Listening in on the War of 1812: Lockhouse Museum Adds Audio Theater to Enhance Visitor Experience

On this pleasant early spring weekend, I spent some time checking out the seasonal reopening of the Susquehanna Museum of Havre de Grace.   Joe, Bill, Charlie and other always helpful and informative docents were on hand, showing visitors through the lock-house and two new exhibits for 2012.  The one focusing on the 200^th anniversary of the devastating 1813 British attack on Havre de Grace features lively  audio presentations that use a combination of narration, music, sounds, and historical character presentations to bring deeper context to the War of 1812.  While looking over the well-designed exhibit panels, photos, and artifacts, I paused at the audio stations as these skillfully written and produced pieces of audio theater greatly enhanced the experience.  Be sure to check out the Lockhouse Museum soon.  You will enjoy the visit.

The popular 1840s working model of the lower end of the Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal, which opened last year, still continues to draw a crowd.

Searching for the First Draft of History: Lessons About the War of 1812 in Stacks of Old Newspapers

Local papers have brought up-to-date information to residents of Havre de Grace since the early 1800s.  But on that day in May 1813 when the British savagely stormed into the fishing village, almost completely destroying it, there wasn’t a local weekly to tell people about one of the biggest stories in the annals of the town’s history.

As buildings smoldered and shocked residents started cleaning up the devastated place, readers around the nation turned to city papers out of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and elsewhere to see the headline grabbing intelligence.  Those urban broadsheets, snatching all the reporting they could from letter writers, stage-coach drivers, militia officers, and other eyewitnesses, told subscribers about the outrageous warfare that came to the one small community on the Chesapeake Bay.  Those journals, often called the first draft of history, captured the alarming story as word spread slowly throughout an apprehensive region.

But in the town another five years passed quickly by before citizens had a local source printing news.  Beginning in 1818, editor William Coale kicked off a long tradition of local broadsheets with the Bond of Union, recording the goings on, the adventures and events, and the details of life on ink and paper.  In 1820 the publisher moved the operation to Bel Air, according to the Library of Congress.

As papers concentrating on the attractively situated village started publishing it was a point in time when people still recalled those frightful memories.  It was just as if it was yesterday that they’d lived through the harrowing assault by redcoats.  So the adventures, events, actions, and dangers of that unforgettable Sunday came up periodically in remembrances, on anniversary dates, and when aging defenders passed away.  Plus those old papers are full of advertisements for business, real estate and much more offering insights into that era from long ago.

Two decades later old-timers still eagerly shared first-hand accounts when the Susquehanna Advocate started publishing in 1839.  As the 19^th century moved along, the municipality had papers such as the Madisonian and Harford County Weekly Advertiser, Harford County Times, , Democratic Ledger, Havre de Grace Republican, Independent Press, Electric Light, and more, according to the Library of Congress.

In constructing the annals of these times, the War of 1812: Havre de Grace Under Fire committee has been delving into these and other old newspapers, conducting research and culling insights from fascinating sources.  Project participants have spent untold hours at microfilm readers staring at the aging old film as well as rummaging through issues filed deeply away in special repositories.

The researchers also used the products of city publishers to glean the happenings that dangerous spring nearly 200 years ago.  While much of that undertaking called for using microfilm, there is a revolution going on with newspaper research, involving the digitization of newspapers.  Lots of data are now just keystrokes away and valuable information describing the attack and the damage was found.  In this area, many of the major papers from populated centers are now available online, but one company is making great progress with Maryland’s rural county papers.  Genealogybank, the e-content provider, is digitizing Bel Air issues and  some years from the Harford Gazette and General Advertiser,  National American, and Southern Aegis are available online.  The scope of these offerings will grow in the months and years ahead, making research in old serials so much easier.

Those old newspapers help tell the story of the time when warfare came to the Havre de Grace’s shore as the committee chronicles and presents those days.  Buried deeply inside the untold number of pages published through the 19^th century are stories of the attack, defense, and damage; enemy relics of war uncovered a generation later; anniversary observances of the attack and bombardment;  and the passage of old defenders.

Newspapers, as journalists often say, are the first draft of history.   The preliminary accounts are rarely the final ones as editors and reporters face the challenge of gathering information during difficult wartime conditions while rushing to meet the printer’s deadline.  Nonetheless, these colorful and engaging sources provide a glimpse into another time as we triangulate new gleanings with other manuscripts.

Nearly two hundred years later, the project has pulled out those dusty, untouched issues while also squinting to read microfilm and online digital content.  Thank goodness those broadsheets were worth hanging onto and weren’t crumpled up and tossed away the away like we generally do with our daily papers.   We’ve found them in many places, including the Harford County Historical Society, Library of Congress, Pratt Library, History Society of Delaware, Maryland Historical Society, and the American Antiquarian Society.  While the project has been engaged in this exciting search for papers published in Havre de Grace, Harford County researchers have a very strong collection of county papers at the historical society in Bel Air.

If you’re involved in some research of your own in Harford County, don’t forget to check out the source that chronicled local history day in and day out.

Newspapers from the collection of the Harford County Historical Society. One was on microfilm and the other was the original issue.

Ice on the Susquehanna and War of 1812 on Exhibit As Lock House Reopens for Season

Press Release — The Susquehanna Museum at the Lock House

The public is invited to celebrate the Annual Opening Weekend at the Lock House!  The hours for this weekend are:

• Saturday, April 14, 2012 —   1 – 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided)
• Sunday, April 15, 2012– 1-5 p.m.  From 1-3 p.m. Linda Noll, a local author will be signing her newest publication, Havre de Grace Then & Now.

This will be an opportunity to stop by and see the newest exhibit, “ice on the Susquehanna” amd see the newly updated “War of 1812” exhibit!

Each spring the lockhouse museum holds a reopening celebration. This year it's April 14 & 15, 2012.

Pulitzer-Winning Historian Alan Taylor to Speak April 12 at Washington College About African Americans and the War of 1812 on the Chesapeake

Press Release — Washington College, C.V. Starr Center

CHESTERTOWN, MD— Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alan Taylor, one of the most celebrated contemporary historians of early America, is spending two weeks in Chestertown as he works on his newest book project, telling a little-known story of war and freedom on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Taylor is in residence as the 2012 Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellow at Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience from March 31 through April 13. He will give a sneak preview of his work-in-progress at the College on Thursday, April 12.

The War of 1812 has often been called “America’s second revolution.” For thousands of enslaved African Americans around the Chesapeake – including many on the Eastern Shore of Maryland – it proved to be nothing less than a new birth of freedom as they sought liberty under the protection of British troops. Their long-forgotten story is the subject of Taylor’s work, following up on the success of his last book, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (Knopf, 2010), which was a finalist for last year’s George Washington Book Prize.

Taylor’s April 12 talk, “American Exodus, British Canaan: The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake,” will begin at 5 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Commons. A book signing will follow. The event is sponsored by the Starr Center and co-sponsored by the Maryland State Archives, the Maryland Historical Society, the Historical Society of Kent County, and the Black Studies Program at Washington College. Attendees will have the opportunity to view rare original documents about the War of 1812 in Maryland, displayed for the occasion by the Maryland State Archives. The event is free and open to the public.

Taylor is Professor of History at the University of California Davis and a contributing editor to the New Republic. His previous books include William Cooper’s Town (Knopf, 1996), which won the Bancroft and Pulitzer prizes for American history. The Civil War of 1812 also drew widespread praise. The Washington Book Prize jury called it “the most illuminating and original history of the conflict ever written.” Pulitzer-winning historian Gordon Wood, writing in The New York Review of Books, called it “remarkable and deeply researched,” adding, “Taylor masterfully captures the strangeness of this war.”

Established through a generous gift from Maurice Meslans and Margaret Holyfield of St. Louis, the Starr Center’s annual Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellowship brings to campus an individual engaged in the study or interpretation of African-American history or a related field. Besides providing the recipient an opportunity for a period of focused research and writing, the fellowship also offers Washington College students and faculty a chance to spend time with some of today’s leading interpreters of African-American culture.

Press Release – Washington College, C. V. Starr Center

Sharing Stories About An Old Kent County Sheriff and His Faithful Horse

Going through boxes of family papers to sort out valued materials stored away by relatives long ago can be a challenging but revealing task. And yesterday I received a letter about this process of discovery from Cynthia Jane Brown. She went through the documents from her late father, Merrile W. Brown, who passed away in February 2012. While examining those aging photos and letters she came across an intriguing image of a Kent County house and family from 1894.

Here is some of what she shared in the letter. The man on the horse was my Great-Grandfather William Ellsworth Brown, Jr. He was the sheriff of Kent County, MD back in 1894. Back in those days lawmen rode horses, which was nothing like the “patrol cars of today.” The townspeople nicknamed Sheriff Brown, “Mr. Shake” because of his air of authority. The horse was his faithful servant. My great grandfather and his horse chased a few thieves one time through a cornfield with tall stalks of Eastern Shore corn growing in the summer heat. His horse was his best friend and was a good working horse.

Her investigation also identified others in the photo. Standing from left to right is her great-great aunt, standing next is her great, great grandmother Mary Brown. The lady seated is her great-grandmother Mary Caroline Brown. She was the wife of William Ellsworth Brown, Sr (the man by the well with the long beard). Her uncle Edward and Great Aunt Marie Brown are the children playing with the way. The photo is 118 years old.

Thanks so much for sharing this piece of history.

Hosanna School Partners with Library to Present Lost and Found: The Forgotten Communities of APG as Part of Smithsonian Journey Stories

Press Release – Hosanna School

The Harford County Public Library was given an opportunity to expand its Journey Stories partnership with the Maryland Humanities Council and the Smithsonian Institution by participating in the Journey Stories Youth History Project, a national pilot program to empower youth to collect, record, and share local oral histories.

The Hosanna School Museum is collaborating with the library and has focused on an interesting and little known story in Harford County:  The migration of farmers and families that formerly dwelled on the nearly 73,000 acres now occupied by Aberdeen Proving Ground. These families, occupying a 20-mile or so strip along US Route 40, were forced to make way for what some called a “government intrusion,” and others called a “patriotic sacrifice.” How they rebuilt their ties and communities will be explored by participating teens and adult mentors of The Journey Stories Youth Oral History Project, and presented in a Hosanna School exhibition. The resulting oral histories will also be made available to the public through the Smithsonian’s Journey Stories web site (http://journeystories.org).

June 2, 2012

1 – 4pm (exhibitions are open from 11am)

Exhibition Openings and Reception

Join us for a celebration of two Journey Stories exhibitions!   Divergence: The Pathways of African-Americans in Harford County, documents the journeys of African-American Harford County citizens through time and is meant as a companion exhibition to Fugitives, Accessories, and Catchers at the Bel Air Library.  Lost and Found: The Forgotten Communities of APG, the Journey Stories Youth Oral History Project Exhibition will also be open.  Meet the “youth curators” and hear about their unique experiences collecting family stories and helping to creating this presentation. Light refreshments. Reception from 1 – 4pm. Free of charge; donations appreciated.  Held at Hosanna School Museum, 2424 Castleton, Rd, Darlington, MD. (From June 6-July 25, Hosanna School is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 10-4.) http://www.hosannaschoolmuseum.org (live April 2012)

Smithsonian’s Journey Stories Coming to Harford County Public Library

Press Release – Harford County Public LIbrary

(Belcamp, Maryland – February 29, 2012) Take an interactive journey through time, from immigrants arriving from across the globe to the innovations that made it possible to cultivate the wild. Harford County Public Library (HCPL) and the Harford County Department of Community Services are pleased to offer a unique cultural opportunity this spring:  Journey Stories, a Smithsonian Exhibition opening May 19 and running through July 6 at the Abingdon Library.

Journey Stories examines the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to progress and flourish, voyage and explore. Interactive displays allow visitors to experience both harrowing and joyful journeys made by individuals in search of physical, social, and economic freedom.  Families can plan a trip across the unknown West; contemplate shipping a loved one across the sea to escape slavery; and marvel at the adventure of automobile travel. Thoughtful recordings allow visitors to listen to the intimate accounts of a diverse array of journeys.  Photographs and other images bring to life the advances that made it possible to populate vast territories and tame the west. In short, Journey Stories is a way to experience what makes us Americans – our ability to find a way to freedom.

Accompanying Journey Stories are six additional exhibitions which explore Harford County’s unique history of the Journey Stories themes. The Jarrettsville Library’s Cars: A Harford County Love Affair, a fine art photography showcase on Harford County’s car culture, kicks off the exhibitions on April 13.   On May 11th, the County Activity Centers will open exhibitions. Journey Through Harford County’s History at the Chenowith Activities Center in Fallston uses the Aegis and local accounts and historic artifacts to “tell” the story of the County from its early beginnings. Bel Air’s McFaul Activity Center plays host to From Trail to Train: The Building of Bel Air, which considers Bel Air as the apex of how goods and services were received and transported in Harford County.  In Havre de Grace, the Activity Center’s exhibition, Money and Migration: Population and the County Economy, explores the distinctive relationship between workforce and society. Women, shoes, chemicals, and technology have brought people in, moved people out, and influenced the culture of Harford County.

Opening with the Smithsonian Exhibition, on May 19 at public libraries, are three additional exhibitions.  Highway Hospitality, at the Abingdon Library, looks at a time before “super highways” and interstates, when stopping at quirky motels, eating in sparkling diners, and full-service auto stations with uniformed attendants made the memories!  Visitors will see ice cream fit for space, vintage advertising and other artifacts from the lost story of food in the Edgewood Library exhibition Food on the Go. Finally, the difficult but inspiring journeys made by runaway slaves and the people who helped and hindered them are explored in the Bel Air Library’s Fugitives, Accessories, and Catchers, where guests will experience the escape Henry “Box” Brown made; imagine the weight of leg irons and manacles; and hear the tales of those from Harford County both seeking and preventing freedom.

The Journey Stories themes have captured the interest of many celebrated authors who have been invited to share their works: • Fulbright fellow, PEN Finalist, and five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Earl Swift will discuss his novel The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, at the Jarrettsville Library at 7:00 pm on April 13 and in conjunction with the Library’s annual Night Out @ The Library. Tickets $30+. • At the Jarrettsville Library at 6:30pm on May 3, D.E. Johnson, author of the mystery The Detroit Electric Scheme, will tell his story of turning a passion for cars and history into a best-selling mystery series. • Local Henri Diamant spent a lifetime traveling around the world until he found Harford County and Aberdeen.  His story is captured in the book Escape to Africa.  He shares it at the McFaul Activity Center in Bel Air on Tuesday, May 15, at 6:00pm. • Immigration debates have raged on for more than a century and no one is more fascinated with the different schools of thought than Vincent Cannato, author of American Passage: The History of Ellis Island.  Dr. Cannato opens the Journey Stories Exhibition at the Abingdon Library on Saturday, May 19 at 10:30am, with a community discussion on immigration. • On Wednesday, May 23 at 6:00pm, the McFaul Activity Center in Bel Air hosts Dr. Rebecca Boehling and her book Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust: A Jewish Family’s Untold Story.  The book is composed of correspondence reflecting a family’s life before, during, and after the Holocaust. • Wendy McClure, best-selling author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie, will share her equally hilarious and heartbreaking travelogue through the real “Laura World,” at the Bel Air Library on June 2 at 6:30pm. • Col. Al Worden, the first astronaut to walk in deep space and the record holder as the most isolated human being will talk about his book Falling to Earth and what it is like to to journey to the moon and back.  He is appearing at a ticket event on June 14 at the Vandiver Inn in Havre de Grace. • One man is credited with taming the Wild West and civilizing train travel – Fred Harvey. How he used new modes of travel, good food, and proper young women to create an innovative and progressive empire are explored in Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West–One Meal at a Time.  Author Stephen Fried will recount his journey in Fred’s shoes at the McFaul Activities Center on Thursday, June 21 at 6:30pm. • Historian, journalist, and author Fergus Bordewich explored the Underground Railroad in his 2005 best seller, Bound for Canaan. His newest book, America’s Great Debate, focuses on the nation’s westward expansion, slavery and the Compromise of 1850. He will discuss both at the Bel Air Library on June 23, at 6:30pm.

Other special guest presentations through the months include: • Poetry and the American Dream with Poet Linda Joy Burke at the Jarrettsville Library on Monday, April 16 at 6:30pm. • A Female’s Journey Through the World of Food with Executive Chef & Restaurateur Cindy Wolf on Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm at the Veronica “Roni” Chenowith Activity Center in Fallston. • Janet Sims-Wood’s Fighting for Freedom: Black Women’s Army Corps During WWII on Tuesday, May 29, at 6:00pm at the Havre de Grace Activity Center • Actress Mary Ann Jung as Rosie the Riveter on Tuesday, June 12, 6:00pm at the Havre de Grace Activity Center.

Additional programs including a film festival and genealogy series will be offered at Library branches. Please visit http://www.hcplonline.org for complete details on all the Journey Stories events.

Registration for all programs, events, and speakers is suggested. More information on exhibitions and associated programming is available in the Journey Stories Official Guidebook, available mid-April at all Library branches and key outlets throughout the county. Journey Stories is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Maryland Humanities Council.  The Journey Stories exhibition and accompanying programs are offered to the public through a partnership between Harford County Public Library and the Harford County Department of Community Service.

click here for additional information

Delaware History Connections: Thomas Garrett and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Delaware History Connections: Thomas Garrett and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Searching for Your Family Roots In the 1940 Census: A Program at the Delaware Archives

Press Release – Delaware Public Archives

Looking for help in finding a parent, grandparent, or other relative in the soon to be released 1940 United States Census?  The Delaware Public Archives can help!  On Saturday, April 7, 10:30 a.m. the Delaware Public Archives will present a program about the 1940 Census featuring Jefferson M. Moak, Senior Archivist with the National Archives & Records Administration, Mid-Atlantic Region. Because the U.S. Census is confidential for 72 years, the 1940 Census will be available to researchers for the first time in April.  While the U.S. Census, recorded every ten years, has traditionally been viewed as an extremely valuable genealogical tool, there are changes and differences each time it is conducted and recorded. The Delaware Public Archives is sponsoring this special program in order to help genealogists and researchers get a head start on what this census can provide. 

The speaker Jefferson M. Moak has enjoyed a 38-year professional career with appointments at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia’ 76, Inc., the Philadelphia Historical Commission and the City Archives of Philadelphia prior to coming to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Archives & Records Administration.  He has served as Senior Archivist at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office of the National Archives since his arrival in 2000.  He is an accomplished genealogist, compiling several genealogies while also serving as the verifying genealogist for several lineage societies.

Chestertown GAR Post and Country Store in Still Pond Make List of Endangered Historic Properties in Maryland for 2012

GAR Hall, Chestertown, MD.

Preservation Maryland and Maryland Life Magazine selects a list of endangered historic properties in the state, each year.  The partners recently released the 2012 list, the sixth one.  Of the eleven structures this term, there are two on the Eastern Shore.  One is the Charles Sumner Post # 25 Grand Army of the Republic.  Located at 206 Queen Street in Chestertown, the structure was built by African-American soldiers from the Civil War.  It served as a gathering place for veterans of the U.S. Colored Troops.  Another Kent County site, the Covington Store, in Still Pond is also on the list.  A nonprofit group has been created to purchase and stabilize the Eastern Shore structure, a circa 1870 country store.The Kent County Arts Council is providing leadership for the restoration of the GAR post.  Two members of the organization participated in a recently web-based radio show,  Click here to read the Arts Council’s blog post on this subject and hear the webcast.

Memorial Day 2010 Celebration in Chestertown.