Passano-O'Neill file

From 1935 through 1940, Eleanor Phillips Passano (1870-1949), a Maryland Historical Society library volunteer, worked on a card file that connected family names to specific properties in Baltimore, Maryland, and the surrounding counties. Over the course of the next 50 years, this file remained dormant. As the years passed, what was once a rich source of information became less and less useful; modern researchers had become chronologically detached from the family names previously associated with the buildings decades before.

By his fifteenth year at the MDHS library, Senior Reference Librarian Francis O’Neill had noticed the waning use of the Passano File. More importantly, however, he recognized the informational value and research potential of the resource. In 1995, O’Neill began the process of reorganizing the Passano File according to geographical location rather than family name, linking the cards to a permanent physical space. Most importantly, he once again began updating and adding index cards, giving the Passano File a whole new life. In 2013 the file's name was officially changed to the Passano-O'Neill File in order to represent the work contributed by Mr. O'Neill.

Through address changes, fires, and demolitions, each index card describes the history of the buildings, estate, or neighborhoods that have existed at the modern address of the geographic space. Each card also contains further references to photographs, articles, and books about the structures.

For more information about the Passano-O'Neill file you can read this blog post on the MCHC website: https://www.mdhistory.org/the-passano-files/