The Meanest House In Town
A year after actress Nancy Hallam captivated an anonymous Annapolis gentleman (most likely Rev. Jonathan Boucher—see “In Praise of Artistic Genius”) with her dramatic skills and attractive appearance, she and […]
Five Pounds Reward
A little more than a year ago, I mentioned two projects that told the stories of nine freedom seekers who tried to escape from bound servitude between 1728 and 1864. […]
Where’s My Package?
“I will leave no stone unturn’d to find out who keeps them from me…” Online shipment tracking has really spoiled us. Through the magic of the interwebs, we can order […]
Five Years Before Independence
250 years ago, on July 4, 1771, the American colonies were only five years away from declaring their independence from England. Annapolitans of the time had no way of knowing […]
Good Times And Bad
The Maryland Gazette provides an invaluable window into what Annapolis was like 250 years ago. News articles and public letters tell us what people learned, thought, worried, and argued about […]
A Place In Our Paper
My last blog included a piece by John Clapham printed in the May 2, 1771 Maryland Gazette. In it, the son-in-law of Annapolis printer Anne Catharine Green explained his understanding […]
The Freedom And Impartiality Of Your Press
This past Monday was World Press Freedom Day, and the theme “Information as a Public Good” was just as relevant 250 years ago as it is today. Like her husband […]
Turning Tables
Two hundred fifty years ago, Joshua Johnson was about to embark on a bold commercial venture. The Annapolis merchant placed an ad in the Maryland Gazette to inform his customers […]
Rumors Of War
England and France engaged in military conflict with one another for 73 of the 126 years between 1689 and 1815, or almost 60% of the period. If they weren’t actively […]
The Course of Human Affairs
I’ve commented before about the innate delays in 18th-century reporting. Because the latest news could travel only as fast as a horse could run or a ship could sail, it […]
Off To A Rough Start
It would be a wonderful world if old problems simply disappeared with the start of a new year, but that’s not the real world that we inhabit. Nor was it […]
Rising Joys
Christmas Eve 2020 is a fitting day to look back to a Christmas poem published in the Maryland Gazette 250 years ago. The verses penned by “P. K_N___DY” (perhaps a […]