Road Trips
Past Road Trips:
Of Armories and Revolution: Harpers Ferry
November 4, 2007
Led by Jill Ogline 
From hiking to Civil War history, uprisings against slavery to stunningly picturesque scenery, Harpers Ferry has it all. A Washington College group led by the Starr Center’s Jill Ogline explored the town in November 2007, trekking from the overlook that prompted Thomas Jefferson to describe the scene as “worth a voyage across the Atlantic” to the engine house where John Brown and his “army of liberation” made their last stand in 1859. They pieced together the stories that make the town what it is: the immigrant candy-maker killed by a sniper in 1862 while creeping out into no-man’s-land to catch a glimpse of the United States flag; W.E.B. DuBois’s refusal to give an inch to Jim Crow; and the Baptist college that provided generations of African American students the kind of education that prepared them for both the world as it was and the world as it could be. A visit to the National Park Service conservation lab, where the group stood only inches from the derringer that killed Lincoln, William Tecumseh Sherman’s hat, and Frederick Douglass’s rocking chair, rounded out the day. See the photos here.
For more information, see:
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Weird Little Museums of Philadelphia
April 7, 2007
Led by Adam Goodheart
Have you always dreamed of visiting the museum that proudly displays a tumor removed from Grover Cleveland? Or what about the one where you can come face-to-face with the head of General Meade's favorite horse? The city of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell is also home to a number of lesser-known tourist attractions ... eccentric and surprising places where American history comes to life (or at least is well-preserved in formaldehyde). Students explored a few of them on a free, daylong road trip led by the Starr Center's Adam Goodheart.
For more information, see:
Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum
Mütter Museum
Frederick Douglas on the Eastern Shore
November 11, 2006
Led by Adam Goodheart, Mark Leone, and John Seidel
Starr Center Director Adam Goodheart, University of Maryland Professor of Anthropology Mark Leone, and Center for the Environment and Society Director John Seidel led a group of Washington College students on a tour of several Eastern Shore sites associated with the life and times of the former slave who became one of America’s most eloquent abolitionists, Frederick Douglass.
Hidden Gettysburg
April 2006
Led by Adam Goodheart
On this memorable trip in April 2006, students explored little-known corners of Gettysburg—including sections of the battlefield that are still in private hands, and still look much as they did in 1863. They viewed barns that still bear the scars of battle, learned to “dowse” for still-buried corpses, stood at the far right flank of the Union lines, and visited Culp’s Hill, where they paid their respects at the spot where a regiment of Eastern Shore Union troops faced down a regiment of Eastern Shore Confederates in deadly combat. Photos here.
Biking to George's on the Mount Vernon Trail
November 19, 2005
Led by Kees de Mooy
On a brisk, beautiful day in November, 2005, a group of intrepid students were led by Program Manager Kees de Mooy on a scenic 10-mile cycling trip from Alexandria, Va., to George Washington's Mount Vernon. After climbing up the steep half-mile hill leading up to Washington's home, the group was treated to a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the mansion and gardens by Lady Fairfax (Peg Pokosa), one of Mount Vernon's most entertaining and knowledgeable guides. Washington College, which benefited from a substantial gift from General Washington at its founding, is fortunate to continue its historical association with the first president.
Washington 1800: Art and Politics in the Young Republic
April 10, 2005
Led by Adam Goodheart
Washington College students set out for Washington, D.C. on the Starr Center's first-ever weekend "road trip." The free daylong program, led by C.V. Starr Scholar Adam Goodheart and by Marc Pachter, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, explored the politics, art, and architecture of Jeffersonian-era Washington. It included tours of the Smithsonian's special exhibition of Gilbert Stuart portraits and of the circa-1800 Octagon House, and wrapped up with a view of the springtime cherry blossoms from the Jefferson Memorial.
