Today, April 12th, marks the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. In commemoration of the sesquicentennial of this landmark in our nation’s history, the University Libraries’ Special Collections will be mounting two exhibitions during the 2011-2012 academic year, Women on the Border: Maryland Perspectives of the Civil War and A College Divided: Maryland Agricultural College and the Civil War.  In preparation for these exhibits, the University of Maryland has actively been actively digitizing its manuscripts, photographs, and other primary source holdings documenting both the Civil War in Maryland, Slavery in Maryland, and the lives of African Americans in 19th Century Maryland.

Women on the Border: Maryland Perspectives of the Civil War

Maryland Room Gallery, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park

August 31, 2011 – July 15, 2012
Regular gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
Additional hours during academic semesters: Wed 5pm-8pm & Sun 1pm-6pm.

This gallery exhibition examines women’s experiences, contributions, and perspectives of the sectional conflict in the border state of Maryland. Although the great majority of women did not participate in the battles fought during the war, women, as half of the population of the United States, did experience and make contributions to the war. Women were witnesses, writers, soldiers, spies, nurses, cooks, laundresses, supporters, mourners, and organizers. Maryland’s situation as a border state tested loyalties and sharply divided friends and neighbors, perhaps more than any other state in the conflict. Women in Maryland tried to find a voice for themselves, their state, and their country as everything seemed to be torn apart around them.

The exhibition will feature unique manuscript, photograph, sheet music, and rare book materials from the University Libraries Special Collections. For more information please contact Elizabeth Novara, Curator, Historical Manuscripts: enovara@umd.edu and 301-314-2712; or Lauren Brown, Curator, Archives & Manuscripts, lbrown3@umd.edu and 301-405-9059.

A College Divided: Maryland Agricultural College and the Civil War

Audrey Armistead Ruckert Reception Foyer, Hornbake Library, First Floor,University of Maryland, College Park

August 31, 2011 – July 15, 2012
Regular foyer hours: Mon-Thurs 8am-10pm, Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 12noon-5pm, Sun 1pm-10pm

The American Civil War had a significant impact on the Maryland Agricultural College, as the University of Maryland, College Park, campus was then known. The Maryland General Assembly granted the college its charter on March 6, 1856, and MAC opened its doors to students on October 5, 1859, less than two years before the conflict began. Troops from both sides camped on the grounds of the college in 1864, and many of the MAC’s students, faculty, trustees, stockholders, and presidents, both during the war and following the surrender, were linked to the conflict in some way.

The MAC community produced foot soldiers, officers, spies, and Rebel sympathizers, as well as defendants in major legal actions relating to the war. A College Divided will trace the most significant stories about the participation of members of the Maryland Agricultural College community in the Civil War via a series of individual posters illustrated with images and documents drawn from the University of Maryland Archives and numerous historical repositories across the United States.

For more information please contact Anne Turkos, University Archivist, 301-405-9060 and aturkos@umd.edu; or Malissa Ruffner, Research Assistant, University Archives, mruffner@umd.edu.

The University of Maryland Libraries, together with the Internet Archive, has digitized over 300 Maryland State Planning documents as part of their participation in the Lyrasis Mass Digitization Collaborative.

These state documents, which span the 1930s through the 1980s, contain valuable historical data about projects and resources in Maryland. The Maryland General Assembly created the first state planning commission in 1933, to coordinate Depression-era public works programs of the National Resources Planning Board and the Works Projects Administration.  During its first ten years, the Commission developed one of the first Capital Improvements Programs in the country, a mapping system covering the state, and a program to provide medical care for the indigent.  The first report issued by the Commission was entitled Certain financial aspects of local governments in Maryland (1934), and contains an explanation of the Commission’s purpose. Other interesting titles include Report on men’s clothing industry (1936) and Report on the fertilizer industry (1938).
In 1959, the Commission became State Planning Department, and broadened its  area of concern to include the state’s water resources and the protection, development, and maintenance of Assateague Island.  Reports from this era include Maryland’s Nursing Home Plan (1959) and a Report on emotionally disturbed children and adolescents (1963). For more information on the history of state planning in Maryland, please see the Maryland Department of Planning website.

These items are all available at the Internet Archive.

If you missed The Well-Dressed Book: Cloth Book Binding in the United States 1830-1920, which was on exhibit in the Maryland Room, Hornbake Library, from February - December 2008, now is your chance to see the exhibit online!

Images and captions from the Well-Dressed Book exhibit are now available via the Digital Collections Flickr account, digitalcollectionsum.

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From the description: Books as physical objects are significant reminders of popular tastes in the material culture of the 19th Century. An evolution in these tastes and the emergence of new styles over time are hallmarks of the cloth bindings on display.

Lizzie Claire, or, The Last Penny, Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union. Binding Description: rust cloth binding with black and gold stamping Binding Decoration Description: rust linen pattern cloth stamped in black on front cover with daffodils and top and bottom runner, spine gold stamped with title Endpaper Description: brown, linen paper

“The Well-Dressed Book” pays particular attention to the binding industry in 19th-Century Baltimore, an important secondary center of book production that has not received the attention it deserves.