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The Maryland Agricultural Society for the Eastern Shore Collection

This collection has been donated to the Maryland Room by the board of the Society in 2004. It includes 3 ledgers, original and duplicate loose papers, and posters, all dating from 1805 to the mid-1970s.

Ledgers

First Ledger
Barcode: 33536001687536.

This is a slim book with unnumbered pages which contains:

  • minutes from November 1818 to November 1827 (not continuous) and from December 1840 to February 1843 in the front
  • lists of subscribers from 1818 to 1841 (not continuous) in the back
Second Ledger
Barcode: 33536001687544.

This ledger contains 432 pages on blue paper. This volume was the result of an effort to put some order in the Society's records dating from 1825 to 1862. Constitution, by-laws, correspondence, and minutes have been recopied, probably by the same person, from loose papers sometime after 1867 (see page 15 in ledger 3).

Pages 100 to 154 are blank. A notation on page 99 indicates that the Society proceedings have been lost from 1832 to 1839. Some entries don't have any date. Pages 416-417 record 1912 and 1934 meetings which have also been copied in ledger 3.

Third Ledger
Barcode: 33536001687551

This ledger also contains 432 pages, but of white paper. The proceedings were handwritten from 1863 to 1905, then partly typed until 1950. The typewritten pages as well as brochures and lists have been glued on the volume pages.

Lists of active members, a list of estates where they met and their owners, and an index are found at the end of this ledger.

Posters

Loose Papers

This part of the collection is located in box 70, in individually barcoded folders.
33636002747073
Entry notices for cattle show and fair in Easton 1822-1824
33536001687452
1805 minutes probably written by Robert H. Goldsborough, secretary of the Society.
33536001687445
Summary of the Society History. Copies of 1805 minutes and other documents.
33536001687494
19th Century letters and receipts.

Undated and anonymous 11 pages report on the profitability of agriculture on the Eastern Shore.

1903 report on tomato culture by MacKenzy Goldsborough.

33536001687460
Two reports of meetings held in 1892 and not recorded in the third ledger. Letters from the 1940s.
33536001687502 and 33536001687510
Correspondence, minutes, brochures, and newspapers article from the 1950s and 1960s.
33536001687478
Duplicates of recent minutes from 1970 to 1976.