400 Years of Documents Found in Maryland Home

[honeychile]

For the History Junkies of America: For over nine years, the students of Washington College has been cataloging the contents of Poplar Grove Plantation, which has been intact for over 400 years. The whole story is here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080622/ap_on_re_us/four_centuries_of_letters;_ylt=ApqMk_IETXHQTe3pjot U3.2s0NUE), but the Emorys (owners of the house) seem to have never thrown anything away. The students have found missing slave advertisements next to directions on building a washing machine, letters from family on both sides of the Civil War, and even a graphic love letter from the early 1800's.

Sounds like fascinating stuff, once it's all recorded!

The house:
http://news.washcoll.edu/events/2003/06/fieldschool/fieldschool_03_01.jpg

One of the slave cabins:
http://news.washcoll.edu/events/2003/06/fieldschool/fieldschool_03_02.jpg

An older article on this:
http://news.washcoll.edu/events/2003/06/fieldschool/

[Leslie Anne]

What an amazing find. Thanks for posting it, honey.

I can't wait until I'm a certified archivist!!!!

[speedsters]

That's hilarious, that's my undergrad.
It is a gorgeous house (well it was in its prime) and I've been out there for class. My sophomore year I took a Chestertown class about the local history, and it was my favourite college class. And the two guys in the picture are friends of mine, who I've done research with about Chestertown history. The local area is FULL of awesome history which most of it hasn't been looked at. Looking at that makes me homesick for the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Thanks for totally making my morning :)

[honeychile]

That's hilarious, that's my undergrad.
It is a gorgeous house (well it was in its prime) and I've been out there for class. My sophomore year I took a Chestertown class about the local history, and it was my favourite college class. And the two guys in the picture are friends of mine, who I've done research with about Chestertown history. The local area is FULL of awesome history which most of it hasn't been looked at. Looking at that makes me homesick for the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Thanks for totally making my morning :)

I'd love to see it - this type of thing is right down my alley. I was peripherally involved with the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter dig, and that was fascinating in its own way - but this is awesome!

[Still BLUTANG]

i am going to check this out. i love maryland history

[RaggedyAnn]

What a great opportunity for the 4 student interns! It makes me think what do other pack rats have in their house?

[speedsters]

They are keeping a blog and uploading some pictures of the documents.
It can be found here - http://poplargroveproject.blogspot.com/