Common Ground Connected Heritage continues ...

Common Ground Connected Heritage:

Safeguarding the Material Culture

of Sotterley’s People
Thursday, November 1^st

Beginning at 4:00 p.m.

On Thursday, November 1^st, Historic Sotterley continues the Common Ground Connected Heritage Project: Safeguarding the Material Culture of Sotterley’s People, funded by Maryland Humanities. The public is invited for a special evening of tours, presentation, and honest dialogue about the changing the narrative.

4:00 p.m. & 5:00 p.m.  Two tours of the 1703 Manor House & original 1830’s Slave Cabin will be offered. Limit: 20 persons per tour.

7:00 p.m.  Speaker Series #7: Joe McGill of the Slave Dwelling Project “Sleeping in Slave Dwellings and Changing the Narrative.”

8:00 p.m.  Fireside Chat with Joe McGill.
 

Please call 301-373-2280 for reservations for tours and for the Speaker Series.

FREE to the public, but space is limited.
 

 

Thanks to The Boeing Company for supporting the Speaker Series

at Sotterley for 11 years running

and to Maryland Humanities for supporting this event.

 

 

The significance of this date:  In October 1864, the Union controlled government of Maryland ratified the third of four state constitutions. It abolished slavery in Maryland only with the help of votes from returning Union soldiers. It failed to franchise anyone except white males who pledged loyalty to the Union. Maryland was a border state, along with Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri, which meant they did not secede from the Union but kept slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to Union slave states.  On November 1, 1864, 154 years ago, slavery officially ended in Maryland.  Many slave owners petitioned the government for compensation for their lost property years after the war ended.  With government power shifting to Democratic southern sympathizers, the 1864 constitution was replaced by the present constitution of 1867. Racial discriminatory laws and social practices continued in Maryland.  St. Mary’s County, Maryland schools were desegregated in 1968.

###

 

Birding Event Results from David Moulton

Trip Report from David Moulton

of the

Southern Maryland Audubon Society

(SMAS)

 

On Sunday, September 23rd, with rain pelting down despite our attempts to avoid it with a later start, an intrepid trio joined me for our fall outing to Historic Sotterley Plantation in search of migrating and charismatic resident birds.  Given the conditions, we opted to hop in the car and drive around the property, hoping to find fall flocks through the downpour. We were soon rewarded with looks at distant Wild Turkeys and nearby Eastern Bluebirds -- good signs that birds were active despite the rain. A late Osprey glided by, and a majestic adult Bald Eagle took a perch in a tall oak. Our first migrant was a female/juvenile Cape May Warbler in a patch of cedars.  The classic springtime Cape May patterns were clear to see, but the coloring was dull and the chestnut cheek patch was slate gray in keeping with non-breeding plumage.  Later, we stumbled on a handsome Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and a group of 4 Osprey perched together, as if discussing whether it might be time to head south.  Overall, we squeezed 22 species out of some tough birding conditions, but enjoyed the challenge.

Sotterley Plantation, Greenwell SP, Steer Horn Neck Road

St. Mary's, Maryland, US
Sep 23, 2018 9:50 AM - 11:52 AM
SMAS TRIP: D Moulton (leader), A Heck, B & W Walker.

22 species

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)  13
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  23
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)  1
Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)  1
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  4
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)  5
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)  1
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)  2
Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)  1
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)  2
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  3
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis)  1
Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)  1
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)  2
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)  11
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)  5
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)  11
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)  1
Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina)  1     

Female. Gray face patch, yellow breast with gray streaking, white wing bars.
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana)  1
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48698030

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Speaker Series #7

Speaker Series #7

“Sleeping In Slave Dwellings and Changing the Narrative” with Joe McGill

Thursday, November 1, 2018

7:00 p.m. in the Barn

 
Joseph McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, returns to Historic Sotterley on Thursday, November 1^st  as part of our Common Ground, Connected Heritage project made possible through a grant from Maryland Humanities. He has taken his message of historic preservation and heritage to over 20 states, drawing attention to those slave dwelling structures that would have been forgotten and ensuring that the places that enslaved families built and passed on their culture will be here for future generations. Historic Sotterley connects to generations today through the stories and lives of its past. As members of this community and nation, we seek to understand ourselves through looking at the history, art, culture, and stories that highlight our different perspectives, experiences, and our human commonness.

In October 1864, the Union controlled government of Maryland ratified the third of four state constitutions. It abolished slavery in Maryland only with the help of votes from returning Union soldiers.  It failed to franchise anyone except white males who pledged loyalty to the Union. Maryland was a border state, along with Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri, which meant they did not succeed from the Union but kept slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to Union slave states.  On November 1, 1864, 154 years ago, slavery officially ended in Maryland.  Many slave owners petitioned the government for compensation for their lost property years after the war ended.  With government power shifting to Democratic southern sympathizers, the 1864 constitution was replaced by the present constitution of 1867. Racial discriminatory laws and social practices continued in Maryland.  St. Mary’s County, Maryland schools were desegregated in 1968.

 

This Speaker Series event is FREE to the public.

Due to limited seating,

please call 301-373-2280 for reservations.

 

Thanks to The Boeing Company for supporting the Speaker Series at Sotterley for 11 years running

and to Maryland Humanities for supporting this event.

 

 

Speaker Series #6

 

“Inside Job” - Sacred and Stolen:

Confessions of a Museum Director

by Gary Vikan

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

7:00 p.m. in the Barn

"Inside Job" is a lively, audience-engaging talk drawn from two chapters of Gary Vikan's recent memoir, SACRED AND STOLEN: Confessions of a Museum Director. In his talk, Dr. Vikan will explore the comedy and tragedy to two major museum thefts that he had the privilege (or curse) of witnessing at first hand. One involved the disappearance of nearly 150 works, and the other took more than six decades to solve!

Gary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Chief Curator and Curator of Medieval art. Before coming to Baltimore, Vikan was Senior Associate at Harvard’s Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. A native of Minnesota, he received his BA from Carleton College and his PhD from Princeton University. An internationally known medieval scholar, Vikan curated a number of critically-acclaimed exhibitions at the Walters.
 

Vikan serves on the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts of the Salzburg Global Seminar; he is a Councilor of the Maryland State Arts Council. He has been an advisor to the Getty Leadership Institute and Princeton University’s Department of Art and Archaeology. He was appointed by President Clinton in 1999 to his Cultural Property Advisory Committee and was knighted by the French Minister of Culture in the Order of Arts and Letters in 2002.
 

Vikan stepped down from the Walters directorship to write, lecture, and teach; and to provide consulting services as Vikan Consulting LLC to cultural non-profits, collectors. His recent books include Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art (2010); Postcards from the Walters (2012); From the Holy Land to Graceland (2012); and SACRED and STOLEN: Confessions of a Museum Director (2016).

 

This Speaker Series event is FREE to the public.

Due to limited seating, please call 301-373-2280 for reservations.

Thanks to The Boeing Company for supporting the Speaker Series at Sotterley for 11 years running.