Preservation Maryland

Online Old Line State Summit Session

How has COVID-19 impacted research methods? This webinar will explore this question with a group of four anthropologists and historians to provide insight into their research on the Underground Railroad in 19th century Maryland. Speakers will discuss the ways Covid-19 restrictions have changed their research process, and provide an overview of the skills, methods, and research facilities they found most useful for their research. This session speakers are fellows for the 400 Years of African American History Fellowship, funded by the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism and the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland program at the Maryland State Archives. This fellowship aims to nominate Maryland historic sites associated with the Underground Railroad for the Network to Freedom program run by the National Park Service.

Preservation Maryland Waxter Intern Matthew LaRoche has been awarded one of four Underground Railroad research fellowships from the Maryland Office of Tourism and the Maryland State Archives funded by the National Park Service’s 400 Years of African American History Commission.

Based on the interest in our previous webinar about authentic storytelling along the Underground Railroad, Preservation Maryland worked with our partners to host a free webinar specifically about Underground Railroad research in Maryland and taking the needed steps to submit an application to the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program.

Preservation Maryland received a $20,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation through the Bartus Trew Providence Grant program to bring a team of specialists from the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, a program of the National Park Service, to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to conduct architectural scans of historic African American sites.