Introduction. The opening of the Hall of Records, the long awaited and desired for state government archives, in 1935 also opened the modern era of Maryland's archival development. The strongest impetus for the state archives had been the steady, persistent lobbying of the Maryland Historical Society throughout the nineteenth century, even though later these two institutions became friendly rivals. Men like John Henry Alexander, Ethan Allen, and Brantz Mayer continued the vision of David Ridgely. The Society's work was made more effective by the rapid popularization of historical subjects, especially local history, in the years after the Civil War. Publications like the Archives of Maryland (1883-1972) and the Maryland Historical Magazine (1906 to the present) were not isolated scholarly achievements, but were distributed and read widely. The prodigious influence of the Johns Hopkins University's historical seminar under the tutelage of Herbert Baxter Adams and the rise of professional history were absorbed into the epitome of historical popularization, Maryland's Tercentenary, one of those historical celebrations now the topic of scholars trying to understand the nature of public or collective memory. Directly out of the Tercentenary came the formation of the Maryland Hall of Records.
the Maryland Historical Society came at the height of the awakening of the state's (and the young nation's) historical consciousness. The first attempt at its founding was in 1835, principally with the support of John H. B. Latrobe and Brantz Mayer. 1Its organization was also the result of a pervasive national interest in the preservation of American historical materials. The Maryland Historical Society was the fortieth such institution founded in the United States, a movement beginning a half-century earlier with Jeremy Belknap and the Massachusetts Historical Society. 2The purpose of this Maryland institution was the "collecting, preserving and diffusing information relating to the civil, natural and literary history of this State, and to American history and biography generally.” 3Though the Society served various cultural and social functions (trying to provide a cultural focus for the growing Baltimore), its main historical activities and successes were the stimulation of historical writing and publication and the collecting of historical materials; both were extremely important in the eventual establishment of the Maryland Hall of Records, and both were activities typical of these early historical societies. According to Joseph W. Cox, the Society founders had specific aims other than historical scholarship: “As they envisioned it, the Society was to be the central cultural resource of the city and state; it was to be the library, the center for scholarship, the historical repository and a force for preservation; the major museum and art gallery, sponsor of lecture programs and, in general, the region's leading cultural catalyst.” 4Kevin Sheets argues that the “Men of those societies cultivated knowledge of all sorts as a mark of genteel living. They aspired to cultural if not political leadership and sought to impress the public with the usefulness of their knowledge.” 5Regardless, historical collecting and developing historical knowledge ranked high on the agendas of these individuals and the institutions they founded and nurtured.
elucidated as "collecting the scattered materials of the early history of the state of Maryland." 6The emphasis was on the earliest manuscript records. An earlier attempt (1840) to organize an historical society had also stressed the importance of "collecting documents relating to the early history of this State..." 7 Within its first year of existence provision was made for purchasing manuscripts, 8 and by the end of 1844 the Society owned a number of significant documents, including "an autograph Letter by William Penn" and the rich collection of colonial and revolutionary manuscripts of Robert Gilmor, Jr. 9 The pattern of collecting was typical of what occurred in other early historical societies of the period.
enough documents to merit a cataloguing system, 10 one peculiar to the Maryland institution and again typifying the practice of these institutions to develop their own homebred solutions and approaches. The following year the services of a librarian were needed, a post defined broadly and not susceptible to the precision of definitions characterizing such positions just a half-century later. 11Manuscripts were initially stored in a bank vault and then, when the Society transferred its operations to the newly constructed Athenaeum Building, were "judiciously arranged... and placed in the fireproof repositories, prepared for them and other objects of rare worth." 12In 1847 the collections multiplied when the State passed a resolution to transfer all its original records relating to Maryland before the Revolutionary War that were in duplicate or in an "apparent or manifest decay." 13Other than the earlier construction of the records office a century before, this was the most significant step taken by the state government to that time to preserve its older public records. Other state governments also deposited early official records in historical societies.
to its proclivity for acquisition. In its first decade the Society had acquired 409 lots of records consisting of copies from the British Public Record Office, records transferred from the State, and the substantial gifts of Robert Gilmor, Lyman C. Draper, Brantz Mayer, B.U. Campbell, and other private collectors. The vast majority of papers documented the Colonial and Revolutionary War eras, and this continued to be the focus of the Society for many decades to follow. 14Perhaps most indicative of the Society's concern for record collection and preservation was the inclusion in this catalogue of the "Peabody Index to Maryland Documents in the State Paper Office, London." This index to 1729 colonial documents was prepared by Henry Stevens, the prolific copyist for a number of nineteenth-century historical societies, and funded by George Peabody, one of the Society's earliest and most significant benefactors. 15Such massive copying was done for other historical societies and state governments, so in this the Maryland program was merely mimicking the activities of its peers.
it resolved to recover as many documents and other historical artifacts as possible that were still privately owned. 16The following year Reverend Ethan Allen, who for years had been patiently collecting the records of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland, was asked to search for additional historical documents on the Eastern Shore. 17Successes were few. During the Centennial, for example, few items could be borrowed even for exhibitions. 18The reasons were obvious. The Society had few funds to finance any large-scale operations. The Library Committee reported, typically so, in 1924 that it had been "greatly handicapped by having no funds whatever assigned for the purchase of books and manuscripts." 19Several years later the same committee stated, "while the Society is now upon an efficient, though but too modest, operating basis, its mines of historical wealth remain very partially worked, for lack of adequate funds for repairing, calendaring, editing and publishing masses of documents of the greatest historical importance." 20Funding would plague the Society into its modern period, and, in fact, many such historical societies tended to measure success by the quantities and qualities of its collections, even when these acquisitions placed great strains on the abilities of these organizations to manage their holdings. 21
location and purchase of the Calvert Family papers in 1888. 22The history of these papers began in 1839 when John Henry Alexander, a scientist, mathematician, and student of Maryland history, discovered "two considerable chests marked Calvert Papers " in the British Museum. Alexander thought these papers would be examined and ultimately reported and thus, "made no particular inquiry about them." 23When in England again in 1858, this time to specifically search for Maryland papers, he looked for the chests. No one remembered the documents and Alexander concluded that they must have been "merely in transitu " twenty years before, "having been probably offered by some party possessing them, but at such a price as precluded their purchase." 24
Maryland Historical Society, submitted an inquiry to Notes and Queries about the collection. 25The response was disappointing at first. Richard Sims, a member of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum for 45 years, said he had no recollection of the Calvert Papers; the only hope was the fact that Sims had joined the Museum two years after Alexander's first visit. 26Shortly afterward the report came that a retired officer of the British Army and a descendent of the heir of the last Lord Baltimore 27 had some Calvert family manuscripts. Jones requested the Society to send money to cover his expenses and someone to examine these papers. The Society dispatched 20 pounds and authorized him to investigate. 28
going through the documents and arranging them. When he first saw them "they were in utter confusion, in one very large chest... without arrangement, and mixed up with family papers unconnected with the Province, and very much of both sets without endorsement." He noticed a "large mess of papers" about the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary dispute and others concerning the colonial government. Jones frantically accounted how the papers were stored. The papers were in a chest that "has for some years been in an old orangery now used as a potting house and for garden purposes, and some signs of damp are on a few of the papers, so that, if the chest should remain for some years longer in its present place, the papers may be seriously injured." Jones urged the Society to purchase the papers. 29
1886 had published A Puritan Colony in Maryland , promptly examined the collection. His report included the first full list of the papers. According to Randall, Jones' description of the papers had been a "little faulty," but that Harford's lawyers were endeavoring to compile a complete list. 30Randall added two substantial items to the Society's knowledge. First, there were numerous additional papers " buried in a field adjoining " Harford's house. Second, and alarming to the Society's constituents, it was learned that Harford was "entirely without family pride and has never developed any historic bump, so that his aim is... a mercenary one." 31
wrote for more facts and heard from one of Harford's lawyers that they were "lost beyond hope of recovery." 32Cohen also sought competent professional advise from W. Noel Sainsbury, editor of the Calendar of State Papers , Colonial Series since 1860. Sainsbury related that the value of the collection could be determined only after "laborious examination and comparison with our papers in the P.R.O." and added that he believed at least one half were duplicated there. He thought the Society had two possibilities. It could buy the collection "en masse;" for this he suggested the Society set a price. Or it could "ascertain... what gaps there are in the P.R.O. series of Maryland Colonial Papers" and have copies made. This, however, could be very expensive, and Sainsbury urged the Society to buy the complete set of papers. 33 Sainsbury's letter was read at the next meeting of the Maryland Historical Society where a committee of three was appointed to consult with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania "as to an arrangement with it to secure the Papers in question, if they be found valuable, and for a proper division of them, if secured, between the two societies." The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was asked since a number of the papers related to Pennsylvania, and because there was for a brief time, a fear that the cost would be very great. 34By early April, John W. M. Lee, the Society's Curator of the Cabinet and Librarian, was preparing to go to England. 35
busy examining the collection. His first report added little new information. He noted that the papers were "tied up in brown wrapping paper and were in no chronological order" and "in bulk [were] enough to fill a good sized Saratoga Trunk." He added that their dates surprised him--" the individual letters are numerous and important covering an almost unbroken period from 1638 to 1685." 36Lee carefully went through each bundle of papers and compiled as complete a list as he could. Four days after he started, he sent the first list, containing papers up to about 1700, back to Baltimore, and he emphasized many were new discoveries. 37Several days later Lee sent another list with documents dated after 1700. By this time he was convinced of the extraordinary historical value of the collection. 38The only remaining obstacle was the price.
authorized to go above 100, a "great bargain" in his estimation. 39Lee hoped to convince Harford that the collection was useful only to the Society, and therefore, to keep the price low, he urged privately their purchase at any price. 40In the course of the negotiations the price wavered between 150 and 250 pounds. 41On May 26 Lee sent home the following news: “I had urged my point of 200L so that before that I really was afraid to urge it any further-- lest I should make a mistake. I did however mildly hint to them that my friends thought 200L was ample, in view of the expense they had already undergone & would have to undergo before the papers would be fully in our possession, but it had no effect. So I ended the matter by saying I would take the whole collection at 225.” 42A few days later the Society owned the Calvert family papers at a cost of $1,589.33--$1,102.50 (225 pounds) for the purchase, and the rest for Lee's roundtrip, freight charges for transport of the papers home, and insurance. This money, all except $4.33, had been successfully raised by subscriptions from the Society's membership. 43Efforts to recover the "lost" papers the following year, however, ended in failure. 44
hundred documents. 45The public records of Maryland were many times that number and were nearby, not overseas, facts that inspired greater efforts by the Maryland Historical Society to work for the care of these records. No matter, since the quest for the papers of the Proprietary family made for a good story and provided an important sense of pride and purpose for the Society in its efforts to preserve some remnant of the state's documentary heritage.
Historical Society opened its doors, it lobbied for the better care of the state government's historical records. The transfer of some of the early state records in 1846-47 was the only hopeful sign. What was transferred to the Society represented only a small fraction of the vast historical archives and the deposit had not been carefully planned to insure either a fair sampling or priority records. In the late 1840s the Society did request funds from the State to publish the "most important" of these records, but a reputed lack of funds aborted this plan. 46In this, the Society was monitoring what other state governments were doing, some providing funds for documentary editions.
the preservation of the public records. Ridgely himself undoubtedly would have confessed that his accomplishments were merely preliminary. For a brief while hopes were renewed. A legislative committee reported in 1854 that "vast quantities of valuable records" were stored in the State House, but their storage was dismaying. The records of the Legislative were "carelessly crowded into insufficient cases in the Committee rooms and it is next to impossible to find any paper connected with the previous sessions." The Chancery and Land Office records were "no safer than if they were lodged in any private House and an unlucky accident might destroy every vestige of their existence in an hour." The committee boldly recommended the construction of a fireproof records office. 47
enthusiastic for archival responsibilities, or, at least, that it had other responsibilities and priorities. This act and the completion of the building a year later 48 did help to spur on briefly the government in the proper direction. The January 1858 Maryland legislative session requested John Henry Alexander, on diplomatic duty in Europe, to survey Maryland-related papers in Rome and England. The incentive for this derived from Rev. Ethan Allen's notification that there were numerous collections available; the State had shown interest in similar projects in the recent past (he cited publication of the Bozman history) and now an agent was available who could copy "at fixed and known prices, consequently no great Expense need to be feared in getting Copies of these papers." 49Allen, an Episcopal minister and church historian, 50 was also an acquaintance of Alexander. Alexander, in fact, was busy ferreting out manuscripts for Allen's own research. 51Allen and Alexander were both active members of the Maryland Historical Society and perhaps were encouraged, if unofficially, by its officers. 52
David Ridgely a generation earlier. The first report came from Allen's pen at the very end of 1859 (published in 1860), a description of the records in Annapolis. 53Rev. Allen noted, "The preservation of the records requires attention to their being put in a condition in which they may be preserved without loss of time, in order that the memorials of our past may not entirely perish." To draw attention to the seriousness of the problem, Allen lamented that "nearly one-half" of what Ridgely listed in the Executive Chamber in 1836 was now missing. He pressed for the records to be "collected . . . into one place, and that place be a dry-fire-proof room," 54 reflecting his era's commitment that preservation represented consolidating records into one physical facility. Alexander's report, published shortly after, described his findings in Rome, the Public Record Office, Sion College, and the British Museum. The most interesting segment was his discussion of the calendar being prepared by Ethan Allen, with the Governor's "approval," of the records in the State Library, the Council Chamber, and the Court of Appeals. Allen's initial appeal had had some effect. Along with this paper came a partially completed calendar of the public records in the Council Chamber, Land Office, State Library, and Maryland Historical Society. Like Allen, he lamented the increasing deterioration of the public records, even going so far as to say that "thirty years ago . . . the mass of such Documents in our possession was considerably larger than I have reason to believe it is now." 55
commissioned by the Governor to collect all the legislative records for deposition in the fireproof records office to remedy the earlier diagnosed problem of inadequate means of reference and to facilitate his indexing. Allen's report of the following year proposed, as the only solution, that the records "be regularly arranged, labeled and indexed" since presently "a paper sought for, may perchance be stumbled upon, but cannot be found by any regular search." Allen then listed a number of the records that he had found and arranged. Accompanying this report was Alexander's letter of May 21, 1861 transmitting "three copies of an Index to the First Volume of a Calendar of our Domestic State Papers." He hoped it would be published as the beginning of an ongoing project (since the index was only for "a dozen hitherto almost inaccessible and nearly unknown manuscript volumes"). 56An index was published in 1861, completed largely by Allen (with some assistance by Julian Alexander) and attached with a long report by John Henry Alexander describing the efforts in record care over the previous thirty years, the most notable report yet compiled. 57But the index was also a disappointment. Allen intended it to be the first of six volumes; but, in his words, "this good intention was somewhat dampened by the apparent want of interest manifested by the General Assembly of 1860, in not making any provision for continuing the work." 58There is also evidence that few, if any, historical records were transferred to the new record office; instead this building was used for other administrative purposes. 59
the State to better care for its records. Brantz Mayer, who shortly would ascend to the Presidency of the Society, examined a small group of State papers on a visit to Annapolis in April 1864. Three weeks later he wrote to Governor Augustus W. Bradford in what was by now typical fashion; the public papers were without "any Classification," "indiscriminately" arranged, and "in dusty and disordered files." Mayer, at this time, simply sought permission to transport these papers to the Society where he would arrange and inventory them. 60Bradford assented to Mayer's request and, although he had not asked for it, promised to offset Mayer's expenditures. 61Mayer received the records in June and held them until early 1866. 62In early 1866 Mayer reported to Governor Bradford his findings and suggestions. Mayer desired to see the state papers sorted, indexed, bound, 63 and mended. His most important conclusions were that all the state papers should be assembled in one place, the Executive Chamber at Annapolis, and that they be stored securely and stamped since "it is found dangerous to leave the State papers at the mercies of all sorts of examiners." For the latter recommendation, Mayer cited European archival practices and twenty-five missing Samuel Chase letters that had been "loaned." 64
the Maryland Historical Society. The Society did follow up in 1874 and, again led by Brantz Mayer, in 1878 with petitions to the State legislature. 65Brantz Mayer's lengthy petition of 1878 and the Society's endorsement of it was the main catalyst in the creation of the most important legislation concerning records yet enacted for the publication of the Archives of Maryland . Again Mayer urged the establishment of a central archives "in which our State papers . . . may be gathered, systematically arranged and faithfully preserved for reference or study." After rehearsing the earlier efforts and failures of Ridgely, Allen, Alexander, and himself, Mayer added a new twist; the state ought to adopt the same system as other states by publishing the records. 66Although several years elapsed, Mayer's plan was finally adopted by the state government in 1882.
pertaining to Maryland" was perhaps the most successful records legislation enacted in Maryland with the exception of that establishing the Hall of Records a half-century later. Earlier acts had always appeared good in theory and weak in practice. The 1882 law stipulated that the government agencies transmit to the Society "all the records, archives and ancient documents of the province and State of Maryland of any date prior to the acknowledgement of the independence of the United States by Great Britain" and that the Society in turn agree to have them "safely kept, properly arranged and catalogued," published, and "at all times . . .accessible to the inspection of any citizen of this State free of all charges and fees." The state further would underwrite the cost of their publication. 67
preparation of adequate storage facilities at the Society's headquarters, the appointment of an editor, and the initial surveying of the records. 68The fireproof rooms were readied quickly. The appointment of William Hand Browne as editor further speeded the work. Browne, a faculty member of the English department at Johns Hopkins University, had numerous years of editorial experience and had previously co-authored a history of Maryland with John Thomas Scharf. 69By February 1883 a large number of state records (upwards of ten thousand documents) had been transferred to the Society and copying begun. 70The previous lists of Ridgely, Alexander, Allen, and Stevens were all used in locating materials. A lengthy correspondence opened with W. Noel Sainsbury who eagerly searched out and arranged for the copying of Maryland records in England. 71And a number of minor problems, mostly the reluctance of State officials to allow the papers to be removed from their jurisdiction, were easily resolved. 72By May the decision was made to start publishing the legislative records since these "presented the only unbroken series of papers and they would require much less labor and could be put in print at much less cost than any other series." 73In a little over a year, in November 1883, the first volume of the Archives of Maryland had been published.
then, nearly a volume a year was sent to the printer (see Table 1). Despite this, the Archives maintained a high scholarly quality, one distinguished critic noting that it is "unequaled . . . both in comprehensiveness and scholarship and reflects great credit upon the society and its editors, past and present." 74The prime reason for this was the great emphasis on careful transcriptions and proofreading from the very beginning. 75The only mar on the series' overall quality is the lack of a systematic index, probably due to the effort to produce these volumes as quickly as possible; this is especially true for the first thirty-one volumes under Browne. 76Still, this is minor when compared to the flaws of other similar editorial projects of the same period. 77And, most of these problems have been rectified by the present availability of this series on the Maryland State Archives Web site. 78 TABLE 1 TIMETABLE OF PUBLICATION OF THE ARCHIVES OF MARYLAND 1883-1972
has been tremendous (and it is now available on the World Wide Web, continuing its influence). Its most obvious contribution was the widespread availability of thousands of historical documents, alleviating to a large extent the agony and travails of earlier researchers such as Bozman and McMahon. Society Librarian Fred Shelley spotlighted one study completed in Indiana without any laborious research trips to the East Coast. 80Charles Albro Barker's classic study of the Revolution in Maryland was accomplished similarly through the use of the Archives . 81Jack P. Greene aptly summarized the value of the Archives for such research in that Maryland was the "first of the southern states to launch a comprehensive program for the printing of its official colonial records," and that "it is doubtful if the published records of any other southern state excel those of Maryland either in quantity or quality." 82All of these kinds of comments sound familiar to the present claims made on behalf of digitization and the World Wide Web, similar to earlier comments made about microfilming. In the earliest dissemination of original sources by traditional printing, however, the impact must have been tremendous since prior to this the early Colonial and Revolutionary documents were only available in scattered locations and often subject to moves, the fickleness of records custodians, and generally lax security and protection.
inaccessible records and opened new avenues of research. The first report of the Archives committee stated that it discovered that many seventeenth century Maryland laws were missing, a dilemma corrected after "a diligent search" uncovered records in the Public Record Office in London . 83More important was its publication of a detailed, forty-page "Calendar of State Archives" which would readily assist any historian of Maryland's early years 84 and the announcement that the "documentary history of the Province and State can be gathered measurably complete from the existing Archives." 85Another example of such early accomplishments was the eventual recovery of the Calvert family papers, a search (described earlier) begun on behalf of the Archives project. 86These papers, many of which were published in the Archives , shed "new and important light on the events of the time" in the estimation of Dr. Browne. 87
unearth the sources for the history of the state. Its numerous lectures and other publications also aroused greater public interest in Maryland history. After business meetings, the usual routine dictated the presentation of a paper. Of these papers, amounting to about ten a year, the best were published. The donation of $20,000 for a publication fund by George Peabody further encouraged this practice. 88Between 1844 and 1901 the Society issued 68 volumes, 54 of these concerning Maryland history, and several reiterating the purpose of such publications. In the first lecture presented to the Society's members, Charles F. Mayer stressed that the Maryland Historical Society was not a place merely "to gather events, past and current, into a cumbrous repository--a mere Mausoleum of legends for dust to mantle and for cobwebs to festoon." According to Mayer these facts should be made to "speak to us as the Scripture of experience." 89Several years later Brantz Mayer emphasized nearly the same concept. Speaking at the dedication of the Society's newly completed headquarters, Mayer stated that a historical society "is devoted to the . . . duty of assembling facts, and preserving those minute particles of biography and story which might easily escape the notice of future authors." For him, the main importance of historical societies was "the means of associating gentlemen in the pursuit of truth, and of inducing them to devote themselves, individually, to the composition of historical works."
the Society's 107 charter members, 23 composed 69 books and pamphlets on historical subjects; 43 of these publications related to Maryland . But the prominent statistic in this regard is that only seven of the forty-three works were published before 1844; evidently, membership in the Maryland Historical Society encouraged a hearty participation. 91Some of the Society's publications, for example, incited vigorous debates, even within the Society's ranks. John Pendleton Kennedy's assertion that the founding of Maryland had little to do with the persecution of English Catholics, prompted a barrage of rebuttals and defenses. 92
Pre-Fund and Fund Publication series started in 1844. The probable reason for its start was the highly successful journals of Maryland 's sister institutions, the Virginia Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 93As the main speaker at the Centennial meeting of the Society underscored, the Magazine "supplies our [the Society's] widest popular appeal. Our members are scattered here, there and even abroad. . . and . . . The Magazine reaches them all." 94The purpose of the journal was defined to encompass the publication of historical essays, source materials, genealogical articles, short notices; and the annual report of the Society. 95Quite expectedly, it provided an outlet for communicating completed research on Maryland history, encouraged such research, and, most importantly in its early years, provided (like the Archives ) numerous pages of documents to facilitate more research. Excluding the annual reports, well over half of the total pages of the first fifteen volumes (1906-1920) consisted of edited primary sources, the majority of these coming directly from the Society's collections. Volumes 3 to 13 (1908- 18) consisted mostly of documents rather than historical articles. 96
the Archives of Maryland and the Maryland Historical Magazine , the Maryland Historical Society strived to promote itself as a catalytic agent in the production of historical studies of the state. In the above endeavors, it was eminently successful. Some programs and projects did fail. In 1885, for example, the Society attempted to encourage the development of county historical societies; only three (Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford Counties ) were founded, the rest being established in the mid-twentieth century. 97Still, the Society was successful enough that, in 1919, John M. Vincent of Johns Hopkins University had the members momentarily reconsider its purpose--either to divert its energies to the popularization of history, which was rapidly developing, or to continue to hold on to its primary purpose of encouraging research in its storehouse of resources; he opted for the latter. As he observed, the popularization was proceeding well on its own, largely as a result of the Society's activities over the previous three quarters of a century. 98The appearance of a dozen general histories of the state between 1849 and 1934, the introduction of Maryland history into the public schools in 1877, and the rise of genealogy and the increased number of popular articles in the newspapers are all partially products of the Society's efforts.
Rev. Ethan Allen, Brantz Mayer, and John Thomas Scharf. A quarter-of-a-century ago, historian R. Richard Wohl lamented before the Manuscript Society the lack of research regarding collecting and the development of "humanistic and historical scholarship." Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Wohl stated, "the terms 'historian' and 'collector' were well nigh synonymous." 99In the intervening years much has been written about American historiography, but the story of manuscript and autograph collecting still remains untold. The purpose of this part of this chapter is to examine the relationship between historian and collector via the careers of three of Maryland 's most popular and prolific historians. Ethan Allen, Brantz Mayer, and John Thomas Scharf were collectors primarily because collecting was a necessary prerequisite of research. This was the day before large archives and manuscript repositories, a state that all three endeavored to rectify. In the case of Allen and Mayer collecting was even more crucial, being the catalyst for their historical writings. Their careers explain not only a crucial aspect of Maryland 's archival history, but all three had significant connections to the Maryland Historical Society and its quest to preserve the sources of the state's past.
100Little is known about Allen's early years except for his graduation from Middlebury College of Vermont in 1817, and his exodus to Maryland a year later, probably to obtain a rectorship in that state's expanding Episcopalian church. Between 1818 and 1821, he advanced from lay reader to priest 101 and quickly established himself as a theologically conservative churchman with an inquiring mind. He urged the formation of parish libraries, wrote lengthy letters to a Church journal on basic theological matters, and fought for a "local" theological seminary. 102In 1830, he departed Maryland and became an Episcopalian missionary in Ohio where he was a factor in the establishment of the church there. 103Allen also served briefly in Alabama in the mid-1840s until returning to Maryland in 1848. 104Back in Maryland , Allen became a leader of the Church serving as rector of several churches, missionary agent, a member of the Ecclesiastical Court , and member of a number of special committees. 105It was in these last years in Maryland that he began his historical research and collecting.
1850s. There is little evidence of any unusual fascination with history before then; he had written and published only one historical essay. 106Three decades of clerical experience had not wrought a radical transformation in the man for, apart from his new awareness of the past, Allen retained basically the same interests. Allen's concern for the strength -- numerically and theologically -- of the Episcopal Church in Maryland was, as well, a conspicuous element even in this histories and biographies.
the Early History of Maryland , To the Year 1650 , published in 1855. 107The impetus for this composition was a letter from a fellow Episcopalian urging him to write a rebuttal to a recent "Romish" work discussing the lack of toleration exercised by the Protestant Church in Early Maryland. Caught up in the strong nativist milieu of the mid- nineteenth century, Allen's friend pleaded with him to "throw together your collected facts, on the subject, in the form of a tract, or pamphlet, for publication." 108Allen obliged, submitting in a month a manuscript praised for its "beauty of ...penmanship, " "candor," and "moderation." 109
previous to Maryland Toleration , he had published only one brief article on the history of the church, 110 Allen had been collecting documents and facts concerning the church for some years. The stimulus for his historical work was his compilation, on the authority of the Bishop and as Chairman of the Committee on Titles and Organizations of Parishes, of a list of parishes and independent congregations of the Diocese. 111To accomplish effectively this task, Allen found it necessary to examine the parish and congregational records. His 1853 report to the Maryland Diocese's convention even revealed his examination of public records in Annapolis , described earlier in this chapter. 112Allen soon discovered that these local church records were poorly maintained and had often been destroyed; one Eastern Shore minister initially reported that all the parish registers had been lost for over a decade and then, several weeks later, that they actually had burned twenty years before. 113Gaining cognizance of this dilemma brought Allen to a resolution to collect what records he could and to compile detailed histories of every parish in the state to insure further the preservation of such information. 114
Over the next quarter-of-a-century, numerous clergymen and prominent laymen of the Maryland church offered him records and assistance. 115And Allen proved to be a tireless researcher. Between 1850 and 1873, he reconstructed the histories of 23 parishes in the state, 116 employing a remarkable range of sources for any time. In the preface to one history, he noted the use of five published sets of laws, the published proceedings of the legislature, a number of secondary histories, published Episcopalian records, newspapers and periodicals, state and local records, and numerous personal and official manuscripts of the church and clergy. 117Besides his parish histories, Allen completed a history of religion in seventeenth-century Maryland, lists of Anglican clergymen in Maryland and other colonies, a collection of records related to the history of education in Maryland, a general essay on the early Maryland colonists, a brief school history of Maryland, a history of the Episcopal church in the District of Columbia, a broad history of the Episcopal Church in Maryland, and a study of missionary movements in the same state. 118But besides what must have been a prodigious amount of time invested in this research, Allen expended more energy in other related historical ventures; Allen was more an activist, rather than reflective, student of the past.
and unpublished. Allen's unpublished histories were primarily working collections of notes, often exhibiting continual additions and corrections as he discovered new sources. Surprisingly, however, Allen never really improved on these masses of information when preparing for publication. His tomes were terse, practical chronicles. Maryland Toleration announced its purpose to be "to set forth chronologically, such facts within his reach, as have come down to us, and exhibit and illustrate directly or indirectly its religious character and condition. He [Allen] has endeavored to avoid putting down mere probabilities aiming to let the facts, as much as possible, speak for themselves." 119On a subject that elicited so much vehemence, Allen's approach was certainly welcome. And this presentation was probably the reason he was asked to compile a school history of the state. 120But, nearly always, his style showed itself to be artificial, lacking the charm and lucidity of his contemporary historians such as George Bancroft and Francis Parkman who considered good literary style an essential component of good history. Often, he composed paragraphs that merely related to the reader that nothing of special significance occurred in a certain year. 121This basic problem -- with the exception of this later series of clerical biographies -- accounts for why so few of his histories were eventually published. When reviewing the thousands of pages of notes and transcripts that Allen compiled, it is evident that Allen's main thrust was often less historical than administrative. He collected facts and figures as an official statistician and the Diocese of Maryland called for his unique abilities in many capacities. This particular perspective is further reflected in the lack of interpretation and criticisms of the Episcopal Church in his published histories. Allen felt most at east in assembling lists and editing documents and, as a result, it would be easy today to dismiss him as an historian of little merit. However, Allen was significant. Only one history of Maryland 's Episcopal church had been completed, and it suffered greatly from a lack of available primary records. 122Allen's evolving role as an official church historian and archivist would have a tremendous impact on later historians, even outside of the limited realm of religious studies.
Whittingham, Bishop in the state from 1840 to his death in 1879. Whittingham possessed a tremendous interest in church history, having served as a librarian at the General Theological Seminary between 1825 and 1829 and later as Professor of Ecclesiastical History, 1836 to 1840. 123Whittingham requested Allen in 1854 to reorganize the papers of one of his predecessors, Bishop James Kemp. 124There is no stated reason why Allen was selected for the task, although certainly Whittingham knew of Allen's historical interests and, also, that he had served under Kemp. The next year Allen was asked to rearrange the papers of Thomas Claggett, Maryland 's first Bishop, 125 an indication that he had pleased Whittingham and that Allen had found a place for himself. And this was a place that Allen sorely desired. In mid-1855 he lobbied at the annual Convention of the Diocese for a "suitable Diocesan building" in part for "a depository for historical and other documents," even promising to donate his own private collection. 126This continued to be Allen's greatest hope for the next twenty years.
Historiographer. He had been fulfilling the expected duties of the new post for years before, organizing document collections, answering historical queries, 127 and conducting historical research for official Diocese work that required such background. 128Becoming Historiographer added to Allen's responsibilities, provided some funds, and gave him a medium for serious lobbying affecting ecclesiastical legislation in favor of a Diocesan archives. His first task was the acquisition in 1859 of $100 for the copying of manuscripts in the library of the General Convention that related to the early history of the Maryland church. 129The following year he helped to establish a "committee on the Records of the Diocese" "whose duty it shall be to collect, take charge of, and preserve the Records of the Diocese, and to superintend the printing and publishing of any that may be directed to be printed and published. . ." 130Allen's subsequent career reflected the seriousness with which he accepted these responsibilities.
Maryland church. His 1873 annual report to the Convention is typical. In it he mentioned that he had examined records from over thirty different repositories and published collections and that these represented not a complete list but only "principal sources." 131The report also shows that Allen was collecting these facts primarily for the "future historian." The feverish activity with which he attacked the tedious compilation of his extensive Eastern Shore parish histories shows not only the way Allen wished to serve as Historiographer, but also that his declining physical state and financial condition prompted the formation of what is today the Maryland Diocesan Archives. 132In the midst of his brisk copying, he resigned from the Board of Trustees of the Hannah More Academy "on account of age. . . & health" and offered to sell the parish histories to the Diocese. 133Several years later, when he had left to live in Kentucky with his daughter, he offered to sell his pamphlets and manuscripts to the Diocese, again to alleviate his increasing financial needs. 134The Diocese's purchase, added to Whittingham's own library, formed the nucleus of the Episcopalian archives. 135Allen's employment as Historiographer was, then, at best quasi-official; he had collected and continued to collect manuscripts for himself and also organized collections for the Diocese.
antiquarian to collect, to preserve, and to readily share an encyclopedic knowledge of historical facts. Individuals such as Allen were essential to saving the early documentary heritage of Maryland (and other states as well). The contours of these qualifications are evident in the formative stages of development of his collection and the subsequent archives; they are even more visible in Allen's historical assistance to William Stevens Perry and involvement in the movement to preserve Maryland 's public records.
historical consciousness of the Episcopal Church in America , and preserved material which otherwise might have been lost." Among his many works were the five volumes of Historical Collections Relating to the American Colonial Church (1870-78), two volumes of The History of the American Episcopal Church 1587-1883 (1885) and the Episcopate in America (1895). 136What Perry accomplished for the Episcopal Church on the national level, Allen did on the state level and at nearly the same time. Perry turned to Allen for his historical expertise and, it is fair to say, that without such men Perry would never have accomplished his larger aims.
participation in William B. Sprague's Episcopal volume of the Annals of the American Pulpit which appeared the same year. Allen contributed twelve biographical essays -- the best of his historical writing -- and earned from Sprague the highest of praise. His "numerous and important contributions have quite identified him with my enterprise; who, though one of the busiest of men, has met my requests as promptly and fully as if he had nothing else to do; and whose knowledge of the Episcopal antiquities, especially of his own state, gives to his communications an all but oracular authority." 137Allen labored for Perry much the same as he had for Sprague. Between 1861 and 1869, Perry sent numerous requests for copies or exchanges of manuscripts for his projected volume on Maryland in his Historical Collections series. 138When it finally appeared in 1878, he also paid Allen, only a year prior to his death, a high tribute, dedicating the work to him and noting that "it is through the labors of such devoted and capable students of the local history of our Dioceses that the work of the future historian of the Church in American will be rendered comparatively easy." 139That Perry held Allen in such high esteem is also suggested by his proposal to join him in a publishing club to alleviate the fact that the "issue of historical works in our Church is always attended with [monetary] loss." 140
what was the faint start of a movement to establish a state archives to insure the preservation of Maryland 's historical records. Allen became involved in 1858 when he advised the Governor to take advantages of John Henry Alexander's temporary European residence to secure copies of records relating to Maryland 's colonial past. Allen and Alexander had been acquainted for years, and Alexander was already busily employed in obtaining copies of records pertaining to the Episcopal Church for Allen. 141Out of this developed the idea of publishing a calendar of these European records to facilitate further historical research and the inspection of the extant public documents in Annapolis. 142Before this the records had been neglected except for some limited efforts by David Ridgely, the State Librarian, in the 1830s and the Maryland Historical Society a decade later. More recently than this (1854) a legislative committee had declared that the public records were poorly maintained and urged the construction of a fireproof records office. 143
survey of Maryland-related papers. From this work Alexander and Allen issued, between 1859 and 1861, four major reports on the Maryland records. The first report was Allen's description of records located in Annapolis, lamenting their poor condition and urging that they be "collected . . . into one place, and that place be a dry fire-proof room." 144Alexander followed shortly afterward with an account of his European investigations and the description of a calendar of these records being prepared by Allen; he also included a preliminary calendar of the public records in several offices and the State Library and Maryland Historical Society. 145The third report was a joint effort including Allen's survey, on the Governor's request, of the legislative records that urged that the records be organized to facilitate their use and Alexander's letter of May 21, 1861 transmitting "three copies of an Index to the First Volume of a Calendar of our Domestic State Papers." Alexander hoped this would be the beginning of an ongoing project since this index represented a finding aid only for "a dozen hitherto almost inaccessible and nearly unknown manuscript volumes. . ." 146
record care over the previous thirty years, the most notable report compiled to that point and not to be superceded until the start of the Archives of Maryland series two decades later. But the index was also a disappointment. Allen intended it to be the first of six such volumes; but, in his words, "this good intention was somewhat dampened by the apparent want of interest manifested by the General Assembly of 1860, in not making any [financial] provision for continuing the work." 147Still, for Allen, it was a notable effort and one that provided him with innumerable sources for his church histories. It served to increase his involvement with the Maryland Historical Society (he had become a member in 1856) for which he occasionally conducted fieldwork. 148
remained an invalid residing with his daughter's family in Kentucky. 149But by then he had already made an indelible mark in Maryland and Episcopal historiography. The limitations of his historical sketches do not tarnish his chief work as a collector and preserver of Maryland's historical records. The purchase of his manuscripts and library together with the bequests of Bishop Whittingham's 17,000 volumes in 1879 and Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple's library of 10,000 volumes in 1881 formed the nucleus of the valuable, present Maryland Diocesan Library (now separated into two segments with the archives at the Maryland Historical Society and the library at the General Theological Seminary). 150Even his legacy as an historian carried on after his death. One of his parish histories was published in 1898 and another article graced the pages of the Maryland Historical Magazine in 1914, over three decades after his death. 151In 1909 an effort was made to publish, through subscriptions, Allen's "History of the Church in Maryland" since "it has been so much used by historical students and genealogists, that it has become very dilapidated and is guarded now with great care." 152
the Maryland Historical Society. Brantz Mayer was born in Baltimore in 1809 to Christian Mayer, a prominent merchant of that city. 153Mayer benefited by a good private education at St. Mary's College in Baltimore and through his own rigorous self-study and travel. While on a voyage to the Far East (China, Sumatra, Java, and India) in 1827-28, he studied law, completing these studies upon his return at the University of Maryland. 154Admitted to the Maryland bar in 1832, his career was on a path followed by numerous other Americans of his social standing and time. But even at an early age, Mayer expressed wider interests than merely the law and its related components, although it remained his major source of income until the mid-1850s. In early 1832, he confessed reluctance for political involvement 155 and, several years later, upon visiting Paris, could not even find praise for that great European city. For Mayer, who had serious and different plans in mind in regards to his career, Paris was "a beautiful & gay place, but has too much dissipation & too little seriousness or principle for one of my taste." 156 In the 1830s Mayer's ideas, desires, and goals crystallized. One of his most prominent interests, his fascination with the past, was principally formed during this decade. As early as the middle part of the decade he had assembled an impressive collection of historical and literary autographs, one of the new avocations of the period. By the 1860s he had assembled nearly a complete set of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the sale of his collection after his death was one of the major manuscript auctions of those years. 157Mayer also was doing some historical research commencing a correspondence with the major American historian and editor, Jared Sparks, and by 1840 was even contemplating the formation of an historical society in the state. 158But at this point in his life, history was at best a secondary pursuit, reserved mainly for amusement. More important for Mayer and clearly to capitalize on the intensive new search for a distinct American character (as typified by the reforms in popular education and the Lyceum movement) was his desire to make a name as a writer and lecturer. By 1840 Mayer was eager to write for newspapers and especially to author a book. 159In the same year he made one of his first ventures into print, composing a series of newspaper essays on "China and the Chinese," based upon his earlier voyage. 160The invitation to lecture the next year on any subject of his choosing before the National Institution for the Promotion of Science was really the kind of activity Mayer wished to be involved in more than anything else. 161
legation in Mexico in 1841-42. No sooner had Mayer been offered the post, offered because of his support of the Maryland Whigs, than his journalist friend N.P. Willis advised him to "take care to collect material for a clever book when you return, and it will pay, particularly if you give it a strong bearing on Texas." 162Mayer now had a subject for the book he had hoped to write for at least several years, and he took every advantage of the situation. The result was Mexico as it Was and as it Is , published in 1843 by John Winchester, a book that regardless of being written in about thirty days 163 established Mayer as an authority on the country, a reputation he retained for the remainder of his life. Although Mayer had numerous difficulties with the publisher and probably claimed little direct financial gain from this opus, 164 he carefully used the subject for lectures, articles, and books for many years after. 165Just after its publication Mayer laid out a plan to publish a book on Mexican antiquities in the "next ten or twelve or perhaps fifteen years." More importantly the book enabled Mayer to be accepted into the prestigious ranks of literary men and gentlemen historians. The acceptance of it by the public also helped his other historical work in Maryland, especially as organizations such as the Maryland Historical Society played broader cultural roles then than what we normally associate with them today.
that were marketable. He was writing the history of the war with Mexico even before the war was over because "an authentic History would be valuable and sell well." 166Despite other conceptions Mayer later would espouse regarding history and literature, pecuniary benefit seemed always to be a prime concern. In the mid-1870s he was thinking of a book about California, where he had resided for the past five years, because he then had "lots of materials out of which I could Cook an edible book." 167It was precisely that and his already large collection of Maryland manuscripts - the fact that so little had been done on Maryland history by the 1840s that probably pushed Mayer to begin researching and writing on the subject. Just after Mayer had started his earliest work on the state, Jared Sparks related to him that he was "persuaded . . . that the early history of Maryland is a rich mine, which has not as yet been sufficiently explored." 168Also, it is likely that Mayer wished to secure his place among the Baltimore literati.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1845), an account of Michael Cresap and the early Indian wars (1851), an excursion into the origins of the Maryland and Pennsylvania colonies (1852), an introduction to a reprinting of Ebenezer Cook's Sot Weed Factor (1866), a history of the Maryland Historical Society (1867), and a genealogy of his own family (1879). 169The reasons for this rather limited production appear to be Mayer's preoccupation with national themes and the need to constantly increase his income to support his growing family. 170Until well into the mid-1850s Mayer continued his work on Mexico, labored for Baltimore's municipal government as a legal representative in the John McDonogh bequest, 171 and served as a paymaster in the Federal army from the commencement of the Civil War until 1875. 172The work in the military pulled Mayer away from his home state for long periods of time in the 1860s, including an additional five-year stint in California from 1870 to 1875. In addition to these financial supplements, Mayer authored an interesting and best-selling account of an "African slaver," 173 wrote incessantly for local newspapers, 174 and contemplated a history of the American expedition to Japan. 175The lower financial awards for local history seemed to be a major deterrent to greater efforts by Mayer. 176
journal, none of these works sold exceedingly well; in the case of the 1776 account, it was more the manuscript itself than Mayer's work with it that brought it some attention. 177Even the attitudes toward historical work were not original or novel to Mayer, but represented more a parody of the eminent American historians like Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. In his 1867 memoir of Jared Sparks, Mayer defined history as being "a narrative of national life, claiming the utmost comprehension of fact, date, description, biography, annals, and chronicle, woven together with brilliant analysis and wholesome philosophy...." 178Twenty years before, dedicating the Athenaeum building in Baltimore, Mayer saw history as being the great teacher of lessons, providing facts to indicate what looms in the future, and showing the reasons for human action. "The great and true historian," Mayer mused, "deserves to rank by the side of the great prophet, for his lessons direct the destinies of humanity." 179His Maryland histories demonstrated to a minor degree that his philosophy of history directed what he actually put into print. Tah-gah-Jute was an effort to vindicate the reputation of Michael Cresap, an effort to "expose the danger of considering as always unquestionable what are called the facts of history...." 180Calvert and Penn was Mayer's contribution to the question of the religious foundations of the colony, in which he tried, albeit not very successfully, to show his understanding of historicism. His Mayer family genealogy depicted these same conceptions of the past's molding of the present and future.
work with the Maryland Historical Society and the collection of historical sources, an interest fostered by his youthful fascination with such materials and his need to collect for his books. Mayer was widely respected in Baltimore and the state, primarily for his nationally recognized work on Mexico, and he gained attention when he urged the mercantile community to foster the arts and to support secular education and a free press. 181More important was his constant pressure on the Society to actively collect and publish source materials, efforts that assisted both his contemporaries and successors.
to collect autographs. It was his concern to "rescue the mouldering remains of [Maryland's] early history from utter decay" that he worked on founding the Maryland Historical Society in 1844. 182Being one of the leaders of the Society until his death and helping to draft its original constitution, Mayer was chiefly responsible for this institutionalizing of his concerns. 183One of the earliest gifts to the Society's library came from Mayer's library and were the state publications related to the publication of Bozman's full history and the 1836 reports of State Librarian David Ridgely on the condition of the public records. 184It was probably the content of these reports, Jared Sparks's encouragement of him to examine the original state records and other similar sources, 185 and his subsequent perusal of these records that pushed Mayer to urge the Society in taking an active role in becoming the state's official archives.
to the Society in 1847. 186But Mayer did not rest here. In the midst of the Civil War he examined the state records, inventoried them, and recommended that they be bound and centralized. 187In his inaugural address as the Society's President in 1867 Mayer stressed very strongly the collecting of these state papers and other records from the "lofts and store-rooms of mansions in the countries" so that they could be preserved and used for historical research. 188One of his last acts, shortly before his death in 1879, was to persuade his friend Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, a member of the Maryland Senate, to present his memorial about the state records. 189At this time he urged their publication, a proposal which five years later saw its fruition in the first volume of the Archives of Maryland . It is for this work that Mayer should be preeminently remembered for over a century later.
in Maryland was as a great popularizer of the past and the value of its sources. Over a century after the publication of John Thomas Scharf's histories, these works are still heavily consulted and even respected, especially among the rising hordes of local historians, preservationists, and genealogists. Fifty years ago it was stated that in regard to Maryland histories "nothing has taken the place of Scharf, and if one seeks in the bookshops for a second-hand copy of his History of Maryland he must pay more than twice its original price", 190 and the reprinting of his histories in the 1960s and 1970s indicates that this sentiment has not changed. If today one counted secondary references in Maryland historical studies, Scharf's name probably would be the most frequently mentioned.
when the names of Allen and Mayer have all but been forgotten. Allen's most important work was done within the cloistered walls of the Episcopal Church and Mayer's writings were popular only in his own day; for both, their most lasting efforts were their lobbying for the preservation of Maryland's early records. John Thomas Scharf, however, produced immense works of incredible minutiae - encyclopedic to an extent that has not been done since the onslaught of the professional monographs in the last years of the nineteenth century. Although Scharf also was involved in the preservation of original records, his publications were his most important mode of preservation with numerous lengthy quotations from primary sources, bits of local history and family history unavailable then and now, and biographical sketches of local figures.
educated at private schools until he went to work for his father's mercantile concern. A Southern sympathizer in the divided city, he went off to join the Confederate Army. Scharf served in the First Maryland Artillery Company until 1863 and from then until nearly the end of the war in the Confederate Navy. After the war he returned to Baltimore and entered into the lumber business, married, studied for and started a law practice, and, in 1874, became city editor for the Baltimore Evening News . Scharf also labored for the Baltimore Sunday Telegram and the Baltimore Morning Herald until the end of the 1870s. The Baltimorean was a popular figure in the city and served on numerous local boards, presented public lectures, and was an influential Democrat in political contests. 191
volumes, four of which concerned Maryland. Starting with the Chronicle of Baltimore, Scharf completed histories of Maryland, Western Maryland, a fuller study of Baltimore, as well as histories of Philadelphia, Saint Louis, a New York county, the confederate Navy, and the state of Delaware. 192All of these appeared during the height of memorial histories and, as one evaluation has suggested, Scharf was one of this genre's most successful practitioners. 193Today, we can understand Scharf as one of those promoters who built a strong sense of public history, as festivals and subscription histories have been re-examined as key sources of comprehending earlier views of the past.
(Baltimore lacked a good history and the state's last good one was James McSherry's work of 1849 which needed revision and updating), and the prospects of joining a prestigious if not exclusive group of American historians appealed to the ambitious young man. As the years passed, if not at the very beginning of these labors, Scharf considered himself penultimately a historian frequently drafting letters to national figures like Lyman Draper, Benson Lossing, and Francis Parkman on minor points of some historical importance. 195
Scharf and perhaps may have been the predominate stimulus for his foray into the field. In 1883, while at the peak of his productivity, he related that "I have more literary work than I can do from newspaper publishers as well as book publishers. My work always received the highest price and is always in demand." 196Scharf could not have failed to notice the flourishing trade in memorial histories catering to the awakened historical consciousness of the country after a Civil War and the Centennial and to the local vanities and prejudices of communities and their leaders featured in the publications. 197Maryland's central metropolis was not an exception. By the 1870s Maryland schools required local and national history as "stimulus to worthy deed, " biographical dictionaries began to appear to a market primarily of its subjects and their families, and genealogy began to become a commonplace and oft-proclaimed mechanism for the nurture of the best qualities of Americans. 198Scharf's works fit right into the pattern and themselves became the pattern for other antiquarian efforts, although few would approach his degree of success.
of boosterism; Scharf produced his histories to celebrate the past, honor the present, and provide a stimulant for the continued and increased success in the future. 199All of his works portray an optimistic tone equally in regard to the business communities, the hub of Scharf's wheel of fortune in each of his publications. Characteristic of Scharf's historiographical approach, if it could even be termed that, was his spearheading of Baltimore's 1880 Sesquicentennial celebration of its founding, one of the greatest nineteenth century American urban festivals.
survey of the town commenced in early 1730. Scharf, then still editor of the Baltimore Morning Herald, composed a piece about this on August 12, 1879, urging that a celebration of Baltimore's 150th anniversary be planned; nothing occurred. It was not until early 1880 that meetings began to be held prompted by further newspaper editorials and the efforts of community leaders like Scharf and Daniel Coit Gilman, President of The Johns Hopkins University. The continued impetus for this festival came from community groups, especially those from the German community, and an executive committee, again including Scharf, established by Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe. At an early date John Thomas Scharf was designated as the individual to deliver the festival's keynote address.
populace. Obviously Scharf had been the catalyst for the occasion and was the author of the city's best and most recent history. More importantly, however, the purpose and theme of the festival was no more than a paraphrase of Scharf's booster thesis. On September 13, 1880 Mayor Latrobe issued a proclamation calling for the participation by all of Baltimore's citizens: "Let it be creditable alike to the growth and prosperity of our city and the great development of its industries and public enterprise. Let us in this way give expression to the pride we feel in the past history and the hopes we entertain for the future of Baltimore." Throughout the week-long celebration of October 11-19, the speakers, pageants, musical programs and newspaper articles honored the past and "advertised" the city and not a critical word was spoken or written, even by the usually acrimonious press; "unity" was another keyword during these days. John Thomas Scharf's lengthy speech at the first day of the celebration emphasized that Baltimore "has come of age" and attributed Baltimore's past and future success to its location, populace, and government. There was little doubt, at least, that Scharf had helped to contribute to the city's present success - the celebration attracted over three hundred thousand tourists who lavished nearly three quarters of a million dollars for transportation, accommodations, and souvenirs on the eager business community. 200
production of subscription histories - an intense fascination with the artifacts of the past. The historian of the event recalled that "old relics of every sort were hunted out and furbished up; old letters re-read; and old histories thumbed anew," 201a statement that is not an inadequate appraisal of Scharf's method of historical research. Scharf, in the preface describing the research methodology of his first history, had nearly an identical statement: "Every possible and available source has been sought and used in the collection of material; and the house of history...has been literally ransacked in the unremitting search for all, and whatever, to the minutest matter, would throw light upon the subject." 202Like Allen and Mayer, Scharf was a collector of historical manuscripts and publications but Scharf's collecting habits and the ultimate use of these materials took an extremely divergent route from them. Scharf's collecting reflected the historical pageantry of the period, all with at least some emphasis on the gathering of source materials. 203
material. Rev. Allen gathered his material as he traveled on his official duties and Mayer collected on a modest scale the representative autographs and reference works for his research. John Thomas Scharf, on the other hand, turned his collecting into an energetic enterprise. Scharf on a number of occasions had at least three individuals personally employed by him for the searching of facts in newspapers and libraries and wrote thousands of letters to individuals requesting histories of their families, churches, businesses, civic organizations, or neighborhoods and towns. The popularity of his works are further demonstrated by the numerous long essays he would receive in response to these requests, evidence that it was considered important, even an honor, to be included in his books. One Baltimore librarian could recall the daily attendance of "at least fifty authors and hoped-to-be authors" utilizing the materials of the Peabody Library for Scharf. At the same time John Thomas Scharf also pursued historical collections being offered for sale. He obtained unpublished manuscripts and collections of Confederate historian James D. McCabe, historian and editor Henry B. Dawson, Missouri collector Frederick Billion, Philadelphia antiquarian Thompson Westcott, and a vast American autograph collection to name only a few. Scharf's greatest ability, apparently, was in his skill at compiling and editing these contributions and primary sources into a coherent, if lengthy, narrative. John Thomas Scharf certainly ranks in the list of nineteenth century historians as one of the greatest users of primary sources, 204 at least if measured by the sheer scope of his enterprise.
his personal collections. It was because of this that he sought and acquired the position of Commissioner of the Land Office in Maryland, serving there from 1884 to 1892. Writing to influential citizens to gather support for his candidacy, Scharf explained his desire to hold this position as emanating from a concern to preserve and arrange the historical records of the state and, as he related, because "I should have the opportunity of pursuing those historical studies and writings in which I take most interest." 205Although by this time the Maryland Historical Society had many of the earliest records of the state and just now was undertaking, with the support of the state, the systematic publication of these records, the Maryland Land Office was the primary public agency to maintain the historical records (and it remains connected today to the Maryland State Archives). 206In his first report he related that the "most important" records were under his control, that the office had "become, to a very great extent, the depository of the genealogical history" of Marylanders, and that he had "found many valuable historical documents that were supposed to have been lost." 207In addition to all his other responsibilities he was cataloguing the records, establishing a small historical museum, and, on one occasion, managed to bring in the oldest colonial records of one county (for Charles County), no small task considering the later problems of the Hall of Records in the twentieth century in acquiring such records.
major disservice for Maryland historians. Concerned for the preservation of the State's archives and noting the State government's long tradition of neglect, which was to continue for nearly another half-century, Scharf picked up large masses of abused records and absorbed them into his own personal collection. There is fairly conclusive proof, for example, that in 1889 he sold one of the State's most important documents, the proceedings of the Maryland Convention of 1774. 208Moreover, the giving of his collection to the Johns Hopkins University to form the "nucleus" of a Southern history center largely consisted of fugitive state documents, although he generally confessed to only having "purchased" them from dealers and other collectors. 209In 1890, for example, he hoped to publish the Maryland muster rolls from the colonial wars through the Civil War then in the Land Office and the Maryland Historical Society; 210six years later he wished to complete the identical project, this time based upon his collection at the Hopkins. 211
professional historians and archivists. But what happened to his collection in the years after his death in 1897 virtually removed them from the use of historical researchers for a half-century. Even during his lifetime Scharf complained that the collection was not being properly catalogued and cared for while at Hopkins. 212 By the early years of the twentieth century many of the records were being transferred to the Maryland Historical Society, probably the result of the death of Herbert Baxter Adams in 1901 and the end of Hopkin's emphasis on local history research. 213In 1947 the entire collection was transferred on permanent deposit to the Society, 214 but there they mostly remained wrapped in brown paper and completely unsorted; this state of affairs continued until the late 1960s. Only with the transfer of these records in the mid-1970s (except for Scharf's personal papers) back to the Maryland Hall of Records to be merged into their appropriate record groups, have researchers been able to make full and intelligent use of the records. Only if Scharf's collecting of these records preserved them could his actions be considered commendable; otherwise, the "ransacking" of the "house of history" had gone just a little too far.
in Maryland with the founding of the Maryland Hall of Records. Although the Maryland Historical Society had been collecting manuscripts since the 1840's, it only began aggressively collecting and cataloguing these materials in the 1960s. The following decade witnessed even more archival activity with the founding of numerous college and university archives and institutional and business archives, primarily in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Historians like Allen, Mayer, and Scharf collected in the fashion they did because of the absence of such an archival profession and its repositories. If private collecting was the norm in the nineteenth century, institutional collecting was predominate in the twentieth.
preservation of private and public records. Without such individuals the new archivists of the early twentieth century would have surely arrived later on the scene and found less to preserve. It is just as true, however, that the development of professional archival institutions has been an improvement; individuals could not have saved all of the records of the past and certainly could not have made these materials widely available for research.
a tremendous transformation of the Maryland Historical Society. Most of the energy of the Society in its earlier years had been expended in the collecting and preservation of historical manuscripts via publication. By the early years of the twentieth century, although a huge mass of documents was within the building, these collections were virtually inaccessible due to the lack of systematic cataloguing and arrangement. The chairman of the Library Committee, Louis Dielman, reported in 1921 that "a number of . . . collections are practically unknown except as collections, and it is necessary to withhold them from use on account of the risk of damage from promiscuous handling . . . This item alone represents year of labor in calendaring, cataloguing and mending, at the hands of specially qualified persons." 215The financial condition of the Society mitigated against these "years of labor" and over forty years later vast manuscript collections had only brief content descriptions, no subject tracings, and such finding descriptions as "on top of steel cabinet on second level." 216Apart from a few published descriptions in the Maryland Historical Magazine the manuscript collections were virtually untouched. 217
maintained itself as a small, private, aristocratic institution with little awareness of a commitment to its original charter mandate--the "collecting, preserving and diffusing information, relating to the civil, natural and literary history" of Maryland. As late as 1938, for example, the Library was still serviced by a part time staff member. 218More indicative of this dilemma was the Society's strange declining of the offer of the Historical Records Survey of the 1930s to compile a complete inventory of the manuscript collections in favor of a detailed calendar of one collection. 219This decision delayed the preparation and publication of a general guide to the manuscripts collections for another thirty years, a project sorely needed since the only other published guide appeared at the close of the Society's initial decade.
Director in 1942 was an innovative idea (for the Society) and the staff and membership have continued to increase since then; membership alone has increased fivefold from the 1930s into the 1970s. From the new involvement of professionally trained staff and the more active involvement of professional consultants, there developed a movement for a published guide to the manuscript collections and the creation of a separate manuscript division. In 1952 Fred Shelley, Librarian, noted that the published guide was the "most important single publication needed by the Society." 220Within the same decade Dr. Charles A. Barker, Chairman of the Publications Committee and a noted Maryland historian at Johns Hopkins University, 221 called for a published finding aid and the establishment of a separate division. In 1958 he reported that the Society had "one of the finest" collections in the United States "but unless a student has an idea that we have certain material and visits the library he has no way of knowing just what material is available here." 222The designation of a separate program and specialized staff would eventually remedy the problem.
M. Hamer of the National Historical Publications Commission contacted the Society on behalf of his important A Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States 223 he received a rather sorry response from the Librarian. Francis C. Haber related that there was no "record of the amount of materials relating to particular individuals in our collections," that most of the collections "have never be organized," and that they had an "inability to provide simple information." "The only thing we have become adept in," mused Haber, "seems to be making apologies." 224
headquarters in the mid-1960s and the fulfillment of the ideas for better control of the manuscript collections. Walter Muir Whitehill, analyzing the Society during these transitional years, aptly stated that its future "looked bright." 225When the Society closed in 1966 to complete this building, P. W. Filby, then Librarian, utilized this as an opportunity to catalog the collections in preparation for a comprehensive published guide. Visits were made to a number of similar institutions and a plan of action adopted. 226The standardized Library of Congress form for reporting manuscript collections was selected, each collection assigned a distinguishing number, and a corps of students and professionals temporarily hired to compile descriptions. In 1968 an extensive guide to over seventeen hundred collections was finally published. 227A second, expanded, guide was published in 1981. 228
especially within the Manuscripts Division. The guide, cataloguing, regular reporting to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and journals such as the American Archivist , and the publication of further finding aids in the Maryland Historical Magazine increased dramatically the volume of visiting researchers and mail inquiries. Moreover, a full, capable staff has been able to both efficiently service researchers and to virtually eliminate the backlog of unprocessed collections. 229Then the Society was able to begin, with the assistance of outside funds, to issue microfilm editions and an extensive documentary edition of one of its major collections, the Benjamin Henry Latrobe Papers. 230The Society, although always facing financial problems, entered the modern era. A letter from a researcher in 1977 typified this occurrence: The researcher noted that the "library is now one of the most responsive historical societies for intelligent information. Maybe I mentioned to you [the Director] that on my first visit to Baltimore in the 1940s, I was given a light bulb on a cord and turned loose in the basement . . . to fend for myself." 231Now the researcher can go to the Society's Web site with a modicum of commands and find detailed description about all of the manuscripts and other special collections materials in a manner no one, even just two decades ago, could have predicted. 232The visions of pioneers like Brantz Mayer, Ethan Allen, John Thomas Scharf, and others, no matter how clumsily articulated they may seem to us today, were more than fulfilled by the close of the twentieth century.
1 John E. Semmes, John H. B. Latrobe and His Times 1803-1890 (Baltimore: Norman, Remington Co., 1917), p. 417; Brantz Mayer, History, Possessions and Prospects of the Maryland Historical Society , Fund Publications no. 1 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1867), pp. 2-9; Jerry E. Patterson, "Brantz Mayer, Man of Letters," Maryland Historical Magazine 52(December 1957): 281-82; John H. B. Latrobe to Mendes Cohen, 29 December 1890, Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MdHi). 2 Based on the chronological list of American historical societies in David D. Van Tassel, Recording America's Past: An Interpretation of the Development of Historical Studies in America 1607-1884 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), pp. 181-90. For the historical society movement see Leslie Whitaker Dunlap, American Historical Societies, 1790-1860 (Madison, Wisconsin: Privately published, 1944) and Walter Muir Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies: An Inquiry into Their Research and Publication Functions and Their Financial Future (Boston: Athenaeum, 1962). 3 Constitution, By-Laws, Charter, Circular and Members of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1844), p. 12. 4 See Joseph W. Cox, “The Origins of the Maryland Historical Society: A Case Study in Cultural Philanthropy,” Maryland Historical Magazine 74 (June 1979): 103-116 (quotation p. 114). 5 Kevin B. Sheets, “Saving History: The Maryland Historical Society and Its Founders,” Maryland Historical Magazine 89 (Summer 1994): 133-155 (quotation, p. 133). 6 Council Minutes, l: 1, Maryland Historical Society Archives and Papers, MS. 2008, MdHi. 7 Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Delegates... December Session 1839 , p. 326. 8 Council Minutes, 1:30, MS 2008. However, the Society rarely purchased manuscripts; P. William Filby and Sandra M. Kantman, "Manuscripts in the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore," Manuscripts 18(Summer 1966):41. 9 Council Minutes, 1:12-13, 38-40, MS. 2008. The Gilmor Papers, MS. 387 and Ms. 387.1, remain one of the most significant holdings of the Society. 10 Council Minutes, 1:48, MS. 2008, MdHi. 11 Council Minutes, 1:117, MS. 2008, MdHi. 12 Council Minutes, 1:187, MS. 2008, MdHi. 13 Council Minutes, 1:135-36, 145, MS. 2008. For a copy of the resolution see Journal of Proceedings of the House of Delegates... December Session 1846 , p. 99. 14 Lewis Mayer, Catalogue of the Manuscripts, Maps, Medals, Coins, Statuary, Portraits and Pictures.... (Baltimore: Printed for the Maryland Historical Society by John D. Toy, 1854), pp. 3-35. 15 Mayer, Catalogue , pp. 21-24. The original index is in Steven's Historical Index of Maryland, MS. 1468, MdHi. 16 Council Minutes, 3: 17-18, MS. 2008, MdHi. 17 Council Minutes, 3: 69 MS 2008, MdHi. 18 Council Minutes, 3: 316-21, 402-04, MS. 2008, MdHi. 19 Council Minutes, 8: 475, MS. 2008, MdHi. 20 Council Minutes, 8: 695, MS. 2008, MdHi. 21 A good description of this problem is provided by Kevin M. Guthrie, The New-York Historical Society: Lessons from One Nonprofit's Long Struggle for Survival (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996). 22 The account of this acquisition was originally published as "A History of the Calvert Papers, MS. 174," Maryland Historical Magazine 68(Fall 1973): 309-22. 23 John Henry Alexander, ed., Index to the Calendar of Maryland State-Papers... (Baltimore: James S. Waters, 1861), p. vii. 24 Ibid., p. vii. 25 7th series, 2(October 30, 1886), p. 348. The reason for this was the ongoing publication of the Archives of Maryland , when is discussed below. 26 Winslow Jones to Mendes Cohen, 6 November 1886, Calvert Papers Correspondence, MS. 1969, MdHi. This letter was used at the December 13 meeting of the Society, Council Minutes, 4:361, MS. 2008, MdHi. 27 Henry Harford (1760-1835) had been willed Maryland by his father, Frederick Calvert, but the Revolutionary Was ended his claim. See Vera F. Rollo, Henry Harford: Last Proprietor of Maryland (n.p.: Maryland Bicentennial Commission, Harford County Committee, 1976). 28 Council Minutes, 4: 370-71, MS. 2008, MdHi. 29 Winslow Jones to Mendes Cohen, 3 May 1887, MS. 1969; Council Minutes, 4:403, MS. 20089, MdHi. 30 David Richard Randall to Mendes Cohen, 13 October 1887; Quekett to Mendes Cohen, 10 December 1887, both MS. 1969, MdHi. 31 David Richard Randall to Mendes Cohn, 13 October 1887, MS. 1969, MdHi. It is possible that Harford's financial position was somewhat precarious; see The Calvert Papers , Fund Publication no. 28 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1889), l: 29-30. 32 Quekett to Mendes Cohen, 6 January 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. W. Noel Sainsbury to Mendes Cohen, 28 January 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 34 Council Minutes, 4:429, MS. 2008; John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 13 April 1888, MS> 1969, both MdHi. 35 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 3 April 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 36 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 25 April 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 37 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 28 April 1888, MS> 1969, MdHi. 38 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 2 May 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 39 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 28 April 1888, MS 1969, MdHi. 40 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 2 May 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 41 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 14 May 1888, 15 May 1888; Robert Garrett to James W. Foster, 27 April 1943, all MS. 1969, MdHi. 42 John W. M. Lee to Mendes Cohen, 26 May 1888, MS. 1969, MdHi. 43 Based on various bills and financial material in MS. 1969. 44 Cox, "A History," pp. 318-19. 45 A description of the collection can be seen in my A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Calvert Papers (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1973). 46 Minutes, 1:228-29, MS. 2008. The Society already had published one of its private manuscript collections and was eager to do more of this kind of work. 47 This report is quoted in full in Morris L. Radoff, Buildings of the State of Maryland at Annapolis , Hall of Records Commission Publication no. 9 (Annapolis: Hall of Records Commission, 1954), pp. 115-16. 48 Radoff, Buildings of the State of Maryland , p. 116. 49 Ethan Allen to Governor T. W. Ligon, 21 January 1858, William A. Stewart Manuscript Collection, MS. 786, MdHi. 50 Allen's published historical writings prior to 1858 included "Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Devereux Jarrett," Washington, DC Theological Repertory and Churchman's Guide 7 (August 1825):7-13, (September 1825): 63-68; "Sketches of the Colonial Clergy of Maryland," American Ecclesiastical History (July 1854): 302-12; (April 1856): 105-18; Maryland Toleration; or Sketches of the Early History of Maryland, to the Year 1650 (Baltimore: James S. Waters, 1855); Historical Notices of St. Ann's Parish in Ann Arundel County, Maryland, Extending from 1649 to 1857, A Period of 208 Years (Baltimore: J. P. Des Forges, 1857); and fourteen biographical sketches in volume 5 of William Spragues Annals of the American Pulpit . Allen also collected manuscripts and rare pamphlets, the basis of which forms the present day Maryland Diocesan Archives, on deposit at the Maryland Historical Society. 51 John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 22 May 1858, 5 June 1858, 29 October 1858, MS. 786, MdHi. 52 The 1 May 1858 letter from Alexander to E. A. Dalrymple, the Corresponding Secretary of the Society, implies that the Governor of Maryland and President of the Society had cooperated in the records resolution; MS. 2008, MdHi. 53 Alexander urged Allen to complete a report on the Annapolis records to save him the trouble of having to do it himself; John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 7 December 1859, MS 786, MdHi. 54 Ethan Allen, Report on the Conditions of the Public Records (Annapolis: Thomas J. Wilson, 1860). 55 [John Henry Alexander], Report on Certain Documents Touching the Provincial History of Maryland, Addressed to His Excellency the Governor (Baltimore: John D. Toy, 1860). 56 Report of the Rev. Dr. Ethan Allen, In Relation to Records of the Executive Department and Letter from John H. Alexander, Esq., In Reference to Calendar of Domestic State Papers (n.p., [1861]. 57 Index to the Calendar of Maryland State-Papers Compiled Under Direction of John Henry Alexander, Esq., LL.D. (Baltimore: James S. Waters, 1861). 58 Ibid., p. xiii. John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 6 May 1861, MS. 786, MdHi. 59 Radoff, Buildings of the State of Maryland , pp. 116-17. 60 Brantz Mayer to Gov. A. W. Bradford, 5 May 1864, Vertical File, MdHi. For a description of Mayer's broad interests, see Patterson, "Brantz Mayer." 61 Gov. A. W. Bradford to Brantz Mayer, 10 May 1864, Vertical File, MdHi. 62 Gov. A. W. Bradford to A. L. W. Seabrook, 21 June 1864; Gov. A. W. Bradford to Brantz Mayer, 5 March 1865; Gov. A. W. Bradford to Brantz Mayer, 16 December 1865; Gov. A. W. Bradford to Brantz Mayer, 2 January 1866, all Vertical File, MdHi. 63 Mayer suggested that "each class of papers should be finally bound in a different colour , so as to facilitate a search for any particular series." This advice was heeded. Today there exists a black, brown, red, and green series of state papers. See Morris Radoff's introduction to Calendar of Maryland State Papers No. 1 The Black Books , Hall of Records Commission Publication no. 1 (Annapolis: Hall of Records, 1943), pp. iv-v. 64 This letter was published in Memorial of Gen. Brantz Mayer (n.p., [1878]), pp. 1-4. The immediate result of Mayer's efforts was an insertion in the 1867 constitution making it the responsibility of the Commissioner of the Land Office to "collect, arrange and classify the papers, records, relics, and other memorials connected with the early history of Maryland." The Calvert Papers , Fund Publication no. 28 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1889), 1: 17. 65 Minutes 3: 194, 471; 4: 119. MS. 2008. Mayer had urged the Society in 1867 to petition the state to better preserve its records; see History, Possessions and Prospects , pp. 19, 12-14, 27 66 Memorial of Gen. Brantz Mayer , pp. 8, 10. 67 William H. Browne, et al, eds., Archives of Maryland 72 vols. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1883-1972), 1: iii-iv (hereafter cited as Archives ). 68 Archives , 1: v-x. 69 James W. Bright, "In Memoriam William Hand Browne 1828-1912," Johns Hopkins University Circular 252 (February 1913): 3-28. 70 John W. M. Lee to William R. Hayward, 13 February 1883, John H. B. Latrobe to Barnes Compton, 14 February 1883, both Lee Papers, MdHi., MS. 536. Archives , 1: vii-ix. An example of some of these early copies is in Revolutionary Transcripts, MS. 687, MdHi. These are copies by Miss Lucy Harrison who served as a copyist for over forty years, beginning in the mid-1880s. 71 W. Noel Sainsbury to John W. M. Lee, 6 March 1883; W. Noel Sainsbury to John W. M. Lee, 6 April 1883; W. Noel Sainsbury to John W. M. Lee, 26 April 1883, all MS. 536. 72 William R. Hayward to John W. M. Lee, 15 February 1883; John W. M. Lee to Spencer C. Jones, 24 February 1883; Spencer C. Jones to John W. M. Lee, 25 February 1883; George H. Shafir to John W. M. Lee, 3 May 1883, all MS. 536, MdHi. 73 John W. M. Lee to ? , 29 May 1883, MS. 536, MdHi. 74 Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies , p. 163. See also Fred Shelley, "The Publication Program of the Maryland Historical Society," American Archivist 15 (October 1952): 316-18. 75 Archives , 1: viii. 76 I am indebted to Elizabeth M. Daniels, a Manuscripts Assistant at the Maryland Historical Society from 1974 to 1977, for her work on this. 77 For the problems of an uneven project see Henry Howard Eddy, Guide to the Published Archives of Pennsylvania Covering the 138 Volumes of Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives Series I-IX (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1949). 78 The following statement is provided: “ The Maryland State Archives publication series, Archives of Maryland Online, will be providing access to over one million historical documents that form the constitutional, legal, legislative, judicial, and administrative basis of Maryland's government. Online access to this information at the Archives' web site enables users to research quickly and easily such topics as Maryland's constitutions and constitutional conventions' proceedings, session laws, proceedings of the General Assembly, governors' papers, and military records. Through this project, the Archives is making accessible in electronic form and preserving for future generations records that are scattered among a number of repositories and that often exist only on rapidly disintegrating paper.” The URL for this valuable resource is http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/index.html. 79 The reason for this curtailment was a lack of significant materials suitable for publication. See the 1966 "Report of the Subcommittee on the Future of the Archives," available in the Manuscripts Librarian's office, for insight into this. 80 Shelley, "Publication Program," p. 318; the study he was referring to is Denis M. Moran, "Anti-Catholicism in Early Maryland Politics: The Puritan Influence," American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia Records , 61 (September 1950): 137-54 and "The Protestant Influence" (December 1950): 213-36. 81 The Background of the Revolution in Maryland (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), p. 392. 82 "The Publication of the Official Records of the Southern Colonies: A Review Article," William and Mary Quarterly , 3rd series, 14 (April 1957): 271-72. 83 Archives , 1: viii. 84 Ibid., 1: xiii-liv. 85 Ibid., 1: x. 86 See Ibid., 2: viii. 87 George and Cecilus Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1890), p. vi. 88 Shelley, "Publication Program," p. 311. 89 First Discourse Before the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore: John D. Toy, 1844), pp. 6-7. For Mayer the main purpose of history was to instill a "Love of Country" (p. 4). 90 Commerce, Literature and Art (Baltimore: John Murphy, 1848), pp. 26, 32. 91 These statistics are based solely on the collections at the Maryland Historical Society, the assumption being that most members would have presented copies of their works to the institution. 92 John P. Kennedy, Discourse on the Life and Character of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore (Baltimore: J. Murphy, 1845); [B. U. Campbell, Review of the Hon. John P. Kennedy's Discourse On the Life and Character of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore (Baltimore: John Murphy, 1846); Remarks of the United States Catholic Magazine on the Discourse Between the Hon. J. P. Kennedy and His Reviewer (n.p., n.d.); and Reply of J. P. Kennedy to the Review of His Discourse on the Life and Character of Calvert, Published in the United States Catholic Magazine, April 1846 (Baltimore: John Murphy, 1846). 93 St. George L. Sioussat, "After Fifty Years: A Review of the Beginnings," Maryland Historical Magazine 50 (December 1955): 276. 94 Samuel K. Dennis, "A Brief Summary of the Maryland Historical Society's Hundred Years," Maryland Historical Magazine 39 (March 1944): 4. 95 Sioussat, "After Fifty Years," p. 178; see also Shelley, "Publication Program," pp. 313-16. 96 The reason for this was probably the scarcity of well-written and researched articles and the trend set by William Hand Browne, editor of the Magazine for the first four years, who, because of his long work on the Archives , was certainly more interested in source materials. 97 Council Minutes, 13 April 1885, 4: 267, MS. 2008. Elihu S. Riley, "The Ancient City." A History of Annapolis, in Maryland. 1649-1887 (Annapolis: Record Printing Office, 1887), p. 320. C. Milton Wright, Our Harford Heritage: A History of Harford County, Maryland (n.p.: Published by the author, 1967), pp. 428-31. The Baltimore County Historical Society lasted only a year; see William Hollifield, "The Baltimore County Historical Society of 1886," History Trails 11 (Summer 1977): 19-21. For the origins of a modern local historical society, refer to Henry DeCoursey Adams, "The First Fifteen Years of the Montgomery County Historical Society," Montgomery County Story 3 (November 1959): pp. 1-10. 98 See "Dedication of the H. Irvine Keyser Memorial Building," pp. 26-32. 99 R. Richard Wohl, "A Collection of Collectors: Some Varieties of Peculiar Passion," Manuscripts 8 (Summer 1956): 245. 100 Nahum Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater in Plymouth County, Massachusetts... (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1970), pp. 92-96. 101 Ethan Allen to James Kemp, 9 February 1818, William A. Stewart Manuscript Collection, MS. 786, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MS. 786); James Kemp to Ethan Allen, 18 February 1818, MS. 786; Ralph Williston to James Kemp, 2 March 1818, Maryland Diocesan Archives (hereafter cited as MDA); Journal of a Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Maryland. . . (Annapolis, 1819), pp. 5-6; Ethan Allen to James Kemp, 16 October 1821, MS. 786; James Kemp to Ethan Allen, 26 October 1821, MS. 786; Ethan Allen to James Kemp, 29 October 1821, MS. 786; Journal of Convention (1822), p. 4. 102 Manuscript sermon on charity, October 1820, mda: his articles in the Washington Theological Repertory and Churchman's Guide are in the Ethan Allen Papers at the MdHi. 103 W. H. Wilmer to Ethan Allen, 17 January 1827, MS. 786; Ethan Allen, A Decennial Sermon, Preached in Christ Church, Dayton, Ohio, October 25, 1840 (Baltimore: John D. Toy, 1863). 104 N. H. Cobbs to Ethan Allen, 2 August 1845 and 12 December 1845, MS. 786; "Papers relating to the late Right Rev. N. H. Cobbs, D. D. Bishop of Alabama. Collected by the Reverend Ethan Allen, D. D.," 1865, MDA. 105 Journal of Convention (1848), pp. vii, 7-8, 69; (1856), pp. iv, xv, 19, 83-85; (1857), pp. iv, xv, 92-94; (1858), pp. iv, x, xvi, 3, 9, 80-87; (1859), pp. vi, xi, xvii; (1860), pp. vi, xvii, 14; (1862), pp. vi, ix, xvii; (1863), pp. vi, xvii, 30; (1864), pp. vi, xvii; (1865), pp. vi, xvii; (1866), pp. vi, xvii; (1867), pp. vi, xvii, 35, 38; (1868), pp. v, xvii; (1869), pp. vi, xv; (1871), pp. vi, xxii; (1872), pp. 6; (1874), p. 6. N. H. Cobbs to William R. Whittingham, 10 February 1848, MDA; Western Run Parish Minutes, 14 February 1848, MDA; Ethan Allen to the Vestry of Western Run Parish, 1 November 1855, Western Run Parish Vestry Minutes, MDA; George A. Leakin to Ethan Allen, 22 September 1855, MS. 786; Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 19 October 1857, MDA; Minutes of the Committee of the Convention on the Division of the Diocese, MDA; and The Report of the Committee on the Proposed Division of the Diocese of Maryland, Made to the Seventy-Sixth Annual Convention of Said Diocese 1859 (Baltimore: J. D. Toy, 1859). 106 "Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Devereux Jarratt," Washington Theological Repertory and Churchman's Guide 7 (August 1825): 7-13 and (September 1825): 63-68. Allen probably selected the great Anglican revivalist of the previous century more to encourage a revival among his own denomination than to try his hand at historical research and writing. 107 (Baltimore: James S. Waters, 1855). 108 A. Cleveland Coxe to Ethan Allen, 9 September 1854, MS. 786. 109 A. Cleveland Coxe to Ethan Allen, 27 October 1854, MS. 786. 110 "Sketches of the Colonial Clergy of Maryland: Thomas Craddock," American Ecclesiastical History (July 1854): 302-12. 111 Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 16 October 1851, MDA; Journal of Convention (1852), pp. 39-49; "A Statistical View of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Maryland," 1851, MDA. 112 Journal of Convention (1853), p. 9. 113 Samuel K. Stewart to Ethan Allen, 11 March 1854; Samuel K. Stewart to Ethan Allen, 27 March 1854, both MS. 786. 114 The first publicized official notice of his collecting is found in Journal of Convention (1854), p. 53. There is evidence that he contemplated the writing and publication of diocesan histories somewhat earlier; S. Chalmers Davis to Ethan Allen, 8 February 1852, MS. 786. 115 Examples are F. L. Knight to Ethan Allen, 15 April 1854; John A. Thompson to Ethan Allen, 30 January 1855, both MS. 786. 116 There are manuscript histories for the following parishes: St. Paul's Parish, Prince George's County, c. 1850, MS. 786; Queen Anne's Parish, Prince George's County, c. 1850, MS. 786; Queen Anne's Parish, Prince George's County, c. 1855, MS. 786; St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore County, in Ethan Allen's History of St. Paul's Parish, MS. 13, Maryland Historical Society; Prince George Parish, Montgomery County, c. 1861, MS. 786; All Saints Parish, Frederick County, C. 1866, MS. 786; St. John's Parish, Prince George's County, c. 1870, MS. 786; the parishes of Washington and Allegany counties, c. 1873, MS. 786; St. James Parish, Baltimore and Harford counties, n.d., MDA; Queen Caroline Parish, n.d., Howard County, MDA; and St. Thomas' Parish, Baltimore County, n.d., MDA. There are photocopies of two volumes, recopied by Allen for the Diocese of Easton in 1873, containing thirteen Eastern Shore parish histories at the Maryland Hall of Records; the originals are still held by the Diocese of Easton. Several of these parish histories were published: Historical Notices of St. Ann's Parish in Ann Arundel County, Maryland, Extending from 1649 to 1857, A Period of 108 Years (Baltimore: J. P. Des Forges, 1857); and "Historical Sketch of St. John's Parish," St. John's Parish, Washington, D.C. Annual Register 1867-68. . ." (N.P., 1867), pp. 35-47. 117 Preface, St. Paul's Parish history, MS. 13. 118 "The Early History of Maryland Connected With Its Religion to 1692," c. 1857, MDA; "A Tabular Exhibit of the Clergy of the Church of England in the American Colonies. . .," c. 1859, MS. 786; Clergy in Maryland , 1860; "School Documents collected by Ethan Allen, 1863, " Ethan Allen School Documents, MS. 14, Maryland Historical Society; "Synodalia: Or Records of Clergy Meetings in Maryland, between 1695-1773," MS. 786; Who Were the Early Settlers of Maryland?: A Paper Read Before the "Maryland Historical Society". . . (Baltimore: American Quarterly Church Review, 1866); The History of Maryland, To Which Are Added Brief Biographies of Distinguished Statesmen, Philanthropists, Theologians, etc. (Philadelphia: E. H. Butler and Co., 1866); "Annals of D.C.," c. 1869; "History of the Church in Maryland 1692-1873," c. 1873, MDA; "Maryland Missionary Movements," c. 1876, MS. 786. 119 Maryland Toleration , p. 3. 120 History of Maryland . 121 Historical Notices of St. Ann's Parish , p. 11. 122 Francis L. Hawks, A Narrative of Events Connected With the Rise and Progress of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland , Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States, vol. 2 (New York: John S. Taylor, 1839). Hawks had access to the English records, but never systematically examined those in Maryland; see H. G. Jones, For History's Sake: The preservation and Publication of North Carolina History 1663-1903 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), pp. 199-209. 123 See William Francis Brand, Life of William Rollinson Whittingham, Fourth Bishop of Maryland , 2 vols. (New York: E. and J. B. Young and Co., 1883). 124 Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 6 June 1854, MDA. 125 Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 12 February 1855, MDA. 126 Journal of Convention (1855), p. 54. 127 George Burgess to Ethan Allen, 12 December 1856, MS. 786; George Burgess to William E. Wyatt, 1 August 1857, MDA: George Burgess to Ethan Allen, 22 August 1857, MS. 786; and George Burgess to Ethan Allen, 6 September 1858, MS. 786. All these refer to the compilation of a list of ordained Episcopal ministers from Maryland. These are but a few of many such letters. 128 Such as his labor on the division of the Diocese in 1858. 129 Journal of Convention (1859), p. 8; (1860), pp. 9-10, 110-15. 130 Journal of Convention (1860), p. 12. 131 Journal of Convention (1873), pp. 181-83. 132 The archives are located at the Diocesan Center in Baltimore MD, 21218. A description of the archives can be found at http://stannes-annapolis.ang-md.org/diocese/archives.html , accessed October 28, 2000. 133 Ethan Allen to the President of the Board of Trustees of the Hannah More Academy, 8 May 1873, Whittingham Papers, MDA; Ethan Allen to Dr. George Leeds, 9 May 1873, MDA; Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 17 May 1873, Whittingham Papers, MDA. 134 Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 14-15 January 1875, Whittingham Papers, MDA. 135 Wyllys Rede, " The Maryland Diocesan Library _ A Mine of Historical Material," MDA. 136 Daniel Dulany Addison, "William Stevens Pewrry," DAB 14: 495-96. 137 Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit: or commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations .... (New York: Robert Carter and Bros., 1861), 5: ix. Allen contributed essays on William Wilkinson, pp. 4-7; Hugh Jones, pp. 9-13; Jacob Henderson, pp. 34-38;William Brogden, pp. 85-88; Thomas Craddock, pp. 111-17; William West, pp. 208-11; William Duke, pp. 309-14; Joseph Grove, John Bend, pp. 353-55; Walter Dulany Addison, pp. 403-10; Benjamin Conte, pp. 487-91; and William H. Wilmer, pp. 515-19. 138 These letters are in MS. 786. 139 Papers Relating to the History of the Church in Maryland, A.D. 1694-1775 (N.P.: Privately published, 1878), pp. iii-iv. 140 William Stevens Perry to Ethan Allen, 25 November 1867, MS. 786. 141 Ethan Allen to T.W. Ligon, 21 Janaury 1858; John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 22 May 1858, 5 June 1858, 29 October 1858, all MS. 786. Alexander was in Europe to investigate the unification of coinage for the United States government; DAb 1: 168-69. 142 John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 26 March 1859, 17 May 1859, 9 September 1859, 7 December 1859, 15 December 1859, all MS. 786. 143 Morris L. Radoff, Buildings of the State of Maryland at Annapolis Hall of Records Commission Publication no. 9 (Annapolis: Hall of Records commission, 1954), pp. 115-116. 144 Report on the Condition of the Public Records (Annapolis: Thomas J. Wilson, 1860). 145 Report on certain Documents Touching the Provincial History of Maryland, Addressed to His Excellency the Governor (Baltimore: John D. Toy, 1860). 146 Report of the Rev. Dr. Ethan Allen, In relation to Records of the Executive Department; And Letter from John H. Alexander, Esq.; In Reference to Calendar of Domestic State Papers (N.P., 1861). 147 Index to the Calendar of Maryland State-Papers Compiled Under Direction of John Henry Alexander, Esq. LL.D. (Baltimore: James S. Waters, 1861); John Henry Alexander to Ethan Allen, 6 May 1861, MS. 786. 148 In 1868, for example, he canvassed the Eastern Shore of Maryland for historical records and artifacts; Council Minutes, III, 69. MS. 2008. 149 Journal of Convention (1877), p. 168; (1878), p. 91; Ethan Allen to William R. Whittingham, 1878, MDA. 150 Rede, "Maryland Diocesan Library." By 1881 the Library had been established and was open for researchers; Journal of Convention (1881), p. 51. Most of the successful organization of the archives has come with the transfer of the collection to the Maryland Historical Society and the employing of F. Garner Ranney as its part-time archivist, both developments of the 1960s. 151 The Garrison Church Sketches of the History of St. Thomas' Parish Garrison Forest Baltimore county, Maryland 1742-1852 , ed. Hobart Smith (New York: James Pott and Co., 1898); "Notes on Maryland Parishes," Maryland Historical Magazine 9 (December 1914): 315-26. 152 The MDA has a published broadside announcing the project and a list of subscribers. The manuscript history has disappeared over the years. 153 Dieter Cunz, "Christian Mayer, Baltimore Merchant," American-German Review 10 (February 1944): 11-13, 35. 154 Memoranda and notes maintained by Mayer while on this trip are in the Mayer and Roszel Papers, MS. 581.3, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MS. 581.3). 155 Brantz Mayer to Lewis Brantz, 31 January 1831, Mayer Papers, MS. 1574, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MS. 1574). Although Mayer occasionally dabbled in politics and secured some appointments because of his support, he was never very much in favor of this aspect of life. In 1846 he was ashamed to admit that politics and making money were the great preoccupations of Americans; Brantz Mayer to Alexandre Vattemare, 25 February 1846, Vattemare Papers, MS. 1452, Maryland Historical Society. The only time Mayer felt at peace about such involvement was during the Civil War; even here his political work and service in the Army was underlined by his understanding that the war was not political but "sheer mutual provocation - rebellion - treason"; Brantz Mayer to Mrs. Mary Bayard Devereux Clarke, Mayer/Clarke Papers, MS. 2287, Maryland Historical Society. 156 Brantz Mayer to Christian Leins, 2 October 1833, Brantz Mayer Papers, MS. 581, Maryland Historical Society. 157 Brantz Mayer to John Neal, 30 August 1836, Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society; Brantz Mayer to Alexandre Vattemare, 12 August 1852, MS. 1452; Park Benjamin to Brantz Mayer, 30 October 1858, MS. 581.3; William G. Simms to Brantz Mayer, 31 January 1859, MS. 581.3; Brantz Mayer to Mrs. Mary Bayard Devereux Clarke, MS. 2287; Brantz Mayer to ?, 15 August 1866, Vertical File; and William B. Sprague to Brantz Mayer, 6 December 1867, Jared Sparks Memoir, MS. 581.4, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MS. 581.4). The auction of his collection in 1879 consisted of thirteen hundred lots; Catalogue of the Autograph Letters and Manuscripts of the Late Col. Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore (Boston: Sullivan Brothers & Libbie, 1879). Mayer also gave two lectures in 1867 and 1869 to the Maryland Historical Society on this subject; 7 November 1867 and 1 April 1869, Council Minutes, III, pp. 46, 115, MS. 2008. Mayer also collected a very large library (in 1855 it consisted of nearly two thousand volumes, over a third classified as history); Brantz Mayer Record Book, MS 581.2, Maryland Historical Society. 158 Jared Sparks to Brantz Mayer, 8 August 1837, MS. 581.4; Brantz Mayer to Joel Roberts Poinsett, 13 May 1840, quoted in Jerry E. Patterson, "Brantz Mayer, Man of Letters," Maryland Historical Magazine 52 (December 1957): 281. 159 John Neal to Brantz Mayer, 17 March 1840, MS. 581.3; John Neal to Brantz Mayer, 2 October 1840, MS. 581.3. 160 A copy of these essays, published under the pseudonym Pon-Kei-Qua is in the Mayer Papers, MS. 1584.1, Maryland Historical Society. 161 Joel Roberts Poinsett to Brantz Mayer, 7 March 1841, Brantz Mayer Papers, MS. %81.1, Maryland Historical Society. Mayer's phrenological chart of 25 May 1840 (in MS. 581.3) supported his own conceptions of his talents. 162 Quoted in Patterson, p. 278. 163 Brantz Mayer to Alexandre Vattemare, 8 June 1845, MS. 1452. 164 Brantz Mayer Papers, MS. 728 and MS. 736, Maryland Room, University of Maryland; Park Benjamin to Brantz Mayer, 23 June 1844, MS. 58.3; Park Benjamin to Brantz Mayer, 17 January 1845, MS. 581.3; and Park Benjamin to Brantz Mayer, 24 January 1845, MS. 581.3. 165 Among other things Mayer delivered a lecture to the Maryland Historical Society in 1845; published Mexico, Aztec, Spanish, and Republican in 1851; published a History of the War Between Mexico and the United States in 1848; contributed articles in journals such as the Southern Quarterly Review (1847, 1849), Debow's Review (1850), Merchants Magazine (1844); and authored Observations on Mexican History and Archaeology with a Special Notice of Zapotec Remains as Delineated in Mr. J. G. Sawkins's Drawings of Milta which was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1856. Patterson discusses these works in detail. 166 Brantz Mayer to Alexandre Vattemare, 26 October 1847, MS. 1452. 167 Brantz Mayer to Alfred M. Meyer, 24 July 1876, MS. 581.1. 168 Jared Sparks to Brantz Mayer, 2 March 1846, MS. 581.4. 169 Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, During His Visits to Canada in 1776, As One of the Commissioners From Congress, with a Memoir and Notes (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1845): Tah-gah-Jute or Logna and captain Michael Cresap; A Discourse (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1851): Calvert and Penn; Or the Growth of Civil and Religious Liberty in America, As Disclosed in the Planting of Maryland and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1852); The Sot-Weed Factor: Or, A Voyage to Maryland, A Satyr . . . N.p.: Shea's Early Southern Tracts, no. 11, 1866): Memoir and Genealogy of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Family of Mayer Which Originated in the Free Imperial City of Ulm, Wurtemberg: 1495-1878 (Baltimore: Published by the author, 1878); History, Possessions and Prospects of the Maryland Historical Society , Fund Publications, no. 1 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1867). 170 In late 1860 Mayer confessed to having been wiped out by a bank failure and having hopes to begin to recoup his losses in "literary or political writership." Brantz Mayer to Nathaniel Parker Willis, 11 November 1860, quoted in Patterson, pp 286-87. 171 See Bernard C. Steiner, "Brantz Mayer," Maryland Historical Magazine 5 (March 1910): 5-6. 172 Benjamin Alvord to Mrs. Brantz Mayer, 8 March 1879, MS. 581. See also Patterson, pp. 287-89. 173 Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver Being An Account of His Career and Adventures on the coast, In the Interior, On Shipboard, and in the West Indies (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1854). This volume went through twelve editions in two years and has been reprinted at least four times in this century (1928, 1942, 1946, and 1976); Patterson, pp. 285-86. 174 In a letter to Anna Ella Carroll Mayer stated that he had been writing for one newspaper one article per diem for $1500 a year; Brantz May to Anna Ella Carroll, 16 September 1862, Anna Ella Carroll Papers, MS. 1224, Maryland Historical Society. 175 John Pendleton Kennedy to Brantz Mayer, 20 June 1855, MS. 581.3. 176 The exceptions were travel articles for national journals like Mayer's "A June Jaunt; With Some Wanderings in the Footsteps of Washington, Braddock, and the Early Pioneers," Harper's Magazine (April 1857): 592-612. 177 The journal has been reprinted in 1845, 1876, 1969, and 1976. 178 Memoir of Jared Sparks, LL.D. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1867), p. 29. 179 Commerce, Literature and Art: A Discourse...Delivered at the Dedication of the Baltimore Athenaeum, October 23, 1848 (Baltimore: John Murphy, 1848), p. 29. 180 Page iii of the 1867 editions published by Joel Munsell of Albany. 181 Commerce, Literature and Art; and Address Delivered at the Third Annual Commencement of the Central High School of Baltimore, August 1st, 1853 (Baltimore: James Lucas for Board of School Commissioners, 1853). 182 Brantz Mayer to Joel Robert Poinsett, 13 May 1840, quoted in Patterson, p. 281. 183 Mayer served as the Society's first Corresponding Secretary (1844-47), a member of the Library Committee (1847-55, 1878-79), and President (1867-71) as well as numerous other temporary assignments. Council Minutes, I, pp. 1-4, 125, 164, 197, 231, 255, 285, 308, 347, 411, 422; II, p. 289; III, pp. 11, 442, 470, 507, MS. 2008. 184 Council Minutes, 1, p. 19, MS. 2008. 185 Jared Sparks to Brantz Mayer, 29 March 1845, MS. 581.4. Although Mayer's relationship with Sparks did not seem to be particularly close Mayer certainly valued the advice of this significant American historian. Sparks apparently had some respect for Mayer as an editor even attempting to persuade him to edit an unfinished history of the Gulf Stream; Jared Sparks to Brantz Mayer, 28 July 1855, 15 August 1855, 20 September 1855 and 3 November 1855, MS. 581.4. Lyman Draper, the great collector, also attempted to obtain Mayer's assistance in the same period for the completion of his own histories, as recounted in William B. Hesseltine, Pioneer's Mission: The Story of Lyman Copeland Draper (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1954). 186 Council Minutes, I, p. 145. 187 Mayer had apparently written to other historians and librarians seeking advice on how to treat these records. The suggestion for binding the records in different colors came from James R. Butler of Rhode Island; James R. Butler to Brantz Mayer, 30 November 1864, MS. 581.1. Also Sparks encouraged his efforts here and offered some minor suggestions; Jared Sparks to Brantz Mayer, 18 February 1865, MS. 581.4. 188 History, Possessions and Prospects , p. 27. 189 Steiner, pp. 13-14. 190 Lynn R. Meekins, "Some Random Notes on the Career of John Thomas Scharf," Baltimore Sun , 24 January 1954; Francis B. Culver, "The War Romance of John Thomas Scharf," Maryland Historical Magazine 21 (September 1926): 295-302; Dictionary of American Biography 16:149-20. 191 Meekins, "Scharf"; "Historian Without a History," Baltimore Sun , 24 January 1954; Francis B. Culver, "The War Romance of John Thomas Scharf," Maryland Historical Magazine 21 (September 1926): 295-302; Dictionary of American Biography 16: 149-20. 192 The Chronicles of Baltimore (Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, (1874); with William Hand Browne, History of Maryland (Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers, 1877); History of Maryland , 3 vols. (Baltimore: John B. Piet, 1879); History of Baltimore City and County , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Co., 1881); History of Western Maryland , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts and Co., 1882); History of Saint Louis City and County , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Co., 1883); History of Philadelphia , 3 vols. (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Co., 1884); History of Westchester County, New York , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L. E. Preston and Co., 1886); History of the Confederate states Navy (New York: Rogers and Sherwood, 1887); History of Delaware , 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L. J. Richards and Co., 1888). The Regional Publishing Company reprinted his History of Western Maryland in 1968 and History of Baltimore City and County in 1971; the Tradition Press of Hatboro, Pennsylvania reprinted his 1879 History of Maryland in 1967. 193 David D. Van Tassal, Recording America's Past: An Interpretation of the Development of Historical Studies in America 1607-1884 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), p. 166. 194 See, for example, David Glassberg, American Historical Pageantry: The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990). 195 A few of these letters are in the Scharf Papers, MS. 1999, Maryland Historical Society. 196 Quoted in D. J. Signorvitch, "J. Thomas Scharf's Memorial Histories: A Neglected Record of our Urban Past," unpublished paper, p. 5. 197 For a good popular description of this phenomenon refer to Gerald Carson, "Get the Prospect Seated.. And Keep Talking," American Heritage 9(August 1958): 38-41, 77-80. 198 An indication of this approach by Scharf is his planning in the late 1880s to produce a biographical dictionary of Maryland which was never completed; see my "A New Source for Maryland Genealogy: John Thomas Scharf's Unpublished Biographical Dictionary of Maryland," Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin 15(August 1974): 140-48. 199 This was a prevalent theme of such histories; see R. Richard Wohl and A. Theodore Brown, "The Usable Past: A Study of Historical Traditions in Kansas City," Huntington Library Quarterly 23(1960): 237-59. 200 A detailed account of this festival is Edward Spencer, ed., An Account of the Municipal Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Baltimore October 11th-19th, 1880, With a Sketch of the History, and Summary of the Resources, of the City (Baltimore: Mayor and City Council, 1881). 201 Spencer, An Account of the Municipal Celebration , pp. 47-48. 202 Chronicles of Baltimore , pp. vi-vii. 203 See David Glassberg, American Historical Pageantry . 204 The best description of his methodology is Edward G. Howard's introduction, pp. iii-v, to the 1971 Regional Publishing Company's reprint of Scharf's History of Baltimore City and County . The only views of the magnitude of his collection is in "Colonel Scharf's Gift of an Important Historical Collection," Johns Hopkins University Circular 10(June 1891): 110-113 and Catalogue of a Portion of the Library of J. Thomas Scharf... (Boston: Charles F. Libbie & Co., 1888) which lists 664 book titles, 2115 volumes of pamphlets, and numerous autographs and documents, currency, prints, newspapers and artifacts. 205 John Thomas Scharf to Daniel Coit Gilman, 17 November 1883, Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University. 206 Even today, the head of the Maryland State Archives holds the title of State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents. 207 Report of J. Thomas Scharf, Commissioner of the Land Office of Maryland, From April 1, 1884, to December 1, 1885, to Hon. Henry Lloyd, Governor of Maryland (Annapolis: Maryland Republican Printing, 1886), pp. 3-7, 11-12. 208 See his other reports for 1885-88, pp. 11, 13; 1888-1890, pp. 14, 20-22, 25-26; 1890-91, pp. 16, 21. 209 Morris L. Radoff, "An Elusive Manuscript - The Proceedings of the Maryland Convention of 1774," American Archivist 30(January 1967):59-65. 210 See the John Hopkins University Circular of 1891 for the description of these papers. 211 Report of J. Thomas Scharf, LL.D. Commissioner of the Land Office of Maryland, From January 1st, 1888 to January 1st, 1890 to Governor Elihu E. Jackson, With a Series of Carefully Prepared Articles on Maryland Resources (Annapolis: George T. Melvin, State Printer, 1890) pp. 22-25. 212 John Thomas Scharf to Daniel Coit Gilman, 3 March 1896 and William Hand Browne to John Thomas Scharf, 12 March 1896, Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University. 213 John Thomas Scharf to N. Murray, 19 February 1895, University Archives, Johns Hopkins University. 214 See receipts of 25 April and 7 February 1905. Special Collections, John Hopkins University. 215 Council Minutes, 8: 258-59, Maryland Historical Society Archives and Papers, MS. 2008, Maryland Historical Society (hereafter cited as MdHi). 216 Lowell E. Sunderland, "Cataloguing Project Under Way," Baltimore Sun, , 28 July 1966. 217 See, for example, Lloyd W. Griffin, "The John Pendleton Kennedy Manuscripts," Maryland Historical Magazine 48 (December 1953): 327-36, and William D. Hoyt, Jr., "The Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society, ibid. 32 (September 1937): 247-71. 218 Many of my observations are drawn from Harold R. Manakee's excellent study, "A Quarter-Century of growth at the Maryland Historical Society," Maryland Historical Magazine 60 (March 1965): 56-92. Edward C. Papenfuse, "`A Modicum of Commitment'" The Present and Future Importance of the Historical Records Survey," American Archivist 37 (April 1974): 211-21. The result was the Calendar of the General Otho Holland Williams Papers in the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore: Historical Records Survey, 1940). 220 "The Publication Program of the Maryland Historical Society," American Archivist 15 (October 1952): 319. 221 Barker was professor of American history at Hopkins between 1945 and 1972 and composed one of the classic works on Maryland history, The Background of the Revolution in Maryland (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940). 222 Council Minutes, 8 May 1958, p. 1304; 30 October 1959, p. 1328; 11 February 1960, p. 1334, MS. 2008, MdHi. 223 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961). 224 Francis C. Haber to Philip M. Hamer, 31 January 1957, MS. 2008, MdHi. A section was included on the Society, pp. 223-25, although it was far from satisfactory. 225 Independent Historical Societies: An Enquiry Into Their Research and Publication Functions and Their Financial Future (Boston: Boston Athenaeum, 1962), p. 168. 226 These institutions included the New-York Historical Society, Virginia State Library, Virginia Historical Society, and Library of Congress. Memo of P.W. Filby to Harold R. Manakee, 17 March 1966, MS. 2008, MdHi. 227 Avril J. M. Pedley, comp., The Manuscript Collections of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1968). 228 Larry E. Sullivan and Richard J. Cox, eds., A Guide to the Research Collections of the Maryland Historical Society: Historical and Genealogical Manuscripts and Oral History Interviews (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1981). 229 For the tracing of this see my "Manuscript Usage in the Private Historical Society: Maryland as a Case Study, 1970-1976," Manuscripts 29 (Fall 1977): 243-51. 230 Walter Rundell, Jr., "Guides to Maryland's Past: Eight Society Microfilm Projects," Maryland Historical Magazine 70 (Spring 1975): 92-97, and Edward C. Carter, II, "The Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the Maryland Historical Society, 1885-1971: Nature, Structure and Means of Acquisition," ibid. 66 (Winter 1971): 436-55. 231 H. Earle Johnson to P.W. Filby, 23 August 177, MS. 2008, MdHi. 232 The description of the Maryland Historical Society's special collections can be found at http://www.mdhs.org/library/scindex.html , accessed October 28, 2000. |