In December 1913, when archival theory and practice in the United States was still in its infancy, the Library of Congress published a guide, Notes on the Care, Cataloguing, Calendaring and Arranging of Manuscripts, by a member of its manuscript division staff, John C. Fitzpatrick. The same month the Public Archives Commission's fifth annual conference presented chapter one and chapter five of its proposed "Primer of Archival Economy." The failure of the commission ever to complete and publish its primer had considerable impact on the direction of the archival profession in the United States as it grew to maturity.