250 and Counting

Tag: Maryland History

  • July 21, 1775: Isaac McKim

    Cover art for July 21, 1775: The McKim School, now a community center in eastern Baltimore. This is a public domain photo (via Wikipedia), and while it looks a little dreary here, it's actually quite nice.

    We know: when an episode is a biography, we typically use a portrait of the person born on this day 250 years ago.

    But this time around is special: the artwork on today’s episode is a building that was erected by the subject of the episode. The McKim Free School is now the McKim Community Center, and it’s just around the corner from McKim Park. In fact, between the time recording this episode and writing this, I learned that the McKim Center was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and while the neighborhood itself is officially called Jonestown, the residents refer to themselves as the McKim Community Association.

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  • April 27, 1775: Skullduggery and Rebellion Here & There

    Cover art for April 27, 1775: Robert Eden, by Florence Mackubin after Charles Willson Peale (1914)

    The war was hot in Massachusetts, but it was still cold elsewhere. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t rebellious activity going on, since by this point everyone knew what was going on up north.

    It manifested itself in different ways. In Maryland, it appeared that Patriots were straight-up lying to the Royal Governor in order to deprive the British troops of some of their arms and gunpowder stores.

    And in North Carolina, the Royal Governor loudly declaimed his disdain for anyone who didn’t agree with him. Unfortunately for him, that included the entire North Carolina Assembly. Their response was to do exactly the opposite of everything he asked.

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  • April 9, 1775: Something’s Happening…Maybe Not

    Cover art for April 9, 1775: Portrait of Ann Arrundell (original spelling of her name), artist and date unknown.

    In January of 1775 someone took the time to write a 1400-word account of a riot that took place in Annapolis, Maryland just a few days earlier. The pseudonymous author alleged that a shipload of tea was burned in the harbor as an alternative to destroying the tea and tar-and-feathering the ship’s owner.

    But word got back to the folks in Annapolis, of course, and they countered with a resolution involving a reprinting of that article, plus a refutation of the allegations made. The basic thrust? The guy made it all up, and whatever he didn’t make up still isn’t true; it just happens to be close to the truth.

    Who’s the woman in the cover art? Tune in and find out.

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