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Your Maryland : little-known histories from the shores of the Chesapeake to the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains / Ric Cottom ; illustrations by Annie Howe.

UMD F 181.6 .C68 2017

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Format:: Book
Author/Creator:: Cottom, Ric, 1946- author.
Language:: English
Subjects (All):: Maryland--History--Anecdotes.; Maryland.; Maryland--History, Local--Anecdotes.; Maryland--Biography--Anecdotes.
Genre:: collective biographies.; Biographies.; Anecdotes.; History.; Local history.
Physical Description:: xvii, 234 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Place of Publication:: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
Summary:: "'Good evening, I'm Ric Cottom' is the well-recognized introduction to Your Maryland on WYPR. When, in 2001, Ric signed on to deliver a weekly segment on Maryland history during All Things Considered on WYPR, his was the first short-form radio spot the station featured. Ric narrates little-known human interest stories from any point in Maryland's past, from the early colonial period through the start of the twentieth century. He discovered many of the stories during his time as the director of the Maryland Historical Society, researching factual histories that he could deliver in a storytelling format. The genre is unique, blending narrative or literary nonfiction with regional history. The mission behind Ric's segment is to entertain his audience while sparking their interest in history. Ric has an unusual talent for discovering stories and weaving them into a fascinating narrative. All scenes from Maryland history are fitting for 'Your Maryland.' Ric carefully selects stories that he can convey with some comedy. Even those stories with heavier subject matter, as in the short biography of gunsmith and executioner John Dandy, are conveyed with some dark humor and levity. The volume here collects approximately half of all of the 'Your Maryland' stories Ric has composed over the years and presents them in chronological format. It is the type of book that people might read a little bit at a time, perhaps out of order, and not necessarily cover-to-cover. It's designed as a little book for a very broad audience of Marylanders"--Provided by publisher.
Contents:: Voyage of Discovery; A much-disliked Captain John Smith explores the Chesapeake; Avalon; George Calvert's first attempt at colonization; The Murderous Career of John Dandy; An evil but indispensable gunsmith in St. Mary's City; Witchcraft in Maryland; This wasn't Massachusetts, but...; The Monster; Thomas Cresap terrorizes Pennsylvania and pronounces Philadelphia "one of the Prettyest Towns in Maryland"; The Blood-Red Flag; Eighteenth-century Chesapeake pirates were all too human; The Summer of '76; Democracy, and the lack of it, at the start of the American Revolution; The Revolutionary; Charles Willson Peale at Valley Forge; Privateers; Chesapeake sailors escape a British prison and join John Paul Jones aboard the Bonhommc Richard; The Mermaid; A generous British captain encounters a nest of American "pirates"; Mr. Smiths Ball; Baltimore belle Elizabeth Patterson scandalizes Washington society; The Most Hated Man in Maryland; Alexander Contee Hanson provokes the mob in 1812; The Scourge of the Chesapeake; Admiral George Cockburn arrives in the Chesapeake; A Frolic with the Yankees; An arrogant British aristocrat meets the Kent County militia; The Cool Hand and the Hothead; Robert Ross burns Washington and turns for Baltimore; Defenders; The bombardment of Fort McHenry; The Chasseur; An American privateer announces a blockade of Great Britain; The Battle of the Ice Mound; The last fight of the War of 1812; Jacob Gruber; Roger B. Taney's antislavery background; The Bear; Hunter Meshach Browning in Western Maryland; The Slave Breaker; An incident from the life of Frederick Douglass; Moses; Harriet Tubman; Gidu; Freed African Americans on the west coast of Africa encounter native superstition; The Vineyard Tournament; The origins of Maryland's state sport; The Rose of Westminster; Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore; Christiana; Fugitive slaves defend themselves in southern Pennsylvania; John Brown; The abolitionist finds immortality; April 19, 1861; The Pratt Street Riot; Clara's Boys; Clara Barton during the first days of the Civil War; Lost Sons; George Alfred Townsend encounters a bereaved mother looking for her boys; Barbara Frietschie; The story behind the poem; The Despot's Heel; Who were those men on Federal Hill?; The Glorious Fourth ... 1863; In Baltimore on an historic day; The Orator; The prelude to the Gettysburg Address; Color Guard; The heroism of "a regiment of slaves"; The Music of Point Lookout; A poet brings solace amid the misery at Point Lookout prison camp; Hetty Cary; A beautiful woman, a battle flag, and the state song; The Great Patapsco Flood of 1868; Destruction and heroism on the Patapsco River; Ghosts of Western Maryland; Light-hearted stories of unnatural things; Early Racing at Pimlico; How the Preakness began; Preakness; The legacy of a great horse; The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Part I; The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Part II; Gus Rice; The Oyster Wars on the Chesapeake; The Maestro; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky performs in Baltimore; The Heiress and the Medical School; Mary Elizabeth Garrett refuses to take "no" for an answer; The Pennant; The halcyon years of the Baltimore Orioles, 1894-1896; The Evil Empire; Good vs. Evil in 1897; Mouse; A mischievous musical genius rises out of Baltimore; Goliath; The equine hero of the Great Baltimore Fire; The Jungle; Upton Sinclair and the meatpacking industry; The Explorer; Matthew Henson at the North Pole; The Aviator; A devil-may-care pilot thrills Baltimore; Diamond Jim; The wages of excess; The Babe; A product of St. Mary's Industrial School goes to spring training; Titanic; A Baltimore story of the great tragedy-with a happy ending; The Great Bathtub Hoax; H. L. Mencken has a bit of fun with a gullible nation; The Last Man; Henry Gunther, of Highlandtown, becomes the "last man" to die in World War I; Maryland, the Free State; Prohibition? Not here...; Leander; A Navy crew goes to the Olympics; The Schneider Cup Race of 1915; The golden age of airplane racing comes to Bay Shore Park; Cab and Thurgood; Two high-school kids in segregated Baltimore; Wallis; Young, poor, Wallis Warfield gets her start; Hatrack; H. L. Mencken and the Boston Watch and Ward Society; The Crack-up; Scott and Zelda; King Kong; The Great Ape's connection to Catonsville; Omaha Beach; The Twenty-Ninth Division at Normandy; Canajoharie at the Gut; A war story; Tunnel Joe; A resourceful and irrepressible prisoner digs his way out of the state penitentiary; Johnny U.; How the greatest quarterback in football history came to the Baltimore Colts; The Greatest Football Game Ever Played; The 1958 NFL championship game; Silent Spring; The courage of Rachel Carson.
Notes:: Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:: 9781421424057; 1421424053
OCLC:: 974991963
Publisher Number:: 40027506320

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Your Maryland : little-known histories from the shores of the Chesapeake to the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains / Ric Cottom ; illustrations by Annie Howe.

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