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Kent County (Del.) Archives | Secrets of the Eastern Shore

Event of the MonthGood Times & Fun Events

Event of the Month, May 2019: Bug & Bud Festival

The back story on the Bug & Bud Festival is pretty darn cute. Back in the 1970s, local second graders in Miss Molly Brown Rust’s classroom at LuLu Ross Elementary School petitioned the state legislature to declare the six-legged Coccinellidae to be the official insect of Delaware. The success of that drive is the reason so many people in Milford (and their dogs) don ladybug…
April 28, 2019
Tubman Travels

TUBMAN TRAVELS: How the Other ‘Moses’ Kept the Dogs of Slavery at Bay

The story of Moses Viney that follows is excerpted from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva, a book by Secrets of the Eastern Shore that tells stories of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and many other men and women whose journeys in slavery and out of bondage went through the Eastern Shore and Delaware. Moses Viney had a pretty fun go of it for…
March 27, 2018
Destinations

Spence’s Bazaar: Visiting a Delaware Classic

    Delmarva traditions can be funny things sometimes. Take Spence’s Bazaar in Dover, for example. When I approached the sprawling old marketplace for the first time recently, it had the look of a joint that hadn’t changed one iota since the day it opened eightysome ago. The flea market outside was old school, with table upon table upon table set under sweet shade trees.…
October 10, 2017
Way Back Machine

DELMARVA CLASSIC: The Sweet Strawberry Boom of Days Gone By

The story behind the variety of strawberry we enjoy nowadays is a global affair that stretches across two centuries and three continents. Way back in the 1500s, some French explorer noticed that the wild strawberries of Virginia had bigger fruits and brighter color than their European counterparts. He brought some back to Europe and farmers started playing around with them. But it wasn’t until two…
May 16, 2017
Tubman TravelsWay Back Machine

“TUBMAN TRAVELS” SAMPLER: The Miraculous Escape of the Dover Eight

The story of the Dover Eight that follows is excerpted from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva, a book by Secrets of the Eastern Shore that tells stories of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and many other men and women whose journeys in slavery and out of bondage went through the Eastern Shore and Delaware. BIG PICTURE: The Pressure Cooker of 1857 The lush…
March 1, 2017
CharactersWay Back Machine

Harrington Character of the Day: The Master Whittler of Delaware

This piece about Jehu Camper, the master whittler of Delaware, is a free excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. t's from a Road Trip that visits a trio of interesting little museums in Dover, including one that features works by Mr. Camper. Here goes: Over the course of a long life stretching across 91 years, Jehu Camper jumped from this to…
December 5, 2016
Road Trips

Downtown Milford: A River Runs Through It

  The people of Milford seem to be one determined bunch. Consider, for example, the Riverwalk project. A clean and sweet piece of urban design, it weaves up, down, hither, and yon along the banks of the Mispillion River as it winds through downtown Milford and beyond, stretching from pretty Silver Lake on one end to the start of a nature walk on Goat Island…
June 8, 2016
Road Trips

The Dover Museums Are Full of Inspiring Tales about Old-Fashioned American Ingenuity

  When Eldridge Reeves Johnson graduated from Dover Academy in 1882, the school’s director gave him some blunt advice: “You are too god damned dumb to go to college. Go and learn a trade." Soon thereafter, Johnson landed an apprenticeship at a machine shop. Then, after a few years of working for other people, he hung up a shingle of his own at the Eldridge…
March 4, 2015