Chestertown History Weekend
Celebrating 300 years of history, 1706-2006
From the Revolution to the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, Chestertown has played a part in some of the most dramatic episodes of our nation's history. On Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22, a program of lectures, exhibits, discussions, and other events, featuring some three dozen special guests, will explore this rich heritage.
Events will take place at various locations in Chestertown's downtown historic district, and are all free and open to the public.
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2006
5:30 PM - History Weekend Opening and Keynote Address
- Keynote address by Richard Moe (President, National Trust for Historic Preservation).
Remarks by William Pickrum (President, Kent County Commissioners) and Jack S. Griswold (Chair, Board of Visitors and Governors, Washington College).
Musical performance by Karen Somerville and Sombarkin'.
Prince Theatre
7:00 PM Exhibition of Historic Chestertown Artifacts.
- Custom House, Geddes-Piper House, Kent County News.
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
ALL DAY
- Screening of films on Chestertown history, Custom House.
- Tours of Washington College Archaeology Lab and exhibition of local artifacts, Custom House basement.
- Exhibition of Chestertown artifacts, Geddes-Piper House.
9:30 AM
- "1706: The Founding of Chestertown"
Alexa Cawley (Delaware State University)
Prince Theatre - "George Washington in Chestertown"
Benjamin G. Kohl (Mellon Professor of History Emeritus, Vassar College)
Esther White (Director of Archaeology, George Washington's Mount Vernon)
John R. Bohrer (Washington College class of '06)
Ted Widmer (Director, C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience).
Emmanuel Church - "Research Workshop: Unearthing the History of Your Old House"
Elizabeth Seidel (Director, Washington College Public Archaeology Lab)
Town Hall
11:00 AM
- "War and Peace on the Shore"
Washington College Student Session
At this special session, Washington College students will present research they have conducted on the Civil War era. Beth Anne Hartman will tell the story of George Vickers, a slaveowner who became the region's leading Unionist. Kelly Biringer will talk about Sewell Hepbron (Katharine Hepburn's forebear), who paid a steep price for his Confederate sympathies. Elizabeth Clay will discuss the experiences of freed slaves in Kent County in the aftermath of the war, drawing on documents she discovered at the National Archives in Washington.
Beth Anne Hartman ('07)
Kelly Biringer ('07)
Elizabeth Clay ('08)
Adam Goodheart (C.V. Starr Scholar at Washington College; moderator)
Prince Theatre - "Oral History Session: Remembering Garnett High School"
Rev. Clarence Hawkins ('55), moderator
Cheryl Saunders ('64)
Rev. Reuben Freeman ('55)
Peggy Brown ('65)
Emmanuel Church - "Digging the Colonial Past: A Family Cemetery"
Timothy Riordan (Chief Archaeologist, Historic St Mary's City; St. Mary's College of Maryland)
Ruth Mitchell (Archaeologist, Historic St. Mary's City)
William Hemsley
John Seidel (Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Washington College; moderator)
Town Hall
LUNCH BREAK
1:30 PM
-
"Escape from Kent County: Myths, Realities, and Local Heroes of the Underground Railroad"
Kevin Hemstock (editor, Kent County News)
Lamar Wilson (Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis)
Carol Wilson (Associate Professor of History, Washington College; author, Freedom at Risk; moderator)
Prince Theatre - "A Place in Time: Chestertown History in Bricks and Mortar"
John H. Sprinkle (Supervisory Historian, National Park Service)
Orlando Ridout V (Maryland Historical Trust; George Washington University)
Walter Schamu (SMG Architects, Baltimore)
Michael Chiarappa (Director, Center for the Environment and Society; moderator)
Emmanuel Church - "The Battle of Caulk's Field: Kent County vs. the British Empire, 1814"
David Healey (author, 1812: Rediscovering Chesapeake Bay's Forgotten War)
Town Hall
3:00 PM
-
"Between North and South: The Civil War Comes to Kent County"
Daniel Carroll Toomey (author, The Civil War in Maryland)
Jerry Hynson (past president, Maryland Genealogical Society)
Agnes Kane Callum (author, Colored Volunteers of Maryland's Civil War)
Kees de Mooy (C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience; moderator)
Prince Theatre - "Forgotten Fighters for Civil Rights: Josephine Carr and William Perkins in 19th-Century Chestertown"
David Bogen (T. Carroll Brown Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Maryland)
Chris Brown (Brown, Goldstein, and Levy LLP; Associate Professor of Law, University of Maryland)
Adam Goodheart (C.V. Starr Scholar, Washington College; moderator)
Emmanuel Church - "Genealogy Workshop: Tracing Your Eastern Shore Ancestors"
Iris Harper (President, Upper Shore Genealogical Society)
Jane Garrett Whomsley (Upper Shore Genealogical Society)
Kate O'Donnell (Director, Historical Society of Kent County)
Town Hall
4:30 PM - History Weekend Closing Session
- Address on "Chestertown's Present and Future" by Margo Bailey (Mayor of Chestertown)
Remarks by Baird Tipson (President, Washington College)
Presentation of awards for the Chestertown Essay Contest to Washington College students.
Prince Theatre
***ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC***