Dorchester County Heritage Museum and Gardens

…continuing with our exploration of the Delmarva Peninsula this past September.  I didn’t have any plans originally to visit Dorchester County or Cambridge.  But on a whim we changed the plans a bit.  We did have the better part of 3 days in the area so why not look around a bit?!

As we wandered around Cambridge Maryland we ran across the Heritage Museum and Gardens of Dorchester.  It was open and as it turned out, we pretty much had the place to ourselves excepting staff members who were studying or doing research.  The museum consist of the Neild Museum, opened in 1980, and the Polly Robbins Heritage Center, which was opened in 2007.

Overall, this museum is what I term an interesting accumulation of local historic objects.  The focus here was an amalgamation of local history, the canning industry, farming, everyday items used by locals, logging, hunting and trapping, marine related businesses, the War of 1812, Native Americans and more.

These days many of us have a printer in our homes that works through our computer or smart phone.  When I taught school, I remember those old smelly mimeograph machines.  This multigraph machine predates my experience by quite a bit.  This is freestanding Model #60 manufactured by the American Multigraph Company in Cleveland Ohio.  They made this model from roughly 1902 until 1930.

Some avid collector spent quite a bit of effort putting together this collection of commemorative plates…all about churches in Maryland.

This looks older than it is.  It is a 1963 Dudley Olympia Automatic baseball pitching machine.  Actually, this is appropriate for Cambridge as they hosted a minor league baseball team, part of the Eastern Shore League, on 3 occasions, 1922 – 1928, 1937 – 1941 and 1946 – 1949. 

This display contains a wide variety of items.  Then range from a pork sausage tin, to a burlap Planter’s Peanuts bag, through a couple of squeeze boxes/small accordions to a Boraxo tin.  Of special note is the Ukelin at the right center of the photo.  Ukelins were popular in the USA in the 1920s.  It’s a bowed psaltery with zither strings.  Its name was derived from the ukulele and the violin.

I’m sure that this bit of post office history came from a country general store or some similar business that served as a post office for a small community.  Folks had to come to the store to pick up from their designated slots or send out/post  their mail.  

This is a basket mold.  I’d never heard of this device before but it makes sense.  These molds were created to ensure uniformity and perfection in each basket made.

To be honest, I’m not sure just how an oyster shucking stand was used.  Based on the little photo within the photo, I believe that it held the bucket that the shucked oysters went into after being shucked on the shucking table…

The first item shown above is a corn sheller.  Shelling corn by hand is hard and slow work.  The first modern corn sheller was patented in August of 1839.  These freestanding, hand-operated machines made life much easier for the farming community.

The second photo is quite a bit more primitive.  It is a wooden pedestal corn grinder.  It was used to grind the kernels of corn into meal for cooking.

Continuing with the farm theme, the machine pictured above is a primitive threshing machine.

This red ball ensconced in an old cart is railroad related.  The term “red ball” was used to describe express cargo service.  Around 1892, the Santa Fe Railroad began using the term for priority freight and perishables.  Such trains and their tracks cleared for their use were marked with red balls like this one.

This wooden canoe…made from a log by Native Americans…was found in the marsh near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  Note the other Native American artifacts shown above the canoe. 

This is called “The Jacob Stone”.  It is a gravestone that was founded many decades ago on land that was part of Shoal Creek Manor at one time.  It apparently marked the final resting place for a slave.  It reads: “Hear lies the memry of Jacob.  bo 1728 de 1808  LXXX”.

This carving was created by Washington Hammond Skinner, a local carver for ships.  It is said to depict the face of Mr. Skinner’s last slave.  The carving hung at the entrance to the Skinner farm.

This is an altar chair from an African American Church that was located on Applegarth/aka Lower Hooper’s Island.  That island is not accessible nor is it inhabited today.  The bridge to the island was destroyed in a storm back in 1933.

Decoys are a big deal along the eastern shore of the USA.  We own one ourselves that we purchased many years ago on one of North Carolina’s Outer Banks islands.  In any case, Ronald Rue was a well-known and loved carver of decoys and the second photo shows a recreation of what his workshop looked like.  As discovered on the Internet, Mr. Rue’s decoys are quite collectable.

There are plenty of displays in the museum showing implements and settings reflecting on life as it was in the early 1900s and before.  I’ve always loved the design and decorative features on old cast iron stoves.

Moving on from the museum itself, we wandered around the grounds.  It was well past the gardening season so we just took a look at the other buildings that are part of the museum.  They weren’t open at the time…

This is the former stable from the property of Charles Goldsborough, the former governor of Maryland in 1818.  He lived in a manor house across Shoal Creek.  Unfortunately the house was demolished in the early 1970s, but this rare brick stable was saved.  It was moved here in 1987 and then restored to its 1790 appearance.  As per the description, inside the stable are displays including horse-drawn vehicles, tools for blacksmiths, harness-makers, wheelwrights and wagon builders.

This structure was originally used as a smokehouse.  The beams inside are smoked and charred.  Gifted to the Historical Society in 1964, it originally stood at Belvoir Plantation near Cambridge.  Over the subsequent years it was also used for secure, locked storage of household goods, hams, sugar and other valuables.  Hence, its current name, “Strong House”.

Formerly the LaGrange House, this home is now called the Meredith House.  This Georgian-style home was built ca. 1760.  Inside are examples of furniture from the Federal and Victorian periods, portraits of local people, china, silver, quilts, clothing and toys.  One room is referred to as the Governor’s Room.  It displays pictures, furniture and other objects from the 7 governors of Maryland who came from Dorchester County.  My favorite part of this photo is that impressive white ash tree!  To learn more about this museum, go to Dorchester County Historical Society, Maryland | United States (dorchesterhistory.com).

That’s all for now.  Just click on any photo you’d like to enlarge.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave