Maryland State Archives

2001/5/10 through 2001/5/17

I don't know if I can begin accounting for my hours spent on this the last week, it's been a blur. I think it is as follows:
5/11-3 hours archives
5/12-5 hours archives
5/14-3 hours writing
5/15-1 and 12/ hours archives; 2 hours writing
5/16--writing, hours and hours
5/17-proofreading/revising 4 hours

I think this class has been valuable for me as someone who would like to pursue a career in archives. I've learned a lot of the difficulties and frustrations of doing research in archives, although I do feel I ultimately learned to navigate it. I found the Annual Reports and newspaper accounts to be the most valuable resources for writing this history. On the other hand, the letterbooks and correspondene were the least valuable because of the difficulty of reading them and more importantly just the volume of information contained...unless you are searching for something specific it's difficult to find anything useful. The most interesting observation I have about public history is that I did feel it altered how I approached this topic. I initially started out looking for controversy and scandal. However, as I got into the project and also began realizing that this was for the comptroller's Office anniversary my direction changed. I began looking for an understanding of the long-term impact of Keating's tenure and looking for the roots of the modern office. I also noticed a tendency on my part to want to focus on the more positive (which was a switch from where I had started) and I may have ended up swinging too much to that side,but I came out liking Keating and thinking he was a pretty good guy!

2001/4/28/29/30/ and 2001/5/1/2/3

I spent the weekend going over the Annual Reports with a fine tooth comb. Trying to analysis what happened during Keating's term. Total time on annual reports over 3 days: 7 hours". I went to the archives on the first and looked over the letterbooks again and read somore newspapers for about an hour and a half. I spent the 2 and 3rd trying to put together where I wanted to take this section of the paper; what I thought was most important etc. Unfortunately, it's not the rough draft I hoped for. I just couldn't get it finished up due to time constraints and being a bit under the weather. However, i feel like I know exactly the issues I'm going to be looking at; how I want to approach it. At this point it's just an issue of ironing out some unresolved questions and getting it into a final format.

on another note. I couldn't get into ecpclio.net from home. It seems to be fine from school.

I spent about 2 hours each day in the archives (one day at Maryland) reading the Centreville Record. I also checked into land records without success, still trying to track down what happened to Keating's land when he died.The paper has been pretty useful for Biographical information on Keating particulary pre-comptroller. Suprisingly, it's been a lot less informative for his time during the years he was in office.I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the basic biography with the exception of understanding his last years...primarily the debt problem and also some allusion to neglect in office of the tax commission. I found a reference to this in the Baltimore Sun and then no further information. The other area still unclear to me is whether he decided to run again in 1884 or was not nominated by the party. I also found a reference in one article that he ran unsucessfully for Senate that year but can find no other corroboration. If this is the case then this would be additional insight into his character (ie. larger aspirations that state office. For the biography to be complete I feel I would really need to confirm elsewhere (other than obit) that he did make a run for Senate and why he was unsucessful.

I spent 2 and 1/2 hours each day in the archives. I spent almost all this time reading newspapers, primarly the Centreville Record. I've found that the Annapolis Capital (Evening Capital and it's variations) was not in operation until 1884. The preceding paper the Maryland Gazette was in operation 1874-1884 however it is not held at the Archives. Howeve, I have found the Centreville Record has excellent coverage of events in Annapolis and focuses on Keating (to the point even of saying when he arrives in town and when he departs). I also started looking into land record, trying once again to track down who keating left his land to upon his death

On another note, I found a problem with the annual reports online. The report for 1883 (vol 247) is a duplicate of the 1881 report (vol 245). I emailed this from the annual report page

I spent about 4 hours over 3 days reading the annual reports online. I've only gotten through three years thus far. However, they get easier to read the more I do. They are very helpful for pinpointing timeperiods to look at in the correspondence and letterbooks, as well as the newspaper.

Following is my review of publichistory.org in paragraph format but roughly following the order of questions.

Overall, publichistory.org is an excellent introduction for the novice to the field of public history. I especially liked that most of it's information was of very practical and relevant nature with resources on programs of study and where to practice. I found it's layout easy to navigate and the presentation, although a little dull in black and white, simple and effective. The strongest components are, as I mentioned the great links to schools and other resources. Also the internal links at the bottom of the page allow the user to jump easily to whatever they are interested in within in the site. On the other hand, I would like to see this navigation information at the top of the page so I don't need to scroll down to find it. This should be immediately evident on the home page. I would also like to see this website develop a more exhaustive list of job resources/sites. It would be great if this could become a true resource for job searching (but I realize this section is still new as of now). Finally, I would like to see a discussion of where public history fits in the broader field of history and address some of the issues we discussed in class that are often used to attack public history. Overall, it is an excellent site, one I'm sure I will visit again.

I spent approx an hour at UMBC reading through the Baltimore Sun and 2 hours at the archives but didn't have a very fruitful time at either place. I found some info on the 1875 democratic convention at which Keating played a significant role. However, i found it frustrating to search through the paper as it require looking through each day's paper on microfilm. Is there a better way to search the newspapers? Otherwise I feel I will never glean much from them as keating was in office for 6 years and my eyes will never take reading 6 years worth of newspapers!

The time in the hours I looked at the letterbook for the comptroller's office for 1878. It was difficult to read and I didn't find too much of interest. Mainly I was using this time to get acquainted with these particular records. Also found a problem in the archives with Comptroller records. I requested the correspondence for this time frame and instead received the bounty papers. The archivist investigated and found that it is mislabelled and not only that but he can't find a major portion of the comptroller's papers. He was going to look into this so hopefully it will be resolved the next I'm back.

Spent 2 and 1/2 hours at the archives today. I'm intriqued by the Denton journal article citing that Keating was deep in debt when he died but have not been able to find anything to back this up. There is no indication in the archives of any probate records for Keating. With Emily's help I've check the Wills Index, Estate Dockets, Inventories, Administration Accounts Index, and Account of Sales Index with no success. I've found another obituary for Keating in the Centreville Record (June 4, 1898). There were several mentions of Keatings close friendship with Gorman and Rasin, as well as the previous comptroller Wolford.

I also began reading the annual reports. Ther first and second reports seem to indicate that the largest problem facing the treasury was a lack of funds in the form of taxes. Primarily, Keating felt this was due to the general hard times but also the manner in which funds were allocated to the treasury by the legislature. In 1878 it seemed the treasury was continually getting loans to pay the principal and interest on other loans. My next step is to finish the rest of the reports in order to gain a better idea of the issues of the day from Keating's point of view.

2001/3/4

I am not used to keeping this as a running journal. Next time I will write as I go along. I guess I still like paper and pen for my notes!

Time spent: 1 and ½ hours Feb 28 with Emily for orientation at archives. Wow, a lot of information and overwhelming at first. However, after looking through the list of suggested resources I see that I won’t need to tackle all of them. My initial feeling is that this comptroller is more important for the changes in the office rather than his own personality thus I will probably need to focus more on files relating to the comptroller’s office. After following up some basic biographical info on Keating (wills, newspapers) I will start by looking at the Annual Reports, Comptroller Correspondence, and Letterbooks.

Time spent: 2 hours on March 2 and 3, Searching for obituary in Baltimore Sun and searching for will at MD State Archives. I found the article in the sun fairly easily. It made me appreciate the clarity of sections in our newspapers today. I had a pretty unsuccessful search at the archives. It would be very helpful if the finding aids told users how the wills, indexes, inventories, and estate dockets were arranged once your in the microfilm. I was lost. I finally happened upon an entry for Keating in the wills index. At least I think it’s him, only problem is the date of probate said May 8, 1951 which seems a little late seing he died in 1898.

The rest of my time has been spent reading the relevant sections of the follwing books: The New Old Line State; Queen Anne’s County (Emory), Maryland A History (Walsh) and Maryland A Middle Temperament (Brugger). I spent about an hour with the Old Line State which didn’t contain very much relevant material to my time period. An hour with Queen Anne’s County (which is a very confusing book with lots of lists; and 2 hours each with Walsh and Brugger’s books which were the most helpful in understanding this time period. (see comptroller entries)

2001/02/11

I have selected as my Comptroller Thomas J. Keating (1878-1884), primarily because this period will encompass a critical time in the expansion of the powers of the office. I found Wilner’s description of the Board of Public Works’ role in operating the Fisheries Force fascinating and it is my hope that Keating’s tenure touches on this aspect of their work. If another student has already chosen this Comptroller I would also be happy to work on Marion DeKalb Smith (1892-1896).

Wilner’s book is a successful study of the historical evolution of the Board of Public Works, tracing the continuing expansion of the Board’s power from its inception until the early 1980’s. The study examines the state’s impetus for creating the first (rather inactive) board; namely the involvement of the state with "works of internal improvement” as a means for providing income without relying on taxes. Wilner describes the creation of the first Board as one intended to supervise the state’s involvement in these projects. He then delineates the financial events leading to the creation of the constitutional Commissioners of Public Works in 1851 and the political issues which established the Board of Public Works in 1864. The author shows that the Board underwent dramatic changes and modernization after 1864 in response to the increased role of state government and the Industrial Revolution. The last three chapters are spent describing the increasing responsibility given to the board by the legislature, illustrating the far-reaching power of the “modern” Board.

The work’s greatest strength lies in what it reveals about how and why the Board came to be one of the powerful agencies in the state. Wilner draws out when and how additional powers were conferred to the Board. For instance, he shows that the 1864 constitution primarily considered the role of the Board to manage the state’s interest in railroad, canal, and bridge companies. The 1867 constitution conferred the same mandate to the Board, however because of the advent of the post-war era and the Industrial Revolution the role of the state changed. In virtue of the power and knowledge of its three Board members the General Assembly saw the Board as a convenient agency for dealing with a wide variety of state issues from construction to budget to personnel. The most interesting revelation of the book is the haphazard manner in which the Board acquired power. Rather than a clear delineation of duties or as a result of a planning process, the Board of Public Works had responsibilities heaped upon it, as it became in many instances a catchall agency. Changing times and societal evolutions have meant the Board has had to fulfill different roles throughout its history, but overall Wilner convincingly illustrates that the Board has successfully met these challenges.

The greatest weakness of the work is its inability to give a focused analysis of the political role of the Board. He alludes to this consideration several times, for instance regarding the split on the board between Governor Hamilton and Comptroller Keating and Treasurer Compton, yet never clearly addresses the influence of politics on the Board. Moreover, Wilner’s depiction of the increased power of the Board makes it appear to be one that the Board never sought but rather placidly accepted. I wonder if this is truly the case. Would the Board have been happy to have more and more work (never mind their other duties) unless they were in some regard actually attempting to acquire more power? Although slightly outside the purview of the book I would also like to have seen a case made for the necessity of the board. Wilner is clearly an admirer of the board and there is no doubt that the Board of Pubic Works is an overall successful agency but the duties of the Board seem to me to be ones that are often connected to other agencies. In the epilogue he notes that Maryland is the only state to have a Board of Public Works. This statement made me curious as to how other states have handled the issues for which our Board of Public Works is responsible. I would like to have a seen a comparison to how other states delegate the power the Maryland Board has, thus providing a better analysis of whether the board is really necessary, or whether other agencies could fulfill it’s functions.

In terms of understanding the comptroller’s office I found that this book did not give me a better understanding of the role of that office. I understand the duties of the comptroller as regards the Board of Public Works but have no clearer understanding of the regular functions of the Comptroller or how they might coincide with his work on the Board of Public Works. Once again I find myself wondering about political considerations as regards the Comptroller. For instance, what were previous jobs, interests, investments etc of Comptrollers (as well as Treasurers and Governors) and how might that have influenced decisions made by the Board of Public Works. Although, I didn’t find this book particularly useful for understanding the duties of the comptroller I do think it is useful for our projects as it has certainly given me some ideas I am interested in exploring further in my research.