Photography courtesy Historic Annapolis
Consider America today. What comes to mind? Dissent? Intense polarization? Perhaps diversity. Maybe violence. Or threats to personal property. Or threats to the core of democracy.
Surely there’s never been a time as unsettling as today, right? Consider again.
A new and permanent exhibition in downtown Annapolis offers proof—and reassurance—that these challenges have been with us for a very long time. In fact, such themes have plagued and confronted us since our nation’s beginning, and nowhere better reflected than in the history of Annapolis.
“Annapolis: An American Story” tells the tale of a small American town mirroring the progress and turmoil of our nation across the centuries. Located in the Museum of Historic Annapolis in a three-story brick building at 99 Main Street—on a prominent corner overlooking City Dock—the new exhibition offers local residents and visitors alike a highly professional, fresh, captivating and entertaining look at the history of our state capital, its people and achievements.
The project is a dream realized and the latest gift to the city from Historic Annapolis, Inc. (HA). Founded in 1952, HA is one of the nation’s leading nonprofit preservation organizations. HA strives “to ensure that the legacy of Annapolis’s past would continue to enrich the city’s future.” Without HA many avow that Annapolis would resemble just another small town in America.
The Story Behind the Story
How this exhibit happened is a story, too.
Nearly a decade ago Robert Clark, HA’s president and CEO, envisioned a permanent exhibit telling Annapolis’s remarkable history in a way that would attract, well, everyone. What would hold their interest? How to ensure that everyone walked away learning how extraordinary Annapolis is?
The concept began with the idea of “99 objects.” In 2015, a call went out to residents to loan objects or special relics that might help reflect the town’s history. Hundreds were offered. But it wasn’t until HA challenged itself that the concept changed course.
“My biggest concern,” recalls Clark, “is that this exhibit wouldn’t hold up to the highest professional standards of professional museums today, nor to something HA would be proud to host.”
To achieve that professional status, Clark hired a professional. Mary-Angela Hardwick joined HA in 2018 after decades in exhibit content development. Developing exhibitions across the country, she began her career with the National Park Service and has worked for exhibit design firms in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Among her proudest accomplishment is her work on the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where she developed the exhibit for both museums.
When she joined HA as Vice-President for Education and Interpretation, she was assigned the Museum of Historic Annapolis as a top priority. “I began by casting a wide net,” she says. “I had to research the bigger story. What would be of greatest interest to museum visitors? After all, this is a broad audience with a wide age group.”
Hardwick consulted with Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Inc. which, pre-Covid, was seeing some 140,000 visitors annually. Visitors often asked, “Where can I go to find the history of Annapolis?”
She met with community leaders, representatives of diverse groups and historians to seek the varied voices of the community and their stories. She also consulted with local museums. The goal became clear: “to spotlight the history of Annapolis and to encourage visitors to discover more at other nearby historic sites.”
Building the Exhibit
With the goal affirmed, Hardwick laid out the process: first, write the narrative, then develop the exhibition, design and finally, fabricate it. Each step offered its own challenge.
Funding for the $1.5M project came primarily from county, state, and federal grants, plus private donations and corporate donors. In 2015 HA became a Smithsonian Affiliate, one of only six in Maryland, which has helped to advance its fundraising outreach.
Thanks to well-known Annapolis historian Jane McWilliams for her seminal work on the city’s history, “Annapolis, City on the Severn,” the narrative had a head start. When McWilliams appeared at a pre-opening event for the museum, Hardwick greeted her with “This is your book as an exhibit!”
Hardwick admits her biggest challenge was to find the images and objects to match the story. HA colleagues Robin Gower, Curator of Collections, and Glenn Campbell, Senior Historian, collaborated on the research, connecting with organizations as well as individuals. Hardwick spoke with numerous families with deep roots in the community, from many backgrounds including Greek, Italian, Jewish, and African-American.
“Diversity is one of the museums major themes,” she notes, “and not just because it’s so relevant today. Annapolis always has been a diverse community, right from its origins. And still is today.”
The team partnered with 10 local government and museum sites, each with its own story, including four managed by HA. Partner sites loaned objects from their collections to reflect both local and national stories.
Says Hardwick, “We needed to find objects and images that visually would bring the exhibition to life.”
The team’s research turned up serendipitous finds. For example, Gower learned that the United States Naval Academy Museum had an antique Singer sewing machine used by a “local” tailor to mend uniforms for midshipmen and staff. Meanwhile, Hardwick was talking to an Italian family who mentioned their relative’s history as a tailor at the Academy. Both the sewing machine, and the story of how Henry Ciccarone came to Annapolis from Italy to live with his uncle and work for the Naval Academy as an expert tailor until 1971, are now part of the exhibit. The story reflects not only the strong community bond between the Academy and Annapolitans, but also its continuing role in our national story.
Nearly 200 objects were chosen for display along with scores of photographs. The HA team credits three regional firms in helping to create the final exhibit: Design Minds and Color-Ad, both based in Virginia, developed the design and were responsible for fabrication and installation; and Hillman and Carr of Washington, D.C., created the theater experience and videos.
Setting the Stage
Clark’s determination that HA’s museum demonstrate the highest standards of professionalism is evident from the first step inside the 1790s red-brick building. A gleaming white entryway greets visitors. The back wall, eye-catching in color and design, displays the 10 partner sites. In a prominent corner, encased in protective glass, stands one of the museum’s most iconic and precious objects—on loan from the Maryland State House Trust and the Department of General Services—the original 250-pound wooden acorn which adorned the top of Maryland’s State House from 1788–1996. Today its replica still stands as the highest peak overlooking Annapolis.
From the entryway visitors enter a small, open theater where they can view an eight-minute film introducing the museum and the ten partner sites that tell “Annapolis: An American Story.”
“The theater is the take-off point,” Hardwick notes. “From here we send you out into the museum wanting more.”
The first floor holds a room dedicated to the museum’s partner sites. Each is represented with a descriptive panel and artifacts that tell its unique story. There is the imposing 1976 portrait of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice and Marylander Thurgood Marshall that introduces the Banneker-Douglas Museum. Nearby is an iron chest on loan from The State House once used in the original Treasury Building to hold colonial currency, gold coins, and other valuables. Such chests likely were made by local artisans and stored in vaults beneath the building that still stands on State House hill.
From the first floor, visitors can use the elevator or ascend the dark-wooden stairs to the two upper floors where the chronological “narrative” comes to life.
Photography courtesy Historic Annapolis
Tracing the Centuries
From ancient Native American Indian artifacts to the promise of City Dock Re-imagined today, the two upper floors immerse visitors in the tumultuous, remarkable, and proud history of Annapolis and America through four centuries.
Each floor holds two exhibition rooms, the story told in chronological order on a basic framework: (1) an introductory text that is never more than 75 words, or, says Hardwick, “You lose your reader,” (2) fun facts, many on “spinners” at a child’s level that provide answers to questions on the reverse side, (3) an illustrated timeline on a reader-rail along the windowsill, and (4) spotlighted stories in text, photos and video.
The rooms cover four time periods:
1650–1800: Our Beginnings
1800–1900: Changing Times
1900–1970: Towards Equal Justice
1970–Present: The Power of Change
Interaction is encouraged. For example, entering “Our Beginnings” visitors see four wooden crates stacked on the floor beneath the mural “A World Turned Upside Down.” The mural depicts rising tensions with Great Britain over taxing without representation. The crates invite visitors to peer inside and see boycotted imports of that time, like paper, sugar, and fabric.
Technology plays a role, too. Several displays sport QR codes which link directly to partner sites’ websites. The walking distance in minutes makes it easy to plan the next stop in town.
As guests move from room to room, Hardwick says “they get a sense of who the community was. They see the diversity and the work people were doing. We want them to gain a sense that this is a shared history, and they are part of the story.”
Photography courtesy Historic Annapolis
If Objects Could Talk
Text, photographs, and colorful videos enliven the exhibit. But it is the objects that give the story texture and meaning, connecting Annapolis to the larger American story.
“Each object is so unique and has a great story to tell,” says Robin Gower, Curator of Collections. “It’s my role to protect and preserve those objects and help visitors connect with their stories. It’s hard to pick just a few favorites when I treat each object with the same amount of respect and care.”
With nearly 200 objects artfully displayed, the museum decries favorites. But here are a few.
Stained Glass window This eye-catching window gleams with turquoise and gold-tinted glass, shaped like the top of an obelisk, looking skyward. The story it recalls points to the early days of freed slaves, when men and women in America were building their lives and communities. In 1803 seven free Black men purchased land on West Street and established the first Black church in Annapolis. Several of its founding members were enslaved. The church that stands there today, Asbury United Methodist Church, was built in 1888 and expanded in 1976. Church officials are pleased to loan the window that once adorned their original Gothic-style building.
Pulitzer Prize Visitors entering the 1970–Present room will instantly notice the “Guardians of Truth” panel on the facing wall. Pictured are the five Capital Gazette staff members who were slain as they worked in their offices on June 28, 2018. The display features The Pulitzer Prize for journalism that was awarded on May 28, 2019, on loan from the Capital Gazette/Baltimore Sun Media. It also features Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” cover from December 9, 2018 lauding the staff who published the paper the very next day. The display is both a fitting tribute to those who died and a reminder of the critical role journalism plays in a free society.
Death Head Stamp Decades earlier, Jonas and Anne Catherine Green published the Maryland Gazette out of their home and print shop on Charles Street. During excavations on the site, archeologists discovered a small piece of lead type, approximately one-inch square, that the Greens used to stamp the paper’s front page in lieu of the British stamp tax. Designed with skull and crossbones, the Death Head Stamp from HA’s collection reminds us of the simmering resistance and the stirring of America’s road to revolution.
Red Cross Lady World War II casts its cloud over Annapolis in this portrait of Sally Bond Welch from HA’s collection. The photograph is emblematic of how locals helped the war effort. Welch volunteered with the American Red Cross at the hospital at the Naval Academy. Like other “Grey Ladies,” she performed tasks to help soldiers, such as writing letters and hosting events. Tucked into the display is another war-related object—a gas mask worn by Noah A. Hillman in his service as an Air Raid Warden, loan courtesy of his son, Richard.
Wheaties Box The museum devotes a prominent display to Naval Academy sports and athletes who have achieved national renown. A bright-orange Wheaties Box from 2004, part of HA’s collection, showcases NBA All-Star David Robinson, “The Admiral,” one of the greatest centers in both college and NBA history. The panel also includes a personally autographed “Number 12” jersey from star quarterback, Heisman trophy winner, and Super Bowl champion Roger Staubach.
Ready to visit?
Local or tourist, “Annapolis: An American Story” is a destination for everyone. Designed for the curious who want a snapshot of Annapolis history, as a whole, before venturing out to the city’s major historic sites, or locals who want a deeper understanding of the place where they live, or children whose curiosity will find answers here, the museum graces our state capital with a focal point it has long needed.
It is all there—from the oyster tongs to the PT boat models to the pandemic Covid-19 mask—in one glorious, three-story exhibition.
Concludes CEO Clark, “In the end, we want everyone to feel the pride we do in this extraordinary 350-plus-year old city.”
Partner Sites
Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park
The Mitchell Gallery at St. John’s College
William Paca House and Gardens
Hours and Location
“Annapolis: An American Story” is now open
Museum of Historic Annapolis 99 Main Street Annapolis, MD 21401 410-990-4754 Winter Hours: Friday—Monday: 10 am—4 pm
Springtime Hours: Open every day: 10 am—5pm
Spinners
Following are samples of the questions on colorful panels that “spin” in every room. Answers below. How many of these can you answer?
(a) What does Annapolis Mean?”
(b) Was Annapolis Always Maryland’s Capitol?”
(c) Where was the USNA established?
(d) Why is Annapolis a “Site of Memory?”
(a) Annapolis means “Anne’s City.” It is named for England’s Princess Anne (1665–1714) who became Queen in 1702. The Greek word polis means city.
(b) The first capital was St. Mary’s City, founded in 1634. Annapolis became Maryland’s capital in 1695. The State House is the oldest state capitol building still in legislative use.
(c) The U.S. Naval Academy was founded on the grounds of Fort Severn in 1845, built in 1808 to protect water approaches to Annapolis.
(d) In 2019, UNESCO designated Annapolis as a “Site of Memory” associated with the historic movement of enslaved people and one of 42 sites identified as ports of entry where African people in bondage first arrived on our shores. The designation reminds us of the unwilling sacrifice and suffering of millions of enslaved people throughout the world.
