Washington College News Service

Earlier this spring, the Washington College Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience was awarded a $10,000 Public Art Across Maryland (PAAM) grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to begin planning for a major artwork of national significance that engages African American history and culture in the Chesapeake Tidewater region.

The planning grant will fund a wide array of activities open to the public, including regional bus tours, public presentations by experts in art and African American history, and community forums. These events will ensure that all interested members of the local community will have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the process of commissioning the artwork. The artwork will be installed outside the historic Custom House in Chestertown, MD, near the bank of the Chester River.

The project grows out of Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project, a restorative community curation initiative launched by the Starr Center in 2020 that chronicles the region’s Black history in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and a coalition of community groups. Situating the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a national heartland of African American history and culture, Chesapeake Heartland has digitized more than 5,000 documents, images, artifacts, and recordings spanning almost 400 years; provided grants and internships to dozens of artists, researchers, and writers; and hosted over 200 public programs. The archives are free to view online.

In addition to the initial PAAM planning support, the Town of Chestertown has awarded $5,000 to the effort and Washington College’s Department of Art & Art History has given $3,000—totaling $18,000 towards stakeholder engagement for the initial planning effort.

This project will continue to strengthen Chestertown’s commitment to public art. Starting with a National Endowment for the Arts-funded master plan adopted by the Town Council in 2014, Chestertown has increased its public art through commissioned artworks and the donation of the Woicke Collection, a group of 24 contemporary sculptures.

A public artwork along Chestertown’s waterfront is envisioned by both the Master Plan and the Chestertown Unites Against Racism framework adopted in 2020, which called specifically for a work along the Chester River addressing African American history.

“An artwork of remembrance such as this needs to be pursued with great care and wide community engagement from its inception. We are developing a highly inclusive planning process working with stakeholders across the Upper Shore, the Delmarva Peninsula, and the College to identify and articulate the scope and goals of the effort,” said Jaelon T. Moaney, deputy director of the Starr Center and project lead. “The African diasporic history and culture unique to the Chesapeake region is sacred, and it is our intention to engage these enduring legacies with respect.”

Beginning in fall 2024, regional bus tours will engage with aligned works of public art from Philadelphia to Annapolis and across Maryland’s Eastern Shore to build community with the visionaries involved in their creation and continuing use. Registration will be required to join due to space limitations.

Additionally, during winter 2024 and early 2025, the Starr Center will host a series of public presentations and discussions with experts in contemporary public art, art history, and the stewardship of cultural heritage and historic resources to provide space for a deeper understanding of the full range of possibilities for the project. Brent Leggs, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund executive director and senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will launch the series on Monday, November 4. Time and location to be announced. Those interested in joining the bus tours and public meetings should sign up for the Starr Center’s newsletter to receive notifications and sign up for more details before each event.

Next spring, the Starr Center will also host community forums to provide space for facilitated public discussion, exploring the current understanding of the regional African American experience and how a public artwork might address intergenerational memory making.

Focal to the process has been convening a 10-person planning committee with diverse disciplinary and geographic representation to inform each phase. Members of the planning committee include: Jana Carter, Charles Sumner Post #25, Grand Army of the Republic; Prof. Arlisha Norwood, University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Kate Dowd, Chestertown Public Arts Committee; Christalyn Gradison; Prof. Ada Pinkston, Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture; Vince Leggett, Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, Inc.; Matt Kenyatta, University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design; Ashley Chenault, Maryland Tourism Development Board; DeLia Shoge, Kent County Public Schools; and Jason Patterson, Washington College.

Dr. Julie Markin, associate professor of anthropology and archaeology and director of archaeology at Washington College, was recently awarded a $40,000 grant through the Maryland Historical Trust to study the indigenous cultural heritage of Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore and its inhabitants’ social landscapes prior to contact with European settlers and explorers. The grant will provide for an archaeological survey and excavation of the watershed, conducted by the Washington College Archaeology Lab, as well as paid internships for students, public programming and presentations, and open lab opportunities which will be open to volunteers from the public at large.

Dr. Julie Markin

Dr. Markin’s project unites archaeological data with geographic information, environmental reconstruction and historical accounts, with the goal of developing a more robust database from which to ask questions about the nature and complexity of civilizations on the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore, an area that has historically received less study and attention than its counterpart chiefdoms across the Bay.

“The research proposed by Dr. Markin will help fill a critical gap in our knowledge about pre-contact indigenous history on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” said Maryland Historical Trust Chief Archeaologist Dr. Matthew McKnight, who notes that most of the archaeological work in the state requires consideration of cultural resources and archaeological sites in project planning.

“In areas like the Upper Choptank watershed that have seen less development, our understanding of prehistory is much more limited than places where more publicly funded construction is taking place. We are happy to have assistance from Washington College in documenting the important resources of the region for the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties,” said McKnight.

Dr. Markin views archaeology as a means by which we can ask, and attempt to answer, when and why inequalities arise. She notes that even though the Eastern Shore received limited attention from early English settlers, mid-17th-century accounts describe Eastern Shore groups living in chiefdoms headed by hereditary leaders receiving tribute from subordinate groups. Traditional markers of complex chiefdoms – structures with status indicators and maize agriculture – are absent however, suggesting that Eastern Shore complexity has a different flavor.

“In terms of historical records, we don’t know much of what the social and economic landscape looked like before John Smith made his way to the Chesapeake and modern-day Maryland,” noted Markin. “Extensive archaeological investigation can help construct a better social geography of the Late Woodland/Contact period in the Upper Choptank.”

Six paid internships will be made available and employ students as field crew members, lab assistants, and research assistants, allowing them to gain valuable professional experience, something near and dear to Markin’s heart.

“I am very focused on applied anthropology and archaeology – giving students hands-on opportunities that contribute to the communities we engage with and that foster research that can be employed to create spaces for conversation and the development of thoughtful policies around the lands that are important to many different stakeholders, particularly descendant Indigenous groups,” says Markin.

In addition to the excavations and fieldwork, Dr. Markin has plans to develop public programming that will engage students and community volunteers in open lab sessions throughout the 2024-2025 academic year. Volunteers from the community and other regional schools will also be invited to participate in archaeological investigations conducted over the next two summers and fieldwork conducted throughout the academic year.

The grant will also allow for the development of public presentations and talks to community organizations about the project and its findings as well as an exhibit at the Caroline County Historical Society building in Denton, Maryland, which would bring together project interns, the Caroline County Historical Society, and Washington College students minoring in museum, field, and community education.

“The research grant to Professor Markin is not only a testament to her stature as a scholar but also to the innovativeness of her approach to addressing important knowledge gaps,” said Washington College Provost and Dean Kiho Kim. “Moreover, with the grant, she will be able to provide students with opportunities to work on real-world problems and contribute to a better understanding of the history of this region. Such opportunities are transformative for our students. I thank Professor Markin for her dedication to her scholarly pursuits and our students.”

Those wishing to follow along with the research and find out how to participate as a volunteer are encouraged to follow the Washington College Department of Anthropology webpage and Instagram account at @wacanthropology for blogs, short videos, and updates from the field.

The Department of Anthropology & Archaeology at Washington College allows students to directly engage with contemporary anthropological topics and applied research through an individualized program that sets them up for success. Celebrating the diversity of cultural experiences and pathways students at Washington College “learn by doing” and are offered numerous opportunities for fieldwork, paid internships, and experiential learning. Learn more at www.washcoll.edu.

Washington College’ Starr Center Begins Planning Public Artwork Commemorating African American History in Chesapeake Tidewater Region

Tracking Native American Cultural Heritage on Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore

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