Maryland State Archives

06/01/2026

Darby Nisbett Schini, the Deputy Director of Reference Services, presented at the Best Practices Exchange in Indianapolis in May. Her presentation, “You Can’t Pour From An Empty Cup,” examines how managers can encourage wellness and healthy work environments through intentional relationship building, modeling appropriate boundaries, and reflecting on what self care means for each individual.

The Best Practices Exchange began in 2006 as an “un”conference for informational professionals to gather for active participation and peer-to-peer learning to discuss real-world experiences, including best practices and lessons learned. Attendees include librarians, archivists, information technologists, educators, and researchers who are predominantly from government and university archives and libraries.

05/29/2026

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a celebration and recognition of the many contributions that Jewish people have made to the culture and history of the United States. While it has been federally recognized since 2006, Maryland recently passed HB 661/SB308 (effective October 1, 2026) which designates the month of recognition for the state. In the library at the Maryland State Archives, you can find several different books about Jewish history in Maryland and the U.S. You can browse our books on Judaism and Jewish people by searching the 1580 call number.

05/28/2026

The Maryland State Archives is proud to share that following a competitive application process, Megan Craynon has been selected as a participant in the 2026 Archives Leadership Institute (ALI) at the University of Virginia. Megan Craynon serves as the Director of Special Collections and Library Services. The Archives Leadership Institute is a grant-funded program supported by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), part of the National Archives and
Records Administration. Participants were selected based on demonstrated professional achievement, leadership potential, sustained commitment to the archival field, and the capacity to influence positive change across organizations and communities.

The weeklong institute offers an immersive, focused environment for leadership development through a combination of classroom and experiential learning. Participants engage with topics including individual and organizational leadership, responsible stewardship, and collaborative practice. Grounded in the historical and cultural context of the University of Virginia, the program invites participants to reflect on leadership within a complex and meaningful setting.

We are so proud of Megan and are excited for all that she will experience and learn when attending the ALI!

05/27/2026

On May 27, 1780, Hanah Aspinal and Christina Innis petitioned the Maryland General Assembly for relief. In an era when citizens regularly petitioned the government, Aspinal and Innis’ petition was unique.

Entering the final stages of their respective pregnancies, and with their husbands off fighting the American Revolutionary War, Aspinal and Innis needed financial support to help them navigate their imminent deliveries and postpartum.

Aspinal and Innis may have been with their husbands as recently as April 1780. But when the 2nd Maryland Regiment sailed down the Chesapeake Bay on their way from New Jersey to South Carolina, the two women were “left on shore by order of [their] superior officers” while their husbands continued on to fight at the Battle of Camden. With their due dates “drawing very near,” Aspinal and Innis implored the General Assembly to “grant unto the poor in distress some allowance” to aid them in their “soon expected state which is Natural to all [their] sex.”

It remains unclear whether the General Assembly granted the petition of Aspinal and Innis. However, their presence in the historical record begins to reveal a deeper history of women and children during the American Revolution.

📃View this petition and more Revolutionary primary sources online and on-site at the Maryland State Archives 👉 https://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/item.aspx?ID=S990-5-15

📚 To read more about the context surrounding this document and the story of Marylanders who fought in the American Revolution, be on the lookout for the forthcoming book, Finding the Maryland 400, by Maryland State Archives Senior Research Archivist, Owen Lourie, which will be available for purchase in August 2026. In the meantime, visit https://msamaryland400.com/ for more information.

05/27/2026

In light of the recent decision by Knox County, Tennessee to remove Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family from school library bookshelves, and in honor of this seminal work’s 50th anniversary, the Maryland State Archives would like to highlight our own role in this invaluable work. In 1967, Alex Haley came to Annapolis to conduct genealogical research at the Maryland Hall of Records. That visit led to the discovery of documentary evidence that corroborated his family’s oral history of his ancestor, “The African.” Archivist Phebe Robinson Jacobsen played a critical part in locating a newspaper advertisement for the arrival of Captain Davies’ ship, the Lord Ligonier. The ship arrived in Annapolis harbor bearing enslaved individuals from The Gambia, including Haley’s ancestor Kunta Kinte, to America’s shores exactly two hundred years before Haley’s return to Maryland’s capital.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family created a fundamental awakening of interest in African American history and, indeed, all families’ histories, that would come on the heels of the book’s popularity. The broadcast of the 1977 television series starring LeVar Burton and a cast of luminaries was a watershed moment when many people – from young school children to office workers – began to talk about African American history as American history. The Maryland State Archives is proud to have played a role in the creation of this significant work and we stand by its educational importance over the last 50 years, today and into the future.

05/26/2026

Last month, two of our Reference Archivists, Morgan Miller Scarborough and Rachel Frazier, led a first-of-its-kind in person workshop called Reference Isn’t Dead at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference in Richmond, Virginia. The theme of the conference was Flowing Together: Community and Resilience in Archives.
Reference is a backbone of our field but also an area of practice that does not receive much attention. Even though maintaining and providing records for our patrons is the core of our work, our field feels the weight of the difficulties that come with serving the public and therefore sees a relative lack of visibility through academic output and professional development. This workshop was made to renew the faith and energy of any staff who provide reference services while also beginning a conversation about reference as a profession within the archival field.
Rachel Frazier presented on Building a Patron-Oriented Reference Team and Morgan Miller Scarborough presented on Providing Patron Oriented Reference Care. Each also planned activities to go along with their presentations.
The workshop was well attended and well received. Here are a few quotes from attendees:

“I appreciate all of your time in developing this workshop and the information included. For me, this was a case of "you don't know what you don't know" and I'm glad that I have more insight now. Thank you all!!!”

“There were a few moments I almost cried because I felt so seen.”

“It really helped me to know that I am on the right track at my agency. Even though it's pretty small and just me alone, I am doing the right thing.”

“You all were so great and real and honest and you led us easily into good conversations!”

If you have any questions about this workshop, please feel free to reach out to us at the Maryland State Archives!

05/26/2026

Maryland State Archives Research Archivist, William Kelly, was recently interviewed about the importance of Maryland's complex history. His thoughts were compiled for an article in The Southern Maryland Chronicle.

Maryland’s history is both complex and diverse, with many stories still being uncovered to this day. William Kelly, a research archivist from the Maryland State Archives, argues that Maryland residents could benefit from spending more time digging into it. “Maryland is an extremely complicated s...

05/20/2026

The Maryland State Archives is hiring a professional administrative archivist with the Study of the Legacy of Slavery Program at the Maryland State Archives engaging with and coordinating the Maryland Reparations Commission as established by Chapter 9, Laws of Maryland, 2025 Special Session. The Commission is mandated to research the educational, financial, historical, and sociological harm done as a result of race-based slavery and the inequitable policies perpetuated upon people of African descent in Maryland.

This position requires occasional evening and weekend hours. The Coordinator will serve as the administrative point of contact for the Commissioners and the public; will organize and manage Commission files, provide records management oversight and prepare permanent files for archiving; attend Commission meetings and draft minutes; compile and submit preliminary and final mandated reports; and more.

The position closes at 11:59 pm on Monday, June 1st. To read more about the position and to apply, please *copy and paste* this link:

https://www.jobapscloud.com/MD/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=26&R2=003574&R3=0001&Viewer=Admin&Test=Y

The link must be copied and pasted, just clicking will not work.

05/19/2026

This month’s Archives’ Staff Spotlight features Maria Day, Senior Director of Special Collections, Conservation, and Library Services, and the Co-director of the Indigenous Peoples’ Program. Swipe through the images to learn about how Maria started at the Archives and what she wishes more people knew about our work.

05/15/2026

On May 15, 1783, the Maryland Gazette published “Vox Africanorum”: a revolutionary speech penned by an anonymous Black writer advocating for freedom among all Americans.

✒️“Vox Africanorum” was a profound defense of American Revolutionary ideals. And it did so using the same rhetoric of slavery that the Patriots wielded against the British Empire. “When Great-Britain essayed to make her first unjust and wicked attempts to forge chains to enslave America,” the author declared, “America then, nobly animated with the love of liberty…proclaimed, ‘We Will be Free.’”

✒️While “Vox Africanorum” defended liberty and freedom for all, institutions contrary to the ideals of the American Revolution loomed nearby. Four other advertisements related to slave auctions and Black freedom seekers appear on the same page of the Maryland Gazette as “Vox Africanorum”: a poignant reflection of the deep struggle for American liberty even after the Revolutionary War. “Let America cease to exult,” the article’s author admonished, “she has yet obtained but partial freedom.”

🗞️“Vox Africanorum” deserves a place among the canon of important documents in American history. Read through this copy of the Maryland Gazette and other revolutionary ones like it by visiting the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis.

All images are from Maryland Gazette Collection, Newspaper, Maryland Gazette (15 May 1783), page 3 [MSA SC 2731, SCM 10, image 394]