Today the Records of Baltimore City are organized and described following the National Archives model of Record Groups. City Archivist William LeFurgy and his staff, building on the work of his predecessor Richard Cox, and supplemented by some later listings by more recent staff, prepared type-written guides to the permanent records of Baltimore City that describe the records brought under archival management through about 1990.  Searchable pdfs of those typewritten guides are presented here:

The original typescript finding aids, described throughout this guide to research in the public records of Baltimore City, are provided here as hyperlinked individual text searchable pdfs, and are also indexed collectively on the Maryland State Archives web site.  To use the index on the MSA web site, go to http://mdsa.net, select  the pull down menu item, Baltimore City History , and submit a search string. There are also Records Retention and Disposal schedules for nearly all records currently housed at the new City Archives location, along with transmittal sheets detailing record transfers and are available for consultation at the City Archives.

Research in the records of the Public History of Baltimore for the period prior to the late 1930s should begin with the archival efforts of the Works Progress Administration.   In order to combat unemployment during the depression of 1929-1941, the Federal government, through the Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey, hired more people to be archivists and catalogers of America’s record heritage than at any other time in the history of the United States including the present. For a discussion of the Maryland project which produced two pioneering archivists and local historians, Dr. Morris L. Radoff, an unemployed assistant professor of Romance Languages who would later become Maryland’s second State Archivist, and Dr. Carl Everstine , an unemployed Johns Hopkins Phd who later would head Legislative Reference for Baltimore and the State of Maryland, see: Edward C. Papenfuse, “A Modicum of Commitment: The Present and Future Importance of the Historical Records Survey.” The American Archivist, April 1974 . The Baltimore City HIstorical Records Survey chronologically arranged and inventoried all the surviving public records it could find relating to the City, resuming the work begun and published between 1905 and 1909 by Wilbur F. Coyle, the City Librarian. As the 1984  …. Guide to the Baltimore City Archives , edited by William G. LeFurgy, pointed out:

In 1874, the municipality made a significant move toward better record keeping practices by establishing a city library. This office had, among other duties, responsibility for maintenance and preservation of the city’s records. While little was accomplished during the library’s first few years, it had by the 1890s done some limited collecting of material judged to be of historical value. The work of the library reached a zenith in 1903 when Wilbur F. Coyle assumed the post of librarian. Coyle gathered historical records, arranged and indexed them, and published a collection of significant eighteenth and nineteenth century documents. His resignation in 1920, however, effectively ended this kind of work. Between 1905 and 1909, Wilbur Coyle published five volumes of records relating to Baltimore City, the originals of which were then in the custody of the City Library. Four of those volumes are currently on line and searchable at http://www.archive.org . The fifth volume is available on Google Books. The printed transcriptions as edited by Wilbur Coyle with links to the on-line versions, are as follows:

1) Coyle: 1729-1797 (1905) First Records of Baltimore Town

First records of Baltimore Town and Jones’ Town. Baltimore, 1905. (note: the online version does not include the three maps that were included as an appendix to the volume.)

2) Coyle: 1797-1813 (1906) Records of the city of Baltimore (City commissioners)

Records of the City of Baltimore (City Commissioners) 1797-1813 . Baltimore : City library, 1906

3) Coyle: 1729-1813 (1909) Supplement

Records of the city of Baltimore 1729-1813 . Supplement. List of levels and establishments. Extracts of minutes of City commissioners . Issued by Wilbur F. Coyle, city librarian. Baltimore : Press of Meyer & Thalheimer, 1909,

4) Coyle: 1782-1797 (1909) Records of the City of Baltimore (Special Commissioners) 1782 to 1797

Records of the City of Baltimore (Special Commissioners) 1782 to 1797 . / Issued by Wilber F. Coyle, city librarian. Baltimore : Press of Meyer & Thalheimer, 1909.

5) Coyle: 1810-1817 (1909) “Records of the city of Baltimore. Eastern precincts commissioners. 1812-1817

Records of the city of Baltimore. Eastern Precincts Commissioners, 1810-1817. Western Precincts Commissioners, 1810-1817 . Issued by Wilbur F. Coyle, city librarian. Baltimore : Press of King Bros., 1909

While the LeFurgy Guide does not correlate the volumes published by Wilbur Coyle with the reorganization of the City Records into record groups, the originals of the transcripts published by Coyle, as they survived to 1984, are encompassed in Record Groups 1 , 2 , and 3 . When the WPA/HRS resumed the archival efforts of Wilbur Coyle, all the loose papers that could be found were sorted as much as possible by date, and numbered sequentially within years. Typescript inventories and a subject card index to the typescripts were produced. In the early 1980s the Baltimore City Archives, with financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, reorganized the papers originally sorted and indexed by the WPA/Historical Records Survey, into record groups, removing the papers from the chronological series created by the WPA and placing them in archival boxes and folders according to assigned record group numbers, retaining their WPA year/sequence number. For the record groups to which papers were assigned and reboxed see WPA-HRS Record Groups, Baltimore City Archives, 1982 . For the electronic version of the inventories, see the Maryland State Archives CE number below. For a general overview of the Record Groups of the Baltimore City Archives, see William G. LeFurgy, ed., The Records of a City: A Guide to the Baltimore City Archives , 1984. A sample of the original paper series from the record groups, and record group series unique to microfilm, are in the process of being scanned and compiled into ebooks for editing and transcription. They include:

1) Baltimore City Archives

Record Group 22

An example of a Record Group that has been imaged from the original paper for editing and transcription purposes utilizing an editonline program developed by the State Archivist, is Record Group 22 of the Baltimore City Archives .

This ebook edition of the War of 1812 records of the Baltimore City Archives was compiled and is currently being edited by the State Archivist, who can be contacted through http://mdhistory.net or by email at edp@mdsa.net .

To view enlargements of the images, a current version of Adobe pdf viewer or an open source viewer such as Sumatra, is required.

You can proceed from here to the first folder: Folder 1 of Series 1.

There are 3475 images associated with this electronic book. Click here to go to the last image.
2) Baltimore City Archives

Record Group 19

Another example of editonline scans are volumes found only on microfilm (the originals appear to be missing) taken from RG 19, Health Department Records, series 3 ,

bca_m0397 (Trustees of the Poor and successor agency Minutes, 1833-1879; RG.19, S.3)

bca_m0398 (Trustees of the Poor and successor agency Minutes, 1879-1935; RG.19, S.3)

3) Baltimore City Archives

Record Group 19

A third example of editonline scans is a sample of folders of original papers taken from the WPA/HRS arrangment and placed in RG 19, series 1-179. The sample consists of three folders of papers inventoried by the WPA/HRS as 1819-179  (see: MSA CE40-1, image 319 ) with a single index entry for 1819-179-Miscellaneous bills, (coffins, burying dead, quarantine,etc). All are apparently related at least in part to the Yellow Fever epidemic, and amount to 144 images, folder labels included.

The typescript inventories of Baltimore City Records prepared by the Historical Records Survey are to be found in the Maryland State Archives Guide to Government Records, MSA CE 40 .

  1. Dates: 1756-1827 Description: 1 MSA CE 40-1 Accession No.: 19,499 MSA No.: C 171-1 Location: 2/16/7/59
  2. Dates: 1828-1838 Description: 2 MSA CE 40-2 Accession No.: 19,500 MSA No.: C 171-2 Location: 2/16/7/60
  3. Dates: 1839-1849 Description: 3 MSA CE 40-3 Accession No.: 19,501 MSA No.: C 171-3 Location: 2/16/7/60
  4. Dates: 1850-1860 Description: 4 MSA CE 40-4 Accession No.: 19,502 MSA No.: C 171-4 Location: 2/16/7/61
  5. Dates: 1861-1864 Description: 5 MSA CE 40-5 Accession No.: 19,503 MSA No.: C 171-5 Location: 2/16/7/61
  6. Dates: 1865-1870 Description: 6 MSA CE 40-6 Accession No.: 19,504 MSA No.: C 171-6 Location: 2/16/7/62
  7. Dates: 1871-1876 Description: 7 MSA CE 40-7 Accession No.: 19,505 MSA No.: C 171-7 Location: 2/16/7/62
  8. Dates: 1877-1883 Description: 8 MSA CE 40-8 Accession No.: 19,506 MSA No.: C 171-8 Location: 2/16/7/63
  9. Dates: 1884-1899 Description: 9 MSA CE 40-9 Accession No.: 19,507 MSA No.: C 171-9 Location: 2/16/7/63
  10. Dates: 1900-1909 Description: 10 MSA CE 40-10 Accession No.: 19,508 MSA No.: C 171-10 Location: 2/16/7/64
  11. Dates: 1910-1938 Description: 11 MSA CE 40-11 Accession No.: 19,509 MSA No.: C 171-11 Location: 2/16/7/64

The card index to the WPA inventories , while apparently losing some cards in the interim between its creation and its filming in the 1980s, is a good place to begin looking for topics (as they were thought of in the late 1930s) relating to the public history of Baltimore. An on-line scan of the index is to be found at the http://mdhistory.net web site, but researchers are cautioned that a careful review of the typed inventories should be made as well. An additional card index to the WPA/HRS inventories was compiled at a later date, a sample of which relating to the Baltimore City Health Department is available here. It is not known how complete or comprehensive this index is, but the references to the WPA/HRS year/inventory number can be followed to the current arrangement of the papers in to record groups utilizing the conversion table, WPA-HRS Record Groups, Baltimore City Archives, 1982 .

The reorganization of the City Archives under Richard Cox and William LeFurgy included careful attention by William LeFurgy to the creation and maintenance of security microfilm of what were deemed historical records. The resulting manuscript Guide to security microfilm encompasses the filming completed by October 25, 1985.  The City Archives has deposited its security microfilm with the Maryland State Archives where it is catalogued as  SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Baltimore City Archives Security and Disaster Recovery Microfilm Collection), msa_sc_5635 .  This collection contains the continuation of security microfilm created subsequent to 1985 for which there is a reel inventory on line, but as yet, no reel content descriptions as found in the 1985 Lefurgy Guide .  It is hoped that the City or some interested party will fund the scanning and creation of ebooks of this film in an effort to make the records more accessible and to contribute to the preservation of the originals.  As a sample, and as an aid to developing efficient research strategies utilizing the City’s rich heritage of public records, ebook access is provided here for selected records relating to the Mayor, the City Council, Trustees of the Poor, and the Law Department created largely from the security microfilm.

For the records of the Mayor and City Council , an excellent introduction and guide is:

LeFurgy, William G., Susan Wetheimer David, and Richard J. Cox, Governing Baltimore: A Guide to the Records of the Mayor and City Council at the Baltimore City Archives. (Baltimore: Baltimore City Archives and Records Management Office, Department of Legislative Reference, 1981).

Beginning with its first Charter in 1797, the City was granted powers of self-government that resulted in the passage of Ordinances and Resolutions affecting every aspect of life in the city. An index for the period 1797-1906 was published in 1907:

Brune, William H. Index to the Ordinances and Resolutions of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1797-1906. Baltimore: Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1907

as was a separately printed volume of the records for 1797-1798, Ordinances of the Corporation of the City of Baltimore, Passed at their First and Second Session, held February, 1797, and February, 1798. With the Act of Incorporation Prefixed. Baltimore: John Cox, 1875.

Too often there is a disconnect between what exists in printed, published form and archival records. For too long the printed word has been considered the provenance of the librarian and the records from which they were derived, the responsibility of the Archivist. As a result there has been little, if any, correlation between the publications of government and the records used in their publication. For example, Wilbur Coyle’s transcriptions have no direct link to their manuscript source today. Other examples include the printed proceedings of the two branches of the City Council. To date, no one has correlated the printed proceedings with the manuscript journals scanned and accessed below, yet if they were and ocr’d scans were made available of the printed versions linked to the manuscript volumes from which they were derived, history, and perhaps even better government, would be well served. As it is, still today, what government prints is not treated as ‘archival’ and the process of establishing an authoritative list of what government agencies have published over the years is a difficult task. A cooperative effort among the Maryland State Archives, the State Law Library, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Legislative Reference Department of the Maryland General Assembly lacks funding and staff but none the less some progress has been made at creating authoritative lists some of which are viewable at the Maryland State Archives Government Publications web site .

The Baltimore City Archives Security microfilm encompasses the manuscripts and published volumes of ordinances and resolutions extant as of 1985. What follows is a sample of the reels for which funding is being sought to support the cost of scanning and maintaining electronic access:

bca_m0406 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1797-1838 and 1847; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0407 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1848-1850; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0408 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1850-1851; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0409 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1851-1853; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0410 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1853-1855; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0411 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1854-1856; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0412 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1856-1858; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0413 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1858-1860; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0414 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1861; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m0415 (Manuscript volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1862-1863; RG.16, S.5)

bca_m1223 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1797-1802 and 1828-1831; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1224 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1828-1841; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1225 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1841-1846; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1226 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1847-1852; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1227 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1852-1856; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1228 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1856-1860; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1229 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1860-1864; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1230 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1864-1866; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1231 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1866-1869; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1232 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1869-1872; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1232A (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1873-1875; RG.16, S.17)

b ca_m1232B (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1875-1877; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1233 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1877-1885; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1234 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1885-1893; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1235 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1893-1903; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1236 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1903-1910; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1237 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1910-1917; RG.16, S.17)

bca_m1238 (Published volumes of Ordinances and Resolutions, 1919-1922; RG.16, S.17)

A list of Baltimore City Council members prior to 1985 (bca_index01 City Council Members Name Index) was compiled by the staff of the Baltimore City Archives. While there presently is no single authoritative listing of the printed proceedings of the City Council and no one depository outside of City Hall that has a complete set, the Baltimore City Archives contains microfilm of the manuscript journals and the State Archives is compiling a comprehensive list prefatory to scanning, in the hopes that funding can be found to scan and place the images on line. At the front of each volume of the proceedings of the Council, there is a typescript index which forms a subject index of sorts to the proceedings. The City Archives has a set of binders containing xeroxes of those indexes which are on line. The on-line version of the Council Proceedings antebellum indexes are pdfs containing optical character recognized (ocr) text, but the quality of the ocr varies. Recourse should be made to the images as well. In order to use the indexes, care must be taken to determine which year of which volume is referred to. To accelerate index access, its recommended that the pdf indexes be downloaded to a local drive in a separate directory. Then, utilizing the directory level search function provided by the Adobe viewer, all index pdfs can be searched at one time. For example, a search of the index pdfs locates 3 references to yellow fever, but does not readily reveal in which volume of proceedings the entry is to be found:

bca_index05_2b_1801-1838, p. 143 , which in turn cites p. 105 of a Second Branch proceedings, but does not give the years covered in this portion of the index, which by inspection of the pdf, covers the years 1/1837-5/1838.

bca_index04_1b_1850_1859, p. 142 , which in turn cites f. 666, but does not give the years covered in this portion of the index, which by inspection of the pdf, covers the years 9/1855-2/1857.

bca_index06_2b_1838_1859, p. 164 , which in turn cites f. 195, but does not give the years covered in this portion of the index, which by inspection of the pdf, covers the years 4/1858-2/1859.

Baltimore City Council, 1st Branch, topic indexes

bca_index02 First Branch City Council Proceedings Index, May 1802 - Feb. 1836

bca_index03 First Branch City Council Proceedings Index, Feb. 1836 - Aug. 1849

bca_index04 First Branch City Council Proceedings Index, Jan. 1850 - Feb. 1859

Baltimore City Council, 2nd Branch, topic indexes

bca_index05 Second Branch City Council Proceedings Index, Feb. 1801 - May 1838

bca_index06 Second Branch City Councel Proceedings Index, Sept. 1838 - Feb. 1859

Baltimore City Council, 1st Branch, Proceedings bca_m0345 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 5/31/1802-4/4/1817; RG.16, S.2)

single pdf of bca_m0345 (350 mb)

bca_m0346 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 4/4/1814-2/22/1825; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0347 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 2/23/1825-1/17/1831; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0348 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 1/18/1831-2/18/1835; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0349 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 2/19/1835-3/22/1838; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0350 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 3/23/1838-1/31/1843; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0351 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 3/16/1844-2/11/1847; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0352 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 2/11/1847-8/1849; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0353 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 1/21/1850-4/11/1852; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0354 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 4/12/1852-4/14/1854; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0355 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 4/17/1854-3/10/1856; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0356 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 3/10/1856-4/5/1858; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0357 (Proceedings of the 1st Branch, 4/5/1858-2/18/1859; RG.16, S.2)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND BRANCH OF THE BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL

bca_m0357 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 2/9/1801-3/21/1814; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0358 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 3/21/1814-2/3/1825; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0359 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 2/4/1825-11/15/1833; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0360 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 1/6/1834-2/10/1840; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0361 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 2/10/1840-2/5/1846; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0362 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 1/5/1849-3/17/1854; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0363 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 3/20/1854-1/18/1858; RG.16, S.2)

bca_m0364 (Proceedings of the 2nd Branch, 1/18/1858-2/18/1859; RG.16, S.2)

Mayors’ Records

The records of the Mayor and the Mayor’s office, including printed messages, budgets, and departmental reports have yet to be systematically integrated into an authoritative listing, let alone linked to on line images.

The City Archives has folder listings for Mayors’ Papers through 1971 and transmittal sheets for papers received subsequently, plus detailed folder level inventories for the Schaefer and DuBurns administrations.

The Security Microfilm Collection of the Baltimore City Archives includes only a small fraction of mayoral records, mostly relating to

RG.9 MAYOR’S OFFICE S.18 Mayor Broening’s Correspondence, Index, bca_m0200-201

S.30 Oath Books. 1899-1962 bca_m0365

S.38 Personnel Appointments, Non-Civil Service,

1952-69 bca_m1588 1969-1986 bca_m5205-5209;bca_m5320-5321

Biographies of the Mayors are to be found on the Maryland State Archives web site, http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/html/bcmayors.html.

For the antebellum period, most of the manuscript records relating to the mayor and the mayor’s office are to be found in the index/inventory prepared by the WPA/Historical Records survey which provides access to the papers as they were reorganized into record groups, the journals of the two branches of the City Council, and in printed volumes of City Ordinances. In at least one instance, however, a mayor in part paid for the private publication of a city report out of his own pocket when the City Council refused to do so.

As Nancy Bramucci points out in her excellent web site on the history of medicine in Maryland , in 1820, Mayor Johnson helped see to the publication of:

A Series of Letters and Other Documents Relating to the Late Epidemic or Yellow Fever; Comprising the Correspondence of the Mayor of the City, the Board of Health, the Executive of the State of Maryland, and the Reports of the Faculty and District Use of the Medical Society of Baltimore, Also the Essays of the Physicians in Answer to the Mayor’s Circular Requesting Information for the City Council in Relation to the Causes Which Gave Origin to This Disease — To Which is Added, the Late Ordinance Re-Organizing the Board of Health (Baltimore: William Warner, 1820), p. 15. When the City Council refused to pay for the cost of printing the report, Mayor Edward Johnson contributed $150 for its publication.

Neither this volume, nor William Travis Howard’s Public Health Administration and the Natural History of Disease in Baltimore (1921) , which references it, are on line, although catalogued by Google Books, and in the case of Howard, searchable with image snippet teasers.

To be certain that no published public records are overlooked, care should be taken to review on-line library catalogues, including the careful, if incomplete, compilations of Maryland imprints that were prepared by students at the Library School of Catholic University. The completed years are available on line at the Archives of Maryland On Line website, at “Other Records”, “Secondary works on Maryland newspapers and imprints.”

Legal Advice to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore

Probably the least explored aspect of the public history of Baltimore City is its interaction with the law and the courts. From its creation as a municipality, Baltimore has been before the courts as plaintiff and defendant. The volume of extant case material relating to the city and its citizens is enormous (well over 5,000 cubic feet at the Maryland State Archives and in the Law Department files of the Baltimore City Archives). To make effective research use of the court records with regard to the City’s public history and the interaction of individuals with the City, the first step is to understand where the extant legal files of the city reside and how to access the court records.

The files of the lawyer’s hired to defend and prosecute for Baltimore City  are organized and described in the Guide to the Baltimore City Archives, RG 13 .

During its early years, the municipal government contracted with private lawyers for legal assistance. In 1838 the municipality decreed that “there shall annually be appointed from the members of the Baltimore bar, a counselor of the City of Baltimore, to act as its attorney, with whom the mayor and city council and the officers of the corporation may advise and consult, as occasion may require.” The city established the position of Baltimore City Solicitor to assist the counselor in 1864. In 1900 a Law Department was established and the position of solicitor became a regular salaried position appointed by the mayor to function as attorney for all municipal agencies. The solicitor also served as a member of the Board of Estimates.

… From an early date, individuals serving the municipality in a legal capacity were involved in a myriad of activities. Even the small portion of these records dating prior to establishment of the Law Department in 1900 contains an impressive array of official opinions, correspondence, and legal documents.

The records prior to 1900 are contained in one archival box in RG 13, series 3, “HRS Indexed Records. 1819-64.”

The best introduction to the history of the office of City Solicitor, which produced a number of distinguished jurists and politicians is found in:

Stieff, Frederick Philip, comp. The Government of a Great American City . Baltimore: H. G. Roebuck & Son, 1935. Chapter V. City Solicitor by Simon E. Sobeloff

Simon Sobeloff had a distinguished career in City, State, and Federal Service. Biographies are to be found on the University of Maryland Law School and Maryland State Archives web sites.

The written opinions of the Baltimore City Solicitor are on microfilm (over 17,000 pages) and have published topic indexes through 1968:

An Index to the Opinions of the City Solicitor of the City of Baltimore, 1903-1931 (3 vols. Charles Pielert and Horace Flack, compilers)

Index to the Opinions of the City Solicitor of Baltimore, 1931-1963, compiled by Carl N. Everstine

(hyperlinks are to  text searchable pdfs of index to opinions, Volumes 1-55)

For the period after 1900, the nearly 2,000 cubic feet of the Law Department/City Solicitor’s working files are accessed by dockets and indexes, both of which are incomplete as to the contents of the working files.

See:

1) Dates: 1898-1934 Description: Case File Dockets from the Baltimore Law Department

This series contains 11 case file dockets from the Baltimore Law Department transferred to MSA from the Baltimore City Archives. Volumes include case file number, name of plaintiff and defendant, court of hearing, date, amount claimed, and nature of actions, and disposition of case. There is a name index in front of each volume, which seems to contain both the plaintiff and defendant. The dockets are accessioned as msa_c2950 and are available at the Maryland State Archives.

The volumes are:

  • BCA-rg13-11-1 dates: 1898-1903 case nos. 1-671
  • BCA-rg13-11-2 dates: August 16, 1934-October 6, 1938 case nos. 61,771-69,266
  • BCA-rg13-11-3 dates: October 6, 1938-January 30, 1951 case nos. 68,852-86,985
  • BCA-rg13-11-4 dates: January 31, 1951-May 4, 1954 case nos. 87,012-92,543
  • BCA-rg13-11-5 dates: May 4, 1954-March 4, 1957 case nos. 92,544-97,269
  • BCA-rg13-11-6 dates: March 7, 1957-March 14, 1960 case nos. 97,287-102,271
  • BCA-rg13-11-7 dates: March 17, 1960-April 9, 1963 case nos. 102,281-107,622
  • BCA-rg13-11-8 dates: April 9, 1963-June 29, 1966 case nos. 107,624-113,311
  • BCA-rg13-11-9 dates: June 29, 1966-December 30, 1969 case nos. 113,340-120,726
  • BCA-rg13-11-10 dates: December 30, 1969-March 22, 1974 case nos. 120,751-129,402
  • BCA-rg13-11-11 dates: March 22, 1974-February 3, 1978 case nos. 129,403-136,010

2) Dates: 1898-1980 Description: Index to City Solicitor Files Baltimore City Archives Security Microfilm Reels bca_sm126-bca_sm135

Text is searchable, however browsing manually may turn up more results.

A (bca_sm126)

Ba-Bo ( bca_sm126)

Br-By ( bca_sm127)

C ( bca_sm127)

D ( bca_sm128)

E ( bca_sm128)

F ( bca_sm128)

G ( bca_sm128)

Ha-He ( bca_sm128)

He-Hu ( bca_sm129)

I ( bca_sm129)

J ( bca_sm129)

Ka-Ke ( bca_sm129)

Ke-Ky ( bca_sm130)

L ( bca_sm130)

Mc (bca_sm130)

M (bca_sm130)

Na-Nel (bca_sm130)

Nel-Nu (bca_sm131)

O ( bca_sm131)

P ( bca_sm131

Q ( bca_sm132)

R ( bca_sm132)

Sa-St ( bca_sm132)

St-Sw ( bca_sm133)

T ( bca_sm133)

U ( bca_sm133)

V ( bca_sm133)

W-Wo ( bca_sm133)

Wo-Wz ( bca_sm134)

X Y Z ( bca_sm134)

The published annual reports of the City Solicitor provide helpful insight into the work of the City’s law department.

A sample of the Annual reports which are cataloged in the Government Publications database of the Maryland State Archives includes:

Annual Report 1904 from:

Maryland State Archives (Government Publications) BALTIMORE CITY SOLICITOR (Annual Report) 1904 in BC Annual Reports 1903 1904/07/01 Accession Number: MdHR 821713, Location: 2/9/11/48, MU919

Short Citation: Maryland State Archives (Government Publications)MU919, pp. …

Annual Report 1912 from:

MARYLAND STATE ARCHIVES (Government Publications) BALTIMORE CITY LAW DEPARTMENT (Report) 1912-1915 in BC Annual Reports 1915 1916/08/11 Accession Number: MdHR 821862, Location: 2/9/11/52, MU2278

short citation: Maryland State Archives (Government Publications) MU2278, pp. …

Annual Report 1928/29-version 1 BCA RG 13-2-53429

Annual Report 1928/29-version 2 BCA RG 13-2-53429

Legal Cases Involving Baltimore City

With regard to the extant court records relating to Baltimore City, reference should be made to the search capabilities of Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw. There cases that involved the City that made there way to the Court of Appeals and beyond are easily located. By examining the Court of Appeals cases and searching for the underlying lower court files through the Maryland State Archives Guide to Government Records, and the Archives of Maryland On Line volumes, the researcher is provided with comprehensive insight into the workings of the court system and what detailed records have survived.

Until 1851 and Constitutional reform, Baltimore City court files are to be found among the papers and records of Baltimore County. In searching for court records relating to the city prior to 1851, the WPA/Historical Records Survey Inventory of Court Papers that were left behind when the Baltimore County Court removed to Towson, should be consulted.

Dates: 1729-1851 Description:

BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT (Miscellaneous Court Papers, Index) MSA C 220 MSA CE 19

Dates: 1729-1830

Description: 1 MSA CE 19-1 Accession No.: 19,496 MSA No.: C 220-1 Location: 2/16/7/58

Dates: 1831-1851

Description: 2 MSA CE 19-2 Accession No.: 19,497-1 MSA No.: C 220-2 Location: 2/16/7/58 After 1851, through 1892, the Historical Records Survey also inventoried the

BALTIMORE CITY SUPERIOR COURT (Miscellaneous Court Papers, Index) MSA C 2144 MSA CE 20

Dates: 1852-1855

Description: 2 MSA CE 20-1 Accession No.: 19,497-2 MSA C 2144-1 Location: 2/16/7/58

Dates: 1856-1892

Description: 3 MSA CE 20-2 Accession No.: 19,498 MSA No.: C 2144-2 Location: 2/16/7/59 An example of the level of illustrative detail that can be found in all the surviving court papers related to a case is Hay v. Conner involving a mulatto male slave called James Perry.

Dates: 1800-1814 Description: Analysis of Cases in the Maryland Court of Appeals relating to Baltimore City taken from a search of Lexis/Nexis

Hay, et. al. vs. Conner (1808) 2 H. & J. 347

Related Materials:

COURT OF APPEALS (Judgment Record, Western Shore) liber TH5 ff. 3-13 MSA S 420

COURT OF APPEALS (Docket, Western Shore) 1808, case no. 23 MSA S 414-2

BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT (Miscellaneous Court Papers, Index) 1800, case nos. 75 and 76 MSA C 220

BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT (Miscellaneous Court Papers) folder 50206-385, items 75 and 76 MSA C 1

BALTIMORE COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Orphans Court Proceedngs) f. 193 MSA C 396-3

BALTIMORE COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Administration Accounts) f. 322 MSA C 261-13

BALTIMORE COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Inventories) ff. 256, 257, 258, 431 MSA C 340-19

BALTIMORE COUNTY COURT (Miscellaneous Court Papers) 1798 item 33 MSA C 1-24

Another prime example of what can be found by searching for all of the court proceedings relating to a case is the wealth of detail relating to the public history of Baltimore in the last major case to be decided by Chief Justice John Marshall, Barron v. Baltimore .

Conclusion: In order to fully explore the public record of the public history of Baltimore City, it is essential that researchers both understand the nature and extent of the public record and lend their support to its preservation and access. The effort here is to demonstrate the precarious state of the the Baltimore City Archives (printed and ‘manuscript), suggest immediate ways of improving access to the records, and to argue for the importance of improved facilities for their care and preservation. If we do not collectively lobby the City to provide basic maintenance and access, and do not find resources to place as much of the inventory and index access on line as possible, along with images of major printed and manuscript sources such as the papers inventoried by the HRS, the proceedings of the Mayor and City Council, and selected series and opinions of the Law Department, the future is bleak for the study of the Public History of Baltimore. The years of neglect since the late 1980s have already taken their toll. On opening one archival box of the papers of early papers of the mayors of Baltimore, the fumes from the fungal/mold decay were so powerful as to cause an excessive bout of sneezing and coughing. The public records of the City are dying. A new and adequate storage facility has been rented by the City, but the severe problems of access and preservation remain. Research Strategies

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