MCHS News
8th Annual Montgomery County History Day
Saturday, March 15
For those of us who love history, Montgomery County History Day is a chance to hear students cheering for it! It’s a sound that the MCHS staff never tires of hearing and which always astounds us. Each year MCHS hosts History Day, which is the local competition for National History Day. Little by little the number of schools and students participating grows. This year over 3000 students from 25 schools are participating at the school level. We anticipate 350 students will be presenting projects at the county competition. These projects fall into one of five categories–papers, exhibits, documentaries, performances and, new this year, web sites. Because of the additional category, we will be able to send 32 projects to the state finals. In addition to the winning projects, MCHS has a number of special prizes sponsored by county organizations which come with a cash award:
• Archaeology Prize–Paula Bienenfeld Associates
• African-American Education–Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Chapter of Association for the Study of African American Life and History
• Civil War–Civil War Roundtable
• Expression of African-American History–Potomac Valley Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women
• Citizenship Participation in Government–The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, Inc.
• Women’s History–Business and Professional Women
• Interracial Relations–Friends of Oakley Cabin & the Underground Railroad
• Charles Jacobs Special Prize for Local History– Montgomery County Historical Society and the Boyds Historical Society.
MCHS is grateful to these organizations and businesses who, by sponsoring these prizes, recognize the value of history education and National History Day. We also want to thank Columbia Gas and the Maryland Humanities Council for helping to fund Montgomery County History Day.
Another contribution to History Day is the time given by the wonderful volunteers who judge all the student projects. Over 120 people are needed to make the day go smoothly and be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. It isn’t too late to volunteer! Only a few hours of your time could make a huge difference to the students who participate. History Day will be held at Julius West Middle School in Rockville at the intersection of Great Falls Rd and Falls Rd. You need not be an historian to judge, but you must have an interest in history, some knowledge of research techniques and the ability to relate tactfully and thoughtfully to the students. To volunteer call Emily Correll at 301-340-2825 or ecorrell@montgomeryhistory.org.
Mary Kay Harper Center for Suburban Studies
While it is interesting to delve in Montgomery County’s distant past–the early settlers, the Indian scouts, the tobacco culture–Mary Kay’s focus has always been on the County’s suburban development. Our proximity to Washington, D.C. has been, and continues to be, a force in the development of Montgomery County, helping to shape it into an area of contradictions. From urban Bethesda to rural Hyattstown, the the Technology Corridor to the Agricultural Reserve– contrasts like these make Montgomery County a fascinating case study in 20th century suburban development. In many areas the county has been a leader in urban/suburban/rural planning and it is this leadership role and the conflicting community needs that Mary Kay finds so fascinating.
Therefore, it was quite natural that when the Board of Directors asked Mary Kay if she wanted a legacy project, her choice involved suburban studies. Her vision is to have a Center for Suburban Studies that would fund a fellowship for researching suburbanization and its impact on the county. While all the details are still to be worked out, the Center will have an advisory board made up of community leaders with varied expertise: planning, historical research, community ties, finances. We hope that you’ll agree that the Center for Suburban Studies will enhance the Historical Society’s ability to better document the historical dynamic of Montgomery County.
Former MCHS President Terry Beaty has very generously offered to match contributions to the Mary Kay Harper Center for Suburban Studies as a way to honor Mary Kay for her years of service. This is a wonderful opportunity for all MCHS members to show their gratitude to Mary Kay by taking advantage of this match. You should have receive notice of the campaign for this fascinating new educational center by separate mailing.
Young People at the Waters House
The Waters House has been fortunate in attracting a great group of young people as Student Service Learning (SSL) volunteers. Tigran Kapinos, Probar Mozumder, and Justin Roth are students at Clarksburg High School; Priyanka Gokhale attends Montgomery Blair High School. Justin began volunteering two years ago and has worked to create finding aids on a wide variety of library collections. He and Tigran, who began volunteering over a year ago, have been terrific at helping out during special events such as Heritage Days and the annual Tree Lighting. Probar and Tigran are currently compiling information for an uncataloged portion of the Montgomery County Public School photograph collection. Priyanka reads, clips, and files articles from the Germantown Gazette, helping us build the vertical files at the Waters House. Our thanks to all of them for their initiative and hard work!
In Appreciation...
• The following have awarded MCHS grants:
Maryland Historical Trust for
$20,000 for school programs and digitizing the Gazette Newspapers
Montgomery County Government for
$64,500 for education, the Archives and a matching grant for operating support
Clark-Winchcole Foundation for
$5,000 for operating support
Marpat Foundation for
$5,000 for the library
Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery Cty for
$29,484 for operating support
Montgomery County Council for
$6,000 for the cable show Paths To the Present
Mont. Cty Historic Preservation Commission for
$1500 for a new brochure for the Waters House
Heritage Montgomery for
$1200 for a walking tour brochure for the Waters House
Maryland Humanities Council for
$1000 for History Day
• The following have given in-kind funding:
City of Rockville for grounds and maintenance of the Beall-Dawson Historical Park
Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission for exterior maintenance of the Waters House Special Park buildings and grounds
• The following businesses have renewed their corporate memberships or become new members:
Smokey Glen Farm Barbequers
Chevy Chase Bank Corp.
Kettler Forline Homes
• The Chevy Chase Land Co. continues to generously subsidize publication of The Montgomery County Story
Welcome New Members!
Linda Haupt Joseph
Bob & Jane Levey
Jerry Klinger
Valerie Vanden Bossche
Joyce Villella
Bruce Marshall & Amy Dibner
Denise Dougherty
Mary Berman
Stephen R. Fox
Ellen Packard
Elie & Ted Cain
Frances M. MacDonald
Janet Saros
James W. Lawson Jr.
Karen Lee Connair
James Perry
Joan M. Wade
Mary Foster
Elaine Gibson
Kia Fennell
Thomas Kiesler
In the Works...
• Gazette Newspaper Project: All the necessary releases have been signed and the project is moving forward. MCHS has hired Kera Ann Manion to get the newspapers processed and ready for digitizing. MCHS is partnering with the inmate rehabilitation program at the Clarksburg Correctional Facility to digitize the newspaper collection. This unusual partnership helps teach the inmates marketable skills and provides the digitization to us at a minimal cost. MCHS received a grant for Maryland to buy the software, which makes the digitized images completely machine-readable and searchable, and a dedicated computer.
Updates...
• Archives Collections: Congratulations to Walter Conklin and George Van Meter on the completion of the rehousing and indexing of The Papers of Richard K. MacMasters in Special Collections. These stalwart volunteers have been working on preserving MacMasters's research notes and creating a list of access points that will make the collection useful to researchers since August, 2006. Walter is now developing historical and biographical notes for the final finding aid. The MacMasters Collection is made up of the files created during the research for Grateful Remembrance, one of the best general history books written on Montgomery County.
• Montgomery County History Volunteers Conference: Having now held this program for two years, we can declare it an annual event. This year’s conference was held at the Germantown campus of Montgomery College and was a great success! The conference provides a way for volunteers to learn more about County history and museum work as well as an educational opportunity for those who aren’t currently volunteering. We want to thank Montgomery College for providing the space and advertising the conference in their catalog and the Dept. of Parks for also providing advertising for the event. We had a great committee who really helped mold an event worth attending: Gary Hong from the Lifelong Learning Institute at Montgomery College, Heather Bouslog from the Archeology Office of the Dept. of Parks, Susan Soderberg from the History Office of the Dept. of Parks, Maude McGovern from Peerless Rockville, Carol Maryman from Strathmore and MCHS volunteer Clarence Hickey.
• Holiday Season Wrap: December was an extremely busy month for MCHS. The annual Holiday Tree Lighting at the Waters House attracted over 400 people in the pouring rain with temperatures in the 30s to see Santa arrive and hear the performances by Gap Fillers Jazz Band and the Seneca Valley High School Chamber Singers. We want to thank the Germantown Jaycees for providing hot beverages, Junior Girl Scout Troop for being Santa's helpers and Target and Walmart for providing cookies and candy canes. Of course we must thank our Santa extraordinaire Tom Phillips, Don Savage for the horse and wagon (who couldn’t actually make it because of weather and the Monocacy Garden Club for decorating Waters. We are also indebted to our volunteers, Jim D’Albora, Ed Harper, Judy and Carl Moline, Pete Cottrell, Tigran Kapinos and Justin Roth who stood out in the cold rain directing traffic.In Rockville, the Beall-Dawson House decorations met everybody’s expectations with wonderful arrangements and miniature scenes. We want to thank Pat Laine and Sue Houser, who lent their miniature holiday scenes for the display, and Margaret Church for the loan of her miniature creche collection. The staff was also inspired and made Christmas and Chanukah box scenes. We had the largest attendance in years and were overwhelmed by attendance on January 6, the last day of the decorations and Winter Pastimes activity.
Backyard History Camp
MCHS is excited to be partnering with the Montgomery County Department of Recreation for this year’s Backyard History Camp. In nearly all aspects, the camp will continue as it has before. The main difference is that this year all registrations will be going through the Department of Recreation. It has been hard for MCHS to adequately advertise our little camp which can only take a total of 44 campers. This partnership will allow us to reach a broader audience and to make the camp even more successful! For those of you who have attended in the past, fear not! It will be the same, high quality camp you have known and loved. This year’s preliminary camp schedule is as follows:
Session 1 - July 28 to Aug. 1 in Germantown
• Sandy Spring: Oakley Cabin, Friends Meeting House, Underground RR Trail, Slavery Museum
• Catoctin Furnace, Boat Ride at Black Hills Park
• Archaeology at Needwood Mansion
• Civil War Day: Monocacy Battlefield, National Museum of Civil War Medicine
• Carderock Naval Surface Warfare Center, Great falls, canal boat ride
Session 2 - August 4 to 8 in Rockville
• Washington Navy Museum, Arlington National Cemetery
• Fort Ward, Gadsby’s Tavern, archaeology lab at Torpedo Factory
• Archaeology at Needwood Mansion
• Claude Moore Colonial Farm, Colvin Run Mill
• Great Falls, canal boat ride, Clara Barton House, Glen Echo
These schedules are not yet firm, but should be by the end of April. Also, the camp is not listed yet on the Recreation Department’s web site. We have to finalize a few administrative matters first. We are hoping to have everything settled by mid-March. For updates and registration information, please call us at 301-340-2825.