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Quote of the Day

The way things were in days gone by on the Delmarva Peninsual–theEastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and Delaware.

Fashions in Chestertown, Maryland in the Mid-1700s
Quote of the Day, Mid-1700s: “Foppery, Idleness & Dissipation are Striding Briskly On” in Chestertown, Md. Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

Quote of the Day, Mid-1700s: “Foppery, Idleness & Dissipation are Striding Briskly On” in Chestertown, Md.

In his book Rivers of the Eastern Shore, the writer Hulbert Footner travels up this waterway, down that one, and then another, reporting on what he sees and discussing the history and culture of the towns he comes upon. Here is a little bit of what he had to say while sailing up the Chester River, on the Upper Eastern Shore of Maryland, about Chestertown…
November 3, 2019
The New Hoopers Island Bridge
QUOTE OF THE DAY: A ‘Monument to Man’s Stupidity’ at the Hooper’s Island Bridge From the BooksQuote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A ‘Monument to Man’s Stupidity’ at the Hooper’s Island Bridge

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva is a bonus section that comes at the end of a road trip chock full of backroads adventuring through remote South Dorchester County, Md. and out to remote Taylors Island and Hoopers Island. The story of how the modern Hoopers Island bridge came into existence is a tale of politics and bureaucracy.…
September 4, 2019
The Big Quarterly in Wilmington, Delaware
QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1930s: ‘The Big Quarterly is a day of joy, gladness, and freedom’ From the BooksQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1930s: ‘The Big Quarterly is a day of joy, gladness, and freedom’

This book excerpt below is from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. It comes from a chapter that has you strolling alongside the pretty and historic Christina River as it runs through downtown Wilmington, Del. It tells the story behind The "August Quarterly," a celebration of African-American culture that dates clear back to the early 1800s. The centerpiece of Tubman-Garrett…
August 21, 2019
Featured Photo for John Fletcher Hurst of Dorchester County, Maryland
WORDS OF DELMARVA WISDOM: “What may be the manhood and history [ahead for] a plain boy in rural life?” CharactersQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

WORDS OF DELMARVA WISDOM: “What may be the manhood and history [ahead for] a plain boy in rural life?”

Think about this question the next time you pass by a couple of kids working the water’s edge with fishing poles or crab nets. Such scenes remain quite common along the backroads of Delmarva, of course, just as they were when John Fletcher Hurst was growing up in Dorchester County, Maryland in the 1840s. Despite suffering from occasional debilitating bouts of asthma, young John loved…
February 28, 2019
Automobiles and Horses
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Ladies would not go out in their carriages” if “that horse frightening machine” was on the road … Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Ladies would not go out in their carriages” if “that horse frightening machine” was on the road …

The first automobiles to appear on the Eastern Shore of Virginia apparently caused quite a ruckus among the horse-and-carriage set. Here is an account of those early automotive days from The Eastern Shore of Virginia: 1603-1964, by Nora Miller Turman. You can find the book in area bookstores that carry an extensive collection of local titles, or here online. Some people had seen horseless carriages, called…
January 21, 2019
QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Know Nothing Election of 1855 in Onancock, Virginia Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Know Nothing Election of 1855 in Onancock, Virginia

Election day is coming up on Tuesday, and folks seem to be pretty excited and upset on both sides of the aisle. It was like that back during the Know Nothing election of 1855, too. John Sergeant Wise was a child then, living along Onancock Creek on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He would have been 11 or 12 during that gubernatorial election campaign, which…
October 28, 2018
QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1922: “Mainland folk have been prone to think their kinsmen on the islands of the Eastern Shore a bit barbaric …” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1922: “Mainland folk have been prone to think their kinsmen on the islands of the Eastern Shore a bit barbaric …”

In 1922, Edward Noble Vallandigham wrote a book full of interesting essays about the towns, churches, and people of the Delmarva peninsula. Delaware and the Eastern Shore has a great subtitle: Some Aspects of a Peninsula Pleasant and Well Beloved. Here, Vallandigham gives his views about the people who inhabit the remote islands of the Eastern Shore.   Surnames are so few on some of the…
September 23, 2018
Cannery Poem from Defender Plant in Trappe, Maryland
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In an Old Tomato Cannery, “the Satisfication of All Our Work Done Right” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: In an Old Tomato Cannery, “the Satisfication of All Our Work Done Right”

One winter day a few years back I drove out to St. Michaels, Md. to hear a presentation at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum by a panel of local folks whose families were involved in various old canneries that used to be so central to the economy in the mid-Shore region--and all around the Delmarva Peninsula. One of the presenters passed around a copy of…
September 16, 2018
Tolchester Beach and Steamship
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Traveling to Tolchester Beach in 1879 Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Traveling to Tolchester Beach in 1879

In 1879, a Baltimore company called A.P. Lloyd worked up a travel guide for boaters and travelers called The Chesapeake Illustrated. Below is what they had to say about one famous old-time destination, Tolchester Beach in Kent County, Maryland. And below that are some photos of how things looked at Tolchester back in the day. TOLCHESTER BEACH, THE NEAREST and probably the most popular of all the…
August 19, 2018
Office Workplace Illustration from the 1860s
QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1852: “Each Member of the Clerical Staff Must Bring 4 Pounds of Coal Each Day.” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY, 1852: “Each Member of the Clerical Staff Must Bring 4 Pounds of Coal Each Day.”

Everyone knows workplace conditions were abysmal in times gone by, but it's still eye-opening to consider just how different things were. Consider this old poster, which I saw on a visit to the Furnacetown Historic Site, an old bog-iron-making operation, near Snow Hill, Md. I don't believe that these rules were actually in place at Furnacetown, as this same poster is on display in other…
August 18, 2018