6 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

The office area vacated by the Land Office made it possible for
the first time to assign a desk to each staff member of the Hall of
Records. Previously the research room reference staff had sat at the
already crowded tables in that public room. We had shared with the
Land Office the single photographic laboratory. The room was pain-
fully crowded, not only with necessary equipment but also with ancient
unused and unusuable machines which the Land Office had preserved.
The removal of Land Office equipment permitted a rearrangement of
this room, the junking of obsolete equipment, and a thorough cleaning
of the storage areas of the building.

As I pointed out in my last report, all of this was not accomplished
without difficulty. The Land Office, at the end, was reluctant to move;
a taxpayer's suit to prevent it resulted in a temporary injunction against
the Board of Public Works and the Hall of Records Commission, but
it was served too late to accomplish this purpose. An interlocutory
injunction was then granted to prevent the use of the vacated area by
the Hall of Records. The taxpayer's suit was heard in Anne Arundel
County Circuit Court before the Honorable Matthew S. Evans in
October 1958. In March 1959, Judge Evans held that the Board of
Public Works was within its rights in moving the Land Office. An
appeal was taken and the case was heard by the Court of Appeals
October 21, 1959. On November 20, 1959, the order of the Circuit
Court was affirmed.

In addition to the contest in the courts, opponents of the move
stirred up some feeling in the community through letters, meetings, and
newspaper interviews. The experience was especially unfortunate be-
cause the public found it difficult to understand the problem of space.
It was almost impossible to explain that the Land Office land records
were not deeds, as were the Hall of Records land records; and that
neither in that category nor any other was there a true division of
records. We readily granted that it is always more convenient for the
searcher to have all the records he might need in one place, but, on the
other hand, if he needs very many records this becomes, in practice, an
impossibility. The Public Record Office and the British Museum both
hold records for the historian, and so do The National Archives and
The Library of Congress—there is no help for it.

As soon as more stack area was available to us, we began to transfer
many historical county records which we had previously been obliged
to refuse. I should like to call your attention especially to the remark-
ably fine group of county records listed in "Archival Acquisitions." I