Maryland Day Blog

A lengthy and richly-detailed essay about Maryland Day appears on the blog of the Maryland State Archivist, Dr. Ed Papenfuse. Please click on the link below to read this entertaining and informative entry:  http://marylandarchivist.blogspot.com/2010/03/celebrating-maryland-day-spirit-of-1634.html

We thank Dr. Papenfuse for sharing the fruits of his research!

-- Carol B.

The folks over at Archaeology in Annapolis, based out of the University of Maryland, are proud to offer an updated version of their "Seeking Liberty" self-guided tour brochure! Click here to download a full-color, printable copy of the brochure. The pamphlet celebrates decades of archaeological work in the City of Annapolis, including fascinating finds at the Calvert House, Reynolds Tavern, the Jonas and Catharine Green House, and the Maynard-Burgess House.

Our Legacy: Celebrating Maryland day

Column Reprinted from the Capital, 3/18/10
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/col/2010/03/18-63/Our-Legacy-Celebrating-Maryland-Day.html

For the first time we have an entire weekend to celebrate our Maryland heritage with the state capital ready with numerous house openings and activities throughout the city.

This year I intend to celebrate the unique African-American heritage of Maryland and the state capital, walking in the steps of my ancestors while breathing fresh air off of the bay and hopefully losing a few pounds.

If you would like to join me for this walkabout, bring your water and meet me on the steps of the first African-American meeting house in the City of Annapolis, incorporated in 1803 as the "First African Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of Annapolis."

Those steps, of course, are the steps of Asbury United Methodist Church at 87 West St. Asbury was built on land patented by William Hammond known as the "Plains of Annapolis." The parcel of land on which the church was built was purchased by Smith Price who donated the land for the purpose of building a church. We will learn a little history about Acton and the homes on Acton Lane, or was it Shorter's Lane, or was it Larkin Street, before it was City Gate Lane and Carroll Hynson Alley.

We will walk through the old 4th Ward, for a short time the home of Pearl Bailey, to the Stanton Center, formerly the Stanton Colored School, and visit the Bertina Nick Historical Classroom and see the most glorious, colorful mural in the entire city on the walls of the Stanton Center.

When you join me for this walkabout, bring a young person and teach them the history of the city and state in which they live.

After the Stanton Center, we will visit the State House grounds, the place where slavery was abolished in Maryland in 1864. On the grounds we will visit the history of two Supreme Court justices: Roger Taney and Thurgood Marshall.

One justice at the back of the State House and the other at the front, forever reminding us of our stories from "Dred Scott" to equal pay for teachers in Anne Arundel County to Brown v. the Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas.

Please keep in mind that I was born and raised in Annapolis so this tour on Saturday will not be the conventional walking tour.

It will be in my footsteps and the footsteps of my ancestors as I cross the city to and from the homes of my ancestors, to the store, to school, to church, to play.

I grew up on South Street with my maternal grandmother living at Fleet Street, attended Annapolis Elementary School and attended church at Asbury, so please be prepared to walk.

We will walk the streets where the Maryland Gazette was printed, and see the home of the first African-American alderman of the City of Annapolis and the homes that he built on Market Street as a legacy to his children.

Two of these homes were sold to the Maryland Baptist congregation, which we know today as First Baptist Church.

I intend to walk you past the homes of Marylanders like those who owned my paternal family as slaves on Duke of Gloucester Street and homes where our ancestors practiced hoodoo.

We will see historic homes and talk about their owners like the beautiful home sitting just across from the Upton Scott home on Shipwright Street formerly owned by Judge Moss. It was the home where my great-great-great-grandfather Ignatius Murray would stay if darkness fell before he could return to Broadneck.

The Moss family owned Ignatius until slavery was abolished and the family was kind enough to leave a picture of Ignatius in the Maryland Hall of Records where I was able to see my family member, the last living slave from the Broadneck Peninsula who lived to be 103.

Wouldn't you like to see the city home of Charles Carroll, the Settler who left the home to his son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, who left the home to his son, Charles Carroll of Carrolton - Maryland's largest slave holder and last living signer of the Declaration of Independence?

At this site there is much to tell about the lives of the Carrolls, the lives of their slaves and indentured servants, Catholicism and the Colonization of African Americans to Liberia.

When we leave the grounds of the Carroll site and St. Mary's Church, we will travel down the street that only a few still with us remember called Red Head Lane to what was formerly known as the Flats. From there I will let you rest at the Alex Haley/Kunta Kinte Memorial and former site of the city's Fish Market where you will have the opportunity to reflect on the history that you just experienced while reading the words along the story wall at the City Dock.

Come out and walk with me on Saturday and celebrate the rich heritage of Maryland, home of the Tri Racial Isolates of the Upper South.

If you would like to join me and, in particular, learn about the unique history of the former inhabitants of Annapolis, meet at Asbury at 9:30 a.m. and I will have you at the City Dock at 11 a.m. and it's free! If you are free at 1 p.m., come on out to the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center at 1101 Smithville St., have a snack and see the new documentary, "Bringing Back Bates." It's only 23 minutes, you will have time to spare. Have a great Maryland Day weekend.

There are still spaces available for both special Maryland Day programs for on Saturday, March 20!

Outreach Coordinator Karen McDonald will lead two hands-on programs for the whole family! Blue Crab talk with live blue crabs, 10 to 11; Jellyfish talk with live Jellies, 2:30 to 3:30. Please call 301-238-2737 to reserve your spot.

The Java History Trail will be open for hikers on Saturday as well! SERC is open to the public for FREE from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, March 20. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (http://www.serc.si.edu/) is located at 647 Contees Wharf Road in Edgewater.

After a plea from a local cub scout troop that needed to take part in a flag-raising ceremony in order to become "wolves," Annapolis Maritime Museum has added a Flag Raising Ceremony at Noon on Saturday, March 20th to the weekend's activities. Many thanks to Jeff Holland, Director of the museum, who tells me that as a former Eagle Scout he is fully prepared to do the honors!!

Barbara Cox of 1430 WNAV, our "local hometown station" on AM 1430, has recorded a series of interviews about Maryland Day Celebration Weekend for the "Good Morning Annapolis" morning show. She has talked with Four Rivers Executive Director Carol Benson; Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts Executive Director Linnell Bowen; Banneker-Douglass Museum Education and Public Programs Coordinator Genevieve Kaplan; and more! Make sure to listen to the morning show this week. Thanks to Barbara and Bill Lusby, and Steve Hopp of 1430 WNAV, for your support!

This year there are TWENTY-ONE sites offering exciting activites and events for the Maryland Day weekend! In addition to the official program, we are pleased to announce that the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center will be open on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20. The Bates Legacy Center is housed in a rehabilitated, historic school and holds artifacts, historical documents, and memorabilia related to African American history in Anne Arundel County, offers permanent and traveling exhibits, tours, conducts oral history interviews, and promotes research opportunities to the general public using its extensive resource holdings. There are no fees to visit the Legacy Center!

Bates Legacy is located at 1101 Smithville Street in Annapolis near the West Street Circle. For more information, please call 410-263-1860 or email Wileyhbates11@verizon.net.

Last year, four days after our 2009 Maryland Day event, a fax came to the Four Rivers Heritage Area office. It was a handwritten letter from a Mrs. Valerie McCahon from Pasadena. This is what it said:

 "To whom it may concern:
My husband and I attended the celebration of Maryland Day on Sunday 3/28/09. We were accompanied by our granddaughter and grandson. I just wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude for this great and awesome experience.
I am 63 years old and a native of Maryland. I never realized the scope of the availability of the historical opportunities that exist for our pleasure. The entire day was enlightening, educational, and entertaining. I do hope that you are planning to offer this marvelous event again in the future.
As my 9-year-old grandson said, 'MomMom, this city of Annapolis is neat! Can we come again?' I suppose that sums it up!
Sincerely, Valerie McCahon"

This year we contacted Mrs. McCahon to ask her permission to share her letter, and she told us that she would definitely come back to enjoy Maryland Day activities again this year. Thank you, Mrs. McCahon!

On Saturday, March 20th during Maryland Day Celebration weekend, start off your day with our "Annapolis Heritage Stride" for FAMILY FUN! A one-mile stride through historic downtown Annapolis with games and prizes, sponsored by the Four Rivers Heritage Area. Play our "History Hop" game as we go along!  

Come in costume (think Maryland, think history) and join in the fun! Perfect for families: get your fresh air and exercise and history too: you'll learn your way around Annapolis and get the inside scoop! No advance registration is required, but if you plan to bring a group, let us know so we can prepare, by calling the Four Rivers office at 410-222-1805.  Starts and ends at City Dock, FREE, 8 - 9 a.m.  

Thanks to Watermark, the City of Annapolis, the Downtown Annapolis Partnership and the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau for their support.

 

The flag of Maryland is one of the most colorful of any state, and behind the colors and patterns lies a symbolism related to Maryland's first families. The following information comes from the Maryland State Archives website:

"Maryland's flag bears the arms of the Calvert and Crossland families. Calvert was the family name of the Lords Baltimore who founded Maryland, and their colors of gold and black appear in the first and fourth quarters of the flag. Crossland was the family of the mother of George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore. The red and white Crossland colors, with a cross bottony, appear in the second and third quarters. This flag first was flown October 11, 1880, in Baltimore at a parade marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore. It also was flown October 25, 1888, at Gettysburg Battlefield for ceremonies dedicating monuments to Maryland regiments of the Army of the Potomac. Officially, it was adopted as the State flag in 1904 (Chapter 48, Acts of 1904, effective March 9, 1904)."

 A "cross bottony" is the shape of the vertical cross used on the flag (and also seen on the stop of the flagstaff in the illustration -- Maryland has a law requiring that if any ornament is affixed to the top of a flagstaff carrying the Maryland flag, the ornament must be a gold cross bottony.) 

Submitted by Carol Benson on 3/1/10. Would you like to submit a blog entry? Email us at heritage_area@aacounty.org.