Hibernian Society records

The history of the Hibernian Society of Baltimore is amply documented in the wide variety of records preserved in this collection. These include minute books, financial ledgers, membership lists, correspondence, invoices and receipts as well as extensive material pertaining to the annual luncheons and banquets held by the Society, a historical scrapbook and a box of papers relative to a court case brought by the Society in 1895.

The records have been grouped by type of document and chronologically ordered but the sections are not mutually exclusive. Information on membership may be found among the financial records, some minutes are located in the materials relating to the annual banquets etc. The correspondence section suffers particularly in this regard. Virtually all of the material in Boxes 11-14 could be apportioned to the other sections but its chronological sequence should make it possible for readers to easily locate the records they are seeking. In Box 16 there is some overlap between dates as the files are left in the order in which they were created by various officers of the Society.

The collection contains the Society's two original minute books, the first of which predates the incorporation of the Society. In 1944 the officers of the Society ordered transcriptions of these first two minute books and a carbon copy of this transcription has also been deposited (Box 2). This transcript is an enormously useful tool for quickly scanning the official records of the first 109 years of the Society's history.

Numerous financial records have been preserved in Boxes 4, 5 and 6. The material has been left in its original ordering as deposited by the Society and thus there is some overlap between envelopes, ledgers and folders. The correspondence file for 1904 (Box 11) contains a letter from Stuart Kearney, Treasurer of the Society, reporting that an old cash book and some vouchers had been destroyed in the great fire. His letter continues with the reassurance that he had begun a new cash book and had copied all data of importance pertaining to the working of the School. It is not clear whether this new cash book has been preserved as none of the items in Boxes 4-6 entirely corresponds with his description and dating.

Boxes 8-10 contain material pertaining to the Society's Annual Anniversary Dinners and Luncheons. Both of these are large affairs requiring much organization and paperwork on the part of the Society's members. Box 8 contains memorabilia (programs, menus etc.) relating to the Annual Banquets 1902-1974 as well as numerous momentoes of similar commemorative dinners held by fraternal societies in Baltimore and elsewhere.

The scrapbook (Box 18) and early correspondence files (Boxes 11-14) contain many replies to invitations extended to state, local and national government officials to these affairs. The scrapbook also contains many press clippings re the Society's meetings and extensive accounts of speeches, toasts etc. at its Annual Banquets.

In 1895 the Hibernian Society filed suit against the Lake Roland Elevated Railway Co. for damages to the Oliver Hibernian Free School Building on North Street by the erection of a stone abutment for the railway. The City Court awarded the Society $5,000. This verdict was appealed by the Lake Roland Co. and the case was taken to the Maryland Court of Appeals in April 1896. Records relative to this episode in the Society's history may be found in Box 17.