There will be a Lunch & Learn at St. Michaels Library on Monday, Nov 4, 2019 at noon. Local author Gary Crawford will tell the history of the island at the southern tip of the Bay Hundred which was known in colonial times as Great Choptank Island. Over the years people referred to it by the names of its owners: first Foster’s Island, then Lowe’s Island, and so forth. Eventually the property came into the possession of Matthew Tilghman, and it has been Tilghman’s Island ever since. Making use of numerous slides, Gary will provide an overview of the history of this interesting and unique place — its colonial past, the community which began there in the 1840s, and the island’s rise (and fall) as a major seafood processing center from the 1880s to the 1970s.
Gary Crawford is a retired educator and former Peace Corps Volunteer. He trained Volunteers in various countries around the world. For eight years he was Associate Dean of U.S. State Department’s School of Language at the Foreign Service Institute, helping to train American diplomats.
He and his wife Susan have two married children and two grandchildren. They bought a home on Tilghman’s Island in 1980 and in 1993 opened a weekend bookstore there, the “Book Bank.” In 1998 they retired and moved to the island permanently, becoming involved in various worthy causes. Susan served as treasurer of the St. Michaels Art League for four years; Gary has published two small newspapers, written and produced several booklets on local subjects, and now writes a monthly article for the Tidewater Times magazine. The first 48 of those articles now are available in anthologies called the “Eastern Shore Essays.” The Lunch & Learn series is sponsored by the Friends of the Library, coffee and dessert are provided. For more information, visit www.tcfl.org or call 410-745-5877.
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