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THE COURT AND ITS HISTORICAL SOCIETY acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of those whose hard work and dedication have made the historical exhibits located throughout the courthouses possible: Herbert Better, Esquire, the first president of the Historical Society,  without whom the Society would never have been established; Judge J. Frederick Motz, who had the vision that the court should be surrounded by its history;  Judge Catherine C. Blake, the Historical Society's first vice-president, whose sage counsel and advice provided us with support at every turn; Felicia Cannon, the Clerk of the Court, and her staff; and Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, and the members of his staff at the Maryland State Archives.

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote, "The life of the law has not been logic but experience."  So too, the law does not exist in a vacuum but draws its existence from the culture and times of which it is a part.  We hope that visitors to our Baltimore and Greenbelt courthouses will see that legal history cannot be understood by looking at a collection of relics in a dusty room but only by viewing the vibrant events and circumstances that led to its creation.

 
 
OFFICERS
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PRESIDENT 
HERBERT BETTER, ESQUIRE
 
VICE PRESIDENT
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE CATHERINE C. BLAKE
 
SECRETARY/TREASURER
M. HAMILTON WHITMAN, ESQUIRE
 
 
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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JAMES W. BARTLETT, III, ESQUIRE
 
HERBERT BETTER, ESQUIRE
 
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE CATHERINE C. BLAKE
 
U.S. MAGISTRATE JUDGE SUSAN K. GAUVEY
 
W. WARREN HAMEL, ESQUIRE
 
TIMOTHY F. MALONEY, ESQUIRE
 
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE PETER J. MESSITTE
 
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE J. FREDERICK MOTZ
 
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE GEORGE L. RUSSELL, III
 
U.S. BANKRUPTCY JUDGE JAMES F. SCHNEIDER
 
LINDA HITT THATCHER, ESQUIRE
 
GREGORY K. WELLS, ESQUIRE
 
M. HAMILTON WHITMAN, JR., ESQUIRE
 
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, JR.