Legacy Project - Honoring a Tradition of Community Trust

The Washington County Free Library

Website launch

In June 2009, The Washington County Free Library went live with a website that included photographs, letters, brochures, historic newspaper articles, oral histories, and audio-visual clips showing the historic influence of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in Washington County communities. Three public panel discussions were held to launch the project, and the website has made the material available to an international audience of historians and other interested individuals.

Sports Legends Museum

The Impact of the Colts' 1958 NFL Championship

The Greatest Game's Lasting Impact at the Sports Legends Museum used the 50th anniversary of the Baltimore Colts' improbable 1958 NFL championship-Baltimore's first modern sports title-to initiate a public discussion in a series of four programs held between January and March of 2009. The talks explored the role of professional sports in fostering a collective urban confidence and shared community heritage, and how the 1958 championship helped reshape life in modern Baltimore.

Morgan State University

Notable Afro-Americans Buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery

Morgan State University presented a living history program at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Baltimore in May 2009. Historic figures buried at the cemetery were dramatically brought to life, including John H. Murphy, who founded the Afro-American newspapers; Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson, the NAACP leader whose career of nonviolent civil-rights campaigns began in 1931; and Joe Gains, the world lightweight champion from 1901 to 1908, the first African American to hold the title.

B&O Railroad Museum

Howard County's Role in the Civil War

From February through June of 2009, the B&O Railroad Museum in Ellicott City held talks that examined the role of Howard County and the railroad during the Civil War. Key aspects included soldier and civilian living history presentations; an artifact and document-based exhibit; and speakers who address critical aspects of the community, the conflict, and their relations to railroading.

C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience

A Challenge to Connect to the Past

In July of 2009, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College launched tours along the Chestertown waterfront. The multifaceted, multimedia, interpretive experiences challenged participants to rethink their own relationships to the past and helped them examine their responses to events currently happening in the world around them.

Sandy Spring Museum

Emancipation Comes Home Exhibit

The Sandy Spring Museum opened a new exhibit in the fall of 2009 that combined research and community outreach in order to build public and scholarly interest in the distinctive history of the town of Sandy Spring. Quakers in the area had emancipated their slaves in the 1790s, and the exhibit examines the impact of that decision on household life for blacks and whites.

St. Mary's College of Maryland Foundation

Documentation on School Segregation

In June of 2009, the St. Mary's College of Maryland Foundation premiered a documentary, Ending a Century of Segregated Schooling: One High School's Story. The film featured oral histories collected between 2003 and 2008 and gave voice to those who experienced the desegregation process at Great Mills High School in St. Mary's County between 1958 and 1972.

Baltimore Heritage

The Baltimore Centennial Homes Project

Baltimore Heritage sponsored the country's first event of its kind when it recognized families that have lived in the same house for over 100 years. In the spring of 2009, the Baltimore Centennial Homes Project offered street-level dialogue on heritage and community by promoting the history of Centennial Homes families and their neighborhoods.

The Old Wallville School Educational Experience

A Better Understanding of the History of Segregation

From January through July of 2009, the Old Wallville School Educational Experience offered the students in Calvert County public schools the opportunity to research and understand the history of segregation by experiencing what it would have been like to attend classes at the historic Old Wallville School, an historic "colored school."

Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization Arlington

The Columbia Pike Documentary Project

A grant was given to the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization in Arlington to support photo and oral history documentation of the people, buildings and changes taking place along Arlington's Columbia Pike. The culmination will be an exhibit and several related programs developed in conjunction with the "Pike's" 200th anniversary in 2010.

Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society Onancock

20th Century Farm Life in Accomack

The Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society in Onancock is using a grant to support the first phase of its three-part project focusing on 20th century farm life on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The initial phase includes extensive oral history interviews with current and former farmers in Accomack County.

Prince William County Public Schools Manassas

"VA Indians: Reclaiming Our Heritage"

Prince William County Public Schools in Manassas received funds to support script development for a one-hour video documentary on Virginia Indian history, covering the period from 1720 to the present day.