Maryland Judicial Conference and Judicial Reform
ecpclio, Remembering Maryland - 3 years ago
When is an Annual Report not An Annual Report?, or A Rule Unto Itself, A Brief History of the Maryland Judicial Conference by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist October 30, 1998 Judge Glynn, Judge Bell, members of the Maryland Judicial Conference, Ladies and Gentlemen, Before I get myself into too much trouble, let me begin by saying categorically that the proceedings of this conference will be the 50th Report of the Maryland Judicial Conference. When Judge Bell asked me in February to give you a brief history of the Maryland Judicial Conference today, I was flattered...
ecpclio, Remembering Maryland - 3 years ago
The purpose of this domain and web site is to provide a forum for public comment and suggestions for a series of essays on Maryland Archives and History which are products of my nearly 40 years as the Archivist and Deputy Archivist of Maryland. It is one of three related sites, this one, Remembering Annapolis, and Remembering Baltimore. Other essays and reflections on Archives can also be found on the blog I began several year ago before I retired, http://marylandarchivist.blogspot.com. Ultimately, with constructive suggestions and criticisms from readers, these essays are inten...
A Tribute to a Vanquished Web Site: ecpclio.net
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 3 years ago
going going gone for blog Going, Going, Gone! This week the Maryland State Archives decided to eliminate from the airways a web site that I created as a portal for cooperative research and writing on topics relating to Maryland History. I explained the purpose of the site in the introduction which I have altered from the present to the past tense in light of its demise: http://www.ecpclio.netwas a multifaceted research and image depository site within the Archives of Maryland On Line. It encompassed research inquiries relating to the whole range of archival resources, public and priv...
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 4 years ago
In the Shadows Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1775-1852) A Marylander born in London, educated abroad, and the first foreign born First Lady Reflections by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist, retired Louisa Catherine Johnson lived always in the shadow of others suffering one personal misfortune after another (including perhaps 8 miscarriages and the alcoholism that killed her two eldest sons). It was no wonder that she sought attention through an array of illnesses that plagued her throughout her adult life. First it was her parents and her sisters, then her hu...
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 4 years ago
Past and Future Monuments of the Monumental City: Finding our Way Edward Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist, retired September 8, 2016 - 6:30pm, Maryland Historical Society Abstract: Baltimore is home to 246 monuments and public artworks earning it the moniker, “The Monumental City”. The recent uproar over the fate of four of the city’s sculptures, such as the Lee and Jackson monument, prompts us to reevaluate how we think about and teach history. Should the monuments be melted down (as King George III's statue was in 1776), moved, or interpreted in place? Making use of the c...
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 4 years ago
"Sonny do you see anything of the pig's foot coming?" The Religion of George and Anne Mynne Calvert Expressed in Art, Words and Deeds Revised from Remarks at the Spring Meeting of The American Catholic Historical Association March 31, 2007 ©Ed Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist Emeritus In attempting to reconstruct the past, historians have long since learned that evidence is elusive and imagination is necessary to explain what hints survive. Rarely do you find the silver bullet, the verification in uncontestable form of whatever aspect of the narrative you are attempting t...
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 4 years ago
Fatti Maschii Parole Femine Strong Deeds Gentle Words? Source: Huntingfield Corporation Map Collection, Maryland State Archives, MSA SC 1399-1-526 The earliest known public printing of the George Calvert family coat of arms with the family motto was in 1635. It appeared on a map of Maryland that accompanied a pamphlet written to promote the new colony that George Calvert’s son, Cecil Calvert, had begun on the shores of the St. Mary’s River in what is today St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Engraving of the west range of the stableyard ("aula") of Arundel House by Adam Bierling, 1646,...
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
Remembering December 23, 1783 & January 14, 1784 by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivists, retired It has never been easy being President of the United States. On Tuesday evening, January 12, 2016, in his State of the Union address, President Obama presented his hopes for the future to a Congress that has been far from friendly over the past several years, and has persistently obstructed his proposals with a savagery of language that has been intensified on the campaign trail, as the time for the election of a new president nears.[1] President Obama may take some sol...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
What to Do About Four monuments to the "Lost Cause"/Confederacy in Baltimore City?
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
- On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in New York in front of George Washington and his troops. In reaction to what had been read, soldiers and citizens went to Bowling Green, a park in Manhattan, where a lead statue of King George III on horseback stood. The mob of people pulled down the statue, and later the lead was melted down to make musket balls, or bullets for use in the war for independence. Careful records were kept, and it is known that 42, 088 bullets were made. * *Source: http://www.teachushistory.org/american-revolution/resour...
Midtown Scholar Bookstore, October 15, 2015
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
Midtown Scholar Making and Re-Making Midtown: The Midtown Scholar Written by Cary Burkett, Arts & Culture Desk and witf Host Oct 15, 2015 2:10 PM [image: ac scholar front.jpg] The building at the corner of Verbeke and Third Street in Harrisburg's Midtown neighborhood has a green-and-red striped awning with yellow letters across its border that proclaim: Midtown Scholar - One of America's Great Independent Bookstores. Longtime Midtown resident Frank Hummel is sitting outside. He loves the bookstore. "It's a shining light. It's a beacon...
Words on Vellum & Paper: The Magna Carta, The Bill of Rights, H. L. Mencken, and F.D.R.
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
The impact of words on the law, and what is perceived of as rights and privileges shared by the body politic is hardly a myth when it comes to the language of the *Magna Carta*. What is important about the document is the resilience of its words. The document may have had little immediate impact (apparently the Pope disallowed it and King John ignored it), but its words were persistently carried forward in time to the point where they did, and still do, have meaning in the law and in practice. In 1987 I presided over a ceremony celebrating the *Magna Carta* which resulted in an op-ed...
Who 'owns' the waters of the Potomac River?
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
[The following is derived from a talk I gave to the Washington Map Society in 2009. Given the recent media attention concerning the depletion of the world’s water resources this essay, perhaps, has more relevance than I thought when it was originally presented.] Maps, Water Rights and Regulation: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the Battle over the Waters of the Potomac River © Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents, emeritus There is an ancient proverb made popular by Benjamin Franklin that runs: For want of a nail the shoe was lost; ...
Washington's Birthday Celebration, 2015
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
Washington's Birthday: Opening Remarks on the dedication of the Washington Document Case, February 16, 2015 Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist, Emeritus Today is the official Federal holiday for Washington’s Birthday. While it is not either day on which he actually celebrated his birthday (February 11 old style, according to the then-used Julian calendar, and February 22, new style, Gregorian Calendar adopted in 1752- Washington personally celebrated on both days), it is the now designated day we are meant to pay tribute to our First President. In 1842, a young lawyer...
Lost Neighborhoods and Public History
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 4 years ago
Over the next few weeks I will be launching a new website and on line research center devoted to the history of Baltimore's current and lost neighborhoods. The objective will be to provide an interactive website and repository for research and writing about the history of Baltimore City from the perspective of time and place, utilizing current and historical mapping to create time and space layers of city-scapes that can be viewed in Google Earth and Google Maps and are linked to the life stories of the owners and occupants of the built city at specific points in time. For exampl...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
On Monday, November 26, 2012, it was my privilege to say a few opening remarks at an exhibit of documents and printed materials related to a formative period in American History, the extra-legal efforts of the thirteen British Colonies to separate themselves from British rule between 1774 and 1789, a cause not fully successful until the Treaty of Ghent in 1815, following the Second American War for Independence. The occasion was the display of documents, printed material, and paintings largely owned by Stanley Klos, supplemented by loans from Seth Kaller, Michael Sullivan, and the...
Reflections on a year as President of the Baltimore City Historical Society
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
A Treasure Salvaged from Poplar Grove As my term as president of the Baltimore City Historical Society comes to an end, I was asked by the editor of the newsletter to reflect on the year past and offer suggestions on the future course of the Society. Having spent over 40 years salvaging and making accessible the surviving historical records of Maryland, including this original map of the first Eastern Shore railroad, I decided to offer suggestions on how to fill in the holes of what we know or would like to know about the history of Baltimore and the rest of the State by making bes...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
Several years ago a good friend and I put together a document packet for use in the schools on the 1967 riots in Cambridge, Maryland, and the 1968 riots in Baltimore, which we later updated to include the work of a University of Baltimore conference on the topic. We called it "Is Baltimore Burning?" as an allusion to the cable Hitler sent to his commanding general in Paris as the Allies approached the city. Perhaps the most telling document we provided was an unauthorized recording of a meeting Governor Agnew held with the black leadership of Baltimore which I found buried in ...
Recreating Lost Neighborhoods: The House on Ann Street, Fells Point, Baltimore City, Maryland
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
- Stories of life in a seafaring community in the first decades of the Republic, from the perspective of an owner of the Robert Long House (812 Ann Street, Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland), her family, and a few of her neighbors* *Romaine Somervile, the indefatigable former director of the Maryland Historical Society, and a leading Fell's Point preservationist, asked me to contribute a talk and tour for the Preservation Society of Fell's Point and Baltimore Heritage in celebration of the 250thanniversary of the Robert Long House (812 Ann Street, Fell's Point). What follows is an ...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
April 13 “a little snow lying in some places. Martins appear. Mockingbird sings” Reflections on Remembering Time and Place-- Thomas Jefferson in Annapolis, Maryland, November 25, 1783-May 11, 1784 Thomas Jefferson / Charles Willson Peale, 1791/ Oil on canvas / Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Thomas_Jefferson_Portrait.jpg After Thomas Jefferson returned from his diplomatic mission to France in 1790 to become Secretary of State in Washington’s administration, Charles Willson Pea...
Yesterday's email: John F. Kennedy, Max Freedman, and the history of Imperial China?
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
- Yesterday's email* *Are the private messages a public figure writes of importance to our understanding of the past? Should all correspondence, particularly emails, of public figures be subject to public scrutiny and permanent retention regardless of what server or storage device they may be on? These are serious questions that will not be answered easily and are so politically charged at the moment, that resolution is not imminent. Fifty-five years ago we were not confronted with the problems posed by public policy via email, and fairly reasonable guidelines for managing the pa...
First Citizen and Antilon: Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Daniel Dulany
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
First Citizen Awards: 2015 [image: First Citizen Award Medal] In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States in 1976 to strike a bronze medal of the same size as the original commemorative medal and furnish it to the Baltimore Museum of Art (P.L. 94-257) Remarks before the Senate of Maryland by Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist, Emeritus 3/19/2015 President Miller, members of the Senate, distinguished guests, ladies and ge...
Dedication of the document case for George Washington's resignation speech
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 5 years ago
Washington's Birthday: Opening Remarks on the dedication of the Washington Document Case, February 16, 2015 Good Evening. It is a pleasure to be back with you once again to mark this historic occasion. Today is the official Federal holiday for Washington’s Birthday. While it is not either day on which he actually celebrated his birthday (February 11 old style, according to the then-used Julian calendar, and February 22, new style, Gregorian Calendar adopted in 1752- Washington personally celebrated on both days), it is the now designated day we are meant to pay tribute to our ...
Remembering Two Saints and A Knight: St. Cecilia, St. Clement, and Sir Richard Lechford
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
Remembering Two Saints and A Knight: St. Cecilia, St. Clement, and Sir Richard Lechford (illustrated) The first time I had the privilege of speaking to the Society of the Ark and the Dove was 35 years ago almost to the day when I was asked to speak again on St. Clement’s Day, 2014. I had forgotten all about that talk 35 years ago until the week before I was scheduled to speak again, when, in looking for something else, I came across a typescript of my remarks. I thought about returning to the topic as my theme that afternoon. It had to do with a wonderful manuscript copy of Maryl...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
- Helen and Bob Fisher, 1942*When Aaron Copeland composed his "Fanfare for the Common Man," he did it as a tribute to those Americans who were fighting in World War II. As I was driving home this week I happened upon the familiar opening passages of the piece as I searched for music on my new hands free speaker for my Iphone. I thought of my father-in-law Bob Fisher and remembered a tribute I had written about him some years ago. Politically my father-in-law and I did not see eye to eye. He was a Goldwater Conservative and, at the time I married his daughter in 1965, I was a Rock...
Maryland the 'Free' State: November 1, 1864
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
Emancipation? Maryland The 'Free' State: November 1, 1864, Why Then?, and Why is it Worth Remembering? Reflections on a Celebratory Evening at the Maryland Historical Society by Ed Papenfuse, Maryland State Archivist, retired [image: Sparrow seal] Sparrow Seal. This seal first appeared in 1765 on the title page of the Reverend Thomas Bacon's compilation of the Laws of Maryland, and until 1793 it ornamented printed editions of the session laws of the Assembly. Carved on a wood block by Thomas Sparrow, ward and employee of the Annapolis printer, Jonas Green, the Sparrow seal b...
Working Together to Preserve and Interpret the Past in a Sustainable, Virtual Environment
ecpclio, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
[image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ir4hhRVDTm4/TAqwkVWU-lI/AAAAAAAAA9o/UoL2XaRZJ9Q/s1600/LYNX-4008-72.jpg] The Lynx, a Baltimore Privateer captured by the British: a reconstruction that visited Baltimore with the rest of the Tall Ships Recently, I was asked to speak on the future of historical research and writing, especially as it related to helping teachers access and make use of the rich resources that are currently being placed on line in the virtual world. My words were in the form of a challenge to all cultural institutions with regard to their placing digital versions of the...
Furnishing the Restored Maryland Senate Chamber of 1783
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
From light into darkness? by Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist, retired *The story of how Congress came to reside in Annapolis in 1783-1784 is well known and well documented in http://mdstatehouse.net. Some recent commentary has attempted to suggest that what they found in the way of accommodations in the State House and how they might have arranged themselves to accept General Washington’s resignation as Commander in Chief was rather spartan, without individual desks for the Congressmen and no lighting from a chandelier during one of the coldest, darkest winters on rec...
Water, Water, Everywhere, but is it safe to drink?
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 6 years ago
Preserving and Accessing the Records of the Gunpowder Watershed of Maryland and Pennsylvania Edward C. Papenfuse, Archivist of Maryland (Retired) With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, the title of this essay on preserving and making accessible the sources of history was chosen because the history of the Gunpowder watershed is both a triumph of the reversal of human degradation of the environment, and a cautionary tale about the failure of humans both to sustain the accomplishment and to care for the records that document its story fo...
Baltimore's First Responders: The Mechanical Company founded in 1763
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 7 years ago
In the language of the past “mechanical” meant those small businessmen including storekeepers, shoemakers, tailors, copper smiths and ironmongers who united as the Mechanical Company of Baltimore in 1763 to promote the welfare of their community especially in the fighting of fires and raising militia units to fight the British. Today that tradition is celebrated by those who trace their immediate origins to a small group in the 1960s, “the mechanical remnant” who, when facing extinction, "decided to re-invigorate the group on a … limited basis that would insure its perpetuation--t...
Reflections on the year past and the years to come
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 7 years ago
Greetings from 206 Oakdale Road: Of all the ‘stuff’ that has accumulated in my study over the past 40 years as an archivist, one of my favorites is this image taken from half of a stereo view of the lost Baltimore neighborhood of Woodberry. If it seems blurred at first glance it is because I have converted it to a 3D image. It is best viewed with red and cyan (blue) glasses. Retirement for me began on November 1, like this image without glasses, somewhat out of focus, but filled with reflection. What the new year will bring is uncertain after 40 years of trying to preserve and...
Immigration to and through Baltimore 1903-1914
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 8 years ago
Because of its direct connections to Chicago and St. Louis, and contracts with immigrant passenger lines such as the *Norddeutscher Lloyd* company, the *Baltimore and Ohio Railroad* piers 8 and 9 at Locust Point in Baltimore played a significant role in receiving the millions of immigrants who came to America in the years following the Civil War. From State and Federal records linked to family papers and family memories, the stories of those who came and stayed, or who passed through can be told. Just recently the Baltimore Sun reported on a family reunion in Baltimore of the Hank...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 8 years ago
- A Holiday Message to Staff and Friends of the Maryland State Archives* As we approach the new year, the future of public archives and the connections between private and public memory may be more in peril than they have ever been since the burning of the Library at Alexandria in 48 BC. Even with the library at Alexandria, however, there remains hope that what was once thought lost may actually be hidden in the vellum of monastery libraries tucked in the mountains and deserts of what today we call the 'middle east', and among the vellum treasures now resident at such prestigious l...
Fragments of the Star Spangled Banner and the Figures in the Window?
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 8 years ago
The other day, a neighbor and her brother kindly invited me to examine a family treasure. It was a dark wood framed display of two photographs and two fragments, red and white, snipped from the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry during the British bombardment of September 12-13, 1814. The fragments were taken from a gigantic flag, 30 by 42 feet, made by Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore whose house is now a museum devoted to its history. Recently the Smithsonian spent millions of dollars conserving the remains of the flag, which originally cost $405.90. from Lonn Taylor,* et. al*. *...
Private Property and the American Dream
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 8 years ago
The ownership of private property is at the heart of the American Dream. From the very beginnings of the United States the right to own and defend private property has been asserted, cultivated, and enthroned in the constitutional and statutory laws of the country. It is also at the heart of the Great American Tragedy, slavery, which was ultimately embedded in Federal Law through the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act that firmly asserted slaves as protected personal property, and was only uprooted Constitutionally in December 1865 with the adoption of the 13th Amendment, after the national ...
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 8 years ago
Probably the greatest challenge facing any Archives is acquiring the resources necessary to properly store and make accessible its holdings whether on paper or electronic. The Maryland State Archives is no exception. Recently the Baltimore *Sun* featured our efforts to find space for the Baltimore City Archives to salvage a much neglected collection that reached back to the days of the founding of the city in the first decades of the 18th century, and included such much damaged treasures as all the details that went into the defense against the assault of the British in 1814. One...
Candlesticks, Mark Twain and the Public Memory
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 9 years ago
- Our archival heritage is at risk. We need your help both vocally and financially.* If you have found our on line and in person services at http://mdarchives.net of use and important to you, you can make a donation in any amount on line to the Friends of the Maryland State Archives: https://shop1.mdsa.net/Donation/donate.cfm You can also be vocal by writing directly to the governor, the comptroller and to the Maryland legislature, including the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. You will find their email addresses on our http://mdelect.net web site. If you ar...
Days to Remember: December 7 and December 9
Edward Papenfuse, Reflections by a Former Keeper of the Records for Maryland (1973-2013) - 10 years ago
Quentin Massys, *The Holy Kinship*, 1509, Brussels Museum This year the fall meeting of the Hall of Records Commission of the Maryland State Archives is on December 9, Saint Anne's day. One of my favorite paintings, appropriate for this holiday season, is an alter piece dedicated to St. Anne by Quentin Massys, commissioned in 1507 for a chapel in St. Peter's, Louven, and installed in 1509. I like to think that it or a description of it given in a homily, may have inspired a member of the Mynne family to name their daughter Anne, and she in turn inspired her husband, George Calvert...