LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

October 30, 1941.
To THE HONORABLE

HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION,
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

GENTLEMEN :

The following report covers the activities of the Hall of Records
for the fiscal year October 1, 1940 to September 30, 1941, the sixth
year of its establishment. Annual reports for the first three years,
October 1, 1935 to September 30, 1938, were submitted by the first
Archivist, the late Dr. James A. Robertson. For the fiscal year
October 1, 1938 to September 30, 1939, a report was prepared by the
present Archivist who was appointed on June 16, 1939. It will be
recalled by the members of the Commission that Dr. Robertson died
in March of that year and that Miss Meade, the Assistant Archivist,
served as Acting Archivist during the period between his death and
the appointment of a new Archivist. These reports were never pub-
lished, but the Annual Report for the fiscal year 1939 to 1940 was
printed and has been distributed to other archival institutions, and
the present report will also be printed and distributed.

That the last year has been a fruitful one for the Hall of Records
the following pages will make clear. It will suffice here to point out
that more governmental records were deposited at the Hall than dur-
ing any other year, that the backlog of records needing servicing—
unfolding, boxing, arranging and listing, which has existed since the
opening of the Hall of Records has been eliminated, that records
which are coming in now can be taken care of within a few days and
made available to the public, that each volume and every collection
of loose papers has been carefully studied and accessioned through
December 1940, that finding media so sorely lacking until now, are
beginning to appear in the form of lists and indexes, and that before
the end of the next year a full catalogue to all the materials in the
Hall will be complete and printed and a series of calendars for the
Rainbow Series will be close to completion. So much progress has
been made in the repair department that there are no records now