by Corine Beardsley, Mosely Gallery UMES

How often do you reflect on why you are somewhere? How did you get here and where did you stop along the way?  Take a moment to reflect on your specific location and the ephemerality of this moment.  We are made mobile by vehicles. As we commute, we whizz by stores, homes, and landscapes.  We wonder, what did it feel like to be a farmer and spend most of our days looking out on the stretches of corn field that mysteriously became a horizon line, or intuitively know the undulations of a dirt road from a lifetime of walking out to work, dreaming if the big sky always felt that big on the other side of the world.  Take a moment to reflect about where we came from and how it has been part of the construct of who we are and of our ancestors’ histories. Think of the stories of your neighbors and their families and how they came to be here.  We are propelled to move for survival, to find sustenance, security, new prospects, or for discovery.

The town of Princess Anne and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore are enthusiastic to bring the exhibition, Journey Stories, to Mosely Gallery and the Frederick Douglass Library.   These tales are a central element of our personal heritage. From Native Americans to new American citizens, regardless of ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell. Our history is filled with stories of people leaving behind everything – families and possessions – to reach a new life in another state, across the continent, or even across an ocean.

The reasons behind those decisions are myriad. Many chose to move, searching for something better in a new land. Others had no choice, like enslaved Africans captured and relocated to a strange land and bravely asserting their own cultures, or like Native Americans already here, who were often pushed aside by newcomers. Our transportation history is more than trains, boats, buses, cars, wagons, and trucks. The development of transportation technology was largely inspired by the human drive for freedom.

• Journey Stories opens at UMES on October 18.  Click here to find out more about opening celebration events.

The Delmarva Peninsula has a unique history because of its proximity to the Mason Dixon. A hero of the Eastern Shore is Harriet Tubman, who was responsible for leading many slaves North to freedom through the “Underground Railroad”. She has a unique and important journey story that is highlighted in the exhibit.

Tubman was born a slave on the Brodas Plantation in Bucktown, Maryland, a small hamlet on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore in Dorchester County. At this time, slave kidnapping – especially on the Eastern Shore – was in full swing.  Kidnappers would abduct free blacks and escaped slaves and sell them to slave traders who would take them into the deep South to be sold on the auction block.  This threat was very real to Tubman.  This fear hit close to home in 1849 when the owner of the Brodas Plantation died and many of the slaves were scheduled to be sold.  It was at this time that Tubman planned her escape.

Her husband had told her previously that if she attempted to escape, he would turn her in.  Tubman told no one of her plans except her sister.  She took on the alias “Harriet Tubman” (Harriet was her mother’s name) when she fled in 1849, making a 90 mile trip on foot through swamp, forest and field to arrive at the Mason Dixon Line.

Over the next several years, Tubman rescued her sister’s family, her brothers, and her parents.  The rescues were made by what is now referred to as “the Underground Railroad” – a secret network of safe-houses that offered Tubman and her charges safety along the dangerous path to freedom between the north and south. In the course of ten years, Tubman made 19 trips on the Underground Railroad and freed more than 300 slaves. She is referred to as “The Moses of her people.”

At UMES, the Journey Stories exhibition will share these tales of movement and invite reflection on how our own personal nomadic experiences connect us with others.  In the Mosely Gallery, there will be a recording station where visitors can record their stories into a national collection using the “Stories from Main Street” Ipad app.  In the Frederick Douglass Library we welcome the public to our own exhibition, “International Voices: Capturing Their Journeys to UMES” which captures the stories of the University’s international student population, detailing their travels here, the challenges faced by those left behind, and what made them decide to leave home for the Eastern Shore.  Cultural differences, similarities, and opportunities pushed and pulled students throughout their journey for a higher education.

UMES will also host two talks, “The Global Village in the New Millennium” with Dr. Robert Ginsberg on November 13, 2012 at 7pm at the Frederick Douglas Library, and “Freedom to Travel:  When the Proper Airs of Refinement, Beautiful Clothes, and a Packed Lunch Were Just Not Enough” with Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson on Thursday, November 8th at 12:30-1:45pm in the multi-purpose room of the Student Service Center on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Join us!
Corinne Beardsley
Interim Director, Mosely Gallery

Journey Stories is on display from October 18 through November 30 where it will travel to Prince George’s County, opening December 7.

Kaplon Building Windows Recapture Excitement: Journey Stories opens in Frederick County August 31.
By Rebecca O’Leary, Curator at the Brunswick Railroad Museum.

Brunswick is gearing up for Journey Stories in a big way. The Smithsonian exhibit is rolling into town on August 31 and will feature six weeks of exciting programming and events and will offer visitors the chance to enter an iconic Brunswick building – the site of the V. Kaplon Company, which was Brunswick’s premier department store throughout most of the Twentieth Century.

“We’re especially excited about housing Journey Stories in the Kaplon Building,” said Journey Stories committee co-chair Robin Bowers, of the Brunswick Branch of the Frederick County Public Library. “We participated in the “Stories From Main Street” Youth Access program, during which local students took oral histories from a number of longtime Brunswick residents to produce a feature length video called Brunswick, which will be part of the Journey Stories exhibit and will also be treated to a “red carpet” premiere at the Brunswick Library on October 11.

During this process, we learned that Miss Fanny Kaplon made a yearly trip to New York every November to check out the Christmas displays at stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, and Macy’s. She would return to Brunswick, cover the display windows with paper, and begin preparing the Kaplon Store’s display windows. People in Brunswick anticipated the moment when the paper would come down and the window displays would be revealed for days, and would gather on the streets for the big moment. We’re going to try to recapture that moment by covering the windows in mid-August and then loading in window displays celebrating local traditions and hot spots such as Brunswick’s baseball heritage, our railroad connections, and iconic local businesses such as the Imperial Theatre and the V. Kaplon Co. These window displays will feature artifacts from the Brunswick Railroad Museum and on loan from local citizens. The windows will be revealed at 10am on August 31st during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

In addition to the window displays, the Journey Stories committee has also created an interactive exhibit focusing on the popularity of mail order catalogs like Sears and Roebuck in railroad communities like Brunswick. “Mail order was huge around here,” said Journey Stories committee co-chair Rebecca O’Leary. “People ordered everything from musical instruments to sewing machines to houses.” Visitors will be able to see examples of typical mail order items and will learn more about the area’s Sears and Roebuck homes.

The action isn’t just limited to the Kaplon Building. Journey Stories events will be taking place all over the City of Brunswick. A full day of opening celebration events on August 31st include a Brunswick Stew cook-off contest in downtown Brunswick, displays of Native American hoop dancing, Irish dancing, and raks sharqi, and a special kickoff concert made possible by the Community Foundation of Frederick County featuring GRAMMY nominated performer Ray Owen in Brunswick’s Square Corner Park. Other events included living history demonstrations, festivals, and a gala celebrating the mid-century glory days of the Hawaiian Nightclub (a favorite haunt of Patsy Cline’s!), featuring the Star-Spangled Big Band and the Hub City Lindy Hoppers, courtesy of the Harry George Family Trust. Finally, Journey Stories will end on a high note with Project Run-a-Way, a dynamic living history performance based on the experiences of runaway slaves presented by the Historic Annapolis Foundation and made possible by the Tourism Council of Frederick County.

Journey Stories Brunswick offers something for everyone! Check us out at www.journeystoriesbrunswick.org.

This post was contributed by Rebecca O’Leary, Curator at the Brunswick Railroad Museum, and provides an overview of programs and events which tell Frederick County’s Journey Story. MHC is thrilled to bring the Museum on Main Street program to great cultural institutions across the state.

“How did you end up in Cecil County?” It’s my favorite question to ask. Whether you’re a “from here” or a “come here,” there’s always a story to answer that question.

My journey to Cecil County was many years in the making, having grown up a Navy-brat moving from Coast to Coast, I attended college in upstate New York and started my career in New York City. The Cecil County landscape reminds my husband of summers at his grandmother’s Long Island farm, before everything was developed and crowded, and so, for a reason as simple as that, we settled here.

American history is filled with tales of immigration and migration and rags to riches mobility. Americans have always been on the move. Early settlers on horseback searched for better farmland, religious freedom or gold. The industrial revolution spurred innovations in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation, which grew our nation. From steam engine trains to automobiles and airplanes, transportation is an integral part of our social and economic landscape.
This summer, Cecil County Public Library is delighted to partner with the Cecil County Arts Council and the Historical Society of Cecil County to bring you the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street exhibit “Journey Stories.” Cecil County is one of only five sites in Maryland to host this special program and there are events planned county-wide this summer and into the fall. Be on the look-out for a full calendar coming soon.

Elkton Main Street on its 100th anniversary. Photo: Cecil County Historical Society

The Smithsonian exhibit will focus on themes of transportation and immigration on a national scale and library events will focus on local stories. Ukrainian immigrants settled in Chesapeake City to build the C&D Canal and the rivers were busy with barges of tobacco. Lovers flocked to Elkton during the heydays of the marriage business and World War II brought droves of soldiers and munitions workers to the county. A doctor arrived from Russia in the early 1950s with his family, and a local boy who integrated at Elkton High school went on to an internationally successful music career. These are the stories of Cecil County.
What is your Journey Story? Where did your family start their journey? Where did they settle down? Share by leaving a comment below!

This post was contributed by Frazier Walker, Cecil County Public Library