St. Mary’s Residents to Celebrate Local History with Artifact Donations

St. Mary’s County residents will have the opportunity to donate items (or have them photographed or scanned) as part of a Community Day celebrating local history.

St Marys County St Clements
Photo courtesy of @StMarysCountyGov

The St. Clement’s Island Museum in Colton’s Point, MD will host a Community Day on February 7 from 10 am – 4 pm to encourage the public to get involved in the planning of new museum exhibits. St. Mary’s County residents are encouraged to bring historic documents, photos, and other significant objects related to St. Clement’s Island and the Colton’s Point area from the 20th century and earlier.

From the press release:

Items that the museum is seeking includes information and items from about local boat builders; information about the Golden Hotel, the Shirley K Hotel, the Hotel on St. Clement’s Island and the Blackistone Island Canning Company; photos of the island and the Blackistone Lighthouse; Information about living on St. Clement’s Island and/or living in Colton’s Point; any photos of steamboats at Colton’s Point landing; and more.

From the St. Clement’s Island Museum website:

The museum focuses on the English history that preceded the voyage to Maryland relating the religious and political issues of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here, visitors can discover the vision of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, to found a colony incorporating religious views of tolerance and his sons’ implementation of this vision.

Visitors will learn of the voyage of the Ark and the Dove departing from the Isle of Wight in England on the feast day of St. Clement, the patron saint of mariners, following their treacherous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, braving pirates and dangerous storms, and their venture up the Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River.