Many people have lived in Annapolis their whole lives, but do you think they all know the history of our capital? Take a look at some books that do a great job explaining the history of Annapolis, our hometown. Check out My Reading Picks next week for a list of Eastern Shore history books!
Annapolis: A Walk Through History by Elizabeth B. Anderson - Annapolis, one of America's outstanding colonial cities, is the capital of Maryland, the home of the U.S. Naval Academy, host to two of the largest boat shows in the country, and a vibrant town for tourist and resident alike. The city also offers a veritable architectural feast to the masses of visitors who meander through the centuries-old streets past impressively preserved buildings representing every period—Colonial, Georgian, Federal, Gothic Revival, Victorian, and Modern. These visitors can marvel at stately dwellings like the Hammond-Harwood and Paca Houses with their meticulously manicured formal gardens, or enjoy the more simple shops, row houses, and taverns lining the streets and alleys. This pocket guide puts the city's outstanding buildings in historical perspective and adds colorful facts to enhance enjoyment of them. It is spiced with delightful anecdotes of many early Annapolis inhabitants and enlightened by recent research. The text includes helpful maps and the superb photographs by M. E. Warren.
Maritime Annapolis: A History of Watermen, Sails & Midshipmen by Rosemary F. Williams - With fortunes that have ebbed and flowed with the tides, Annapolis has graced the banks of the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay since the seventeenth century. Generations have worked the docks, sailed its waters and hunted for Chesapeake Gold--oysters--even as the city became home to a proud military tradition in the United States Naval Academy. Local author Rosemary F. Williams presents a vivid image of Annapolis with tales of violent skirmishes between the dashing Captain Waddell and crews of outlaw oyster poachers, the crabbing rage of the twentieth century, feisty shipwright Benjamin Sallier and the city's Golden Age of Sailing. Williams's fluid prose and stunning vintage images chronicle the maritime history of this capital city and reveal its residents' deep connection to the ever-shifting waters.
Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History by Jane W. McWilliams - Winner of the Phebe R. Jacobsen Award for Excellence in Literary Arts
The story of Annapolis resonates in every century of American history. Annapolis has been home to tobacco plantations, political intrigue, international commerce, the U.S. Naval Academy, ballooning population growth, and colonial, state, and national government. Jane Wilson McWilliams’s captivating history explores Annapolis from its settlement in 1650 to its historic preservation campaign of the late twentieth century.
McWilliams brings alive the people of Annapolis as she recounts their fortunes and foibles. Be they black or white, slave or master, woman or man, each has a place in this book. With unsurpassed detail and graceful prose, she describes the innermost workings of Maryland’s capital city―its social, civic, and religious institutions; its powerful political leaders; and its art, architecture, and neighborhoods.
Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book chronicles more than three hundred years of Annapolis history. As unique as the city it describes, Annapolis, City on the Severn builds on the most recent scholarship and offers readers a fascinating portrait into the past of this great city.
