Thanks to the Kent County Public Library and Washington College’s Clifton Miller Library, Chesapeake Heartland — a public history project at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience — recently completed an initiative to digitize, archive, and share more than 330 items from the Historical Society of Kent County. The collection chronicles the local African American community across more than a century. Visitors to Chesapeake Heartland’s online archive can now see documents and images related to public health, education, agriculture, aquaculture, business, industry, and much more.
Photo: 1960 image from inside Chestertown’s “Uptown Club” https://archive.chesapeakeheartland.org/index.php/Detail/objects/2076
“We are thrilled to partner with the Kent County Public Library and Miller Library on this project,” said Adam Goodheart, the Starr Center’s Hodson Trust-Griswold Director. “Both libraries are playing essential roles in making our area’s fascinating and diverse history more accessible. We are also grateful to the Historical Society for generously permitting access to its collections even amid Covid-related challenges. Scholars, students, teachers, genealogists, and members of the broader public — both locally and far afield — will benefit from the new online resources.”
Mary Alice Ball is the Clifton M. Miller Dean of Library and Academic Technology at Washington College’s Miller Library and said that the Historical Society of Kent County is contributing a truly unique and valuable collection of images to Chesapeake Heartland. “Miller Library was delighted to work with the Historical Society of Kent County, the Kent County Public Library, and the Starr Center in expanding digital resources that add to our understanding of the region’s history and culture.”
Photo: 1935 image of a woman receiving a vaccine https://archive.chesapeakeheartland.org/index.php/Detail/objects/2066
The Chesapeake region’s history dates back an astonishing four centuries. The Chesapeake Heartland Project webpage states that the project’s name derives from the area’s identity as the heartland of African American history and culture since the arrival of the first Africans at Jamestown in 1619. It goes on to say that “Kent County is in many ways a microcosm of that history, with its own rich and diverse African American heritage.”
Darius Johnson, a member of the board of directors for the Historical Society of Kent County, said that community collaborations like this are vital to public history and the local Black community.
“This history is so important to our current and future generations, and more specifically, the sustainability of the Black community here in Kent County, which is shrinking,” he said. “When you look at the pictures that have been digitized, it’s inspiring to see people living, working, and prospering here, together, just a generation or two away.”
Johnson, who is also a 2021-22 fellow for the Chesapeake Heartland project and the executive director of local non-profit Kent Attainable Housing, added that this community collaboration shows Kent County residents that there is a history to be proud of and built upon, if they are willing to connect to it in a tangible way. “This goes beyond walk-through galleries and talks,” he said. “Public history is at work — and at its best — when it inspires actions that improve our community across education, healthcare, workforce, and beyond.”
Arnessa Dowell, executive director of the Kent County Public Library, said the Chesapeake Heartland project exemplifies the way that libraries and archives are thriving in the digital landscape.
“As libraries have expanded their collections beyond books, they’ve been able to increase their ability to provide equitable access to everyone, no matter where they may live. Not only is Kent County Public library highly relevant in the digital age, but it is honored to be able to partner in creating the digital platforms that deliver public history for everyday use and knowledge.”
Photo: Circa 1880 portrait of a woman in gloves and a formal dress https://archive.chesapeakeheartland.org/index.php/Detail/objects/2098
With support from the Kent County Public Library, digitization was conducted by Lindsay Sheldon, director of archives and technical services at Washington College’s Miller Library. Sheldon, who worked over the course of several months to digitize, upload, catalog, and post the items, said that although it’s hard to choose a favorite, there are a couple standouts to her.
“There are so many wonderful images spanning the decades—from the somber to the joyful. As a fellow black cat owner, I love the image of Charley Hines’ two cats from the Pennington scrapbook. I’m also a fan of New Deal projects, so the images of the public health clinics of the 1930s are interesting and a little sobering to see.”
Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project — a collaboration between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Washington College’s Starr Center— is a multi-year, grassroots initiative to preserve and share four centuries of Black history. The project, which highlights the Chesapeake Bay region as a major heartland of Black heritage, is beginning with an intensive effort in Kent County, which serves as a microcosm of the larger story.
To see all the newly digitized items, visit archive.chesapeakeheartland.org and enter “Historical Society of Kent County” into the search box at the top of the webpage.
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