History on the Eastern Shore — Murals
Depicting local history, a number of public murals across Maryland’s Eastern Shore celebrate the famous — Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Gloria Richardson — as well as the ordinary folks with unsung lives, the enslaved people, hunters, shipwrights, explorers, teamsters, watermen, soldiers, nurses and doctors, bakers, athletes, barbers, farmers, schoolkids, ministers, teachers, and undertakers. All but one of these murals are in the Easton-Cambridge-Salisbury area.
Location: Rte. 50 and Maryland Ave.
Harriet Tubman — apotheosis of courage, hard work, perseverance, and loyalty to her family and community — is at the center. “Everything radiates out from her, from her heart and center,” says muralist Michael Rosato. To Tubman’s right is Gloria Richardson Dandridge, a key figure in the 1960s civil rights movement in Cambridge and Dorchester County. Also shown are small business owners and everyday people whose contributions may not be as well-known but resonate to this day: a bricklayer, a barber, a baker, a farmer, a high school athlete. Included as well are a Tuskegee airman; Dr. J. Edwin Fassett; Nurse Maxine Magee, one of the first African American public health nurses in the country; and Ella Fitzgerald, one of many popular musicians who performed on Pine Street, Cambridge’s Black commercial strip.
(Adapted from brochure about Cambridge. Photos by the author.)
Cambridge (Dorchester) — Harriet Tubman
Artist: Michael Rosato
Location: Rear of Museum at 424 Race St.
In this viscerally thrilling portrait, Harriet Tubman urgently beckons the viewer to join her. Who would say no? Tubman was born into slavery around 1820, as Araminta Ross, just west of Cambridge near the waterside village of Tobacco Stick (renamed Madison). In 1849, “Minty” escaped to Pennsylvania with two of her brothers. She returned to Dorchester and Talbot counties at least 13 times to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass and insurrectionist John Brown knew and respected her.
*****
Vienna (Dorchester) — Five Historic Snapshots
Artist: Michael Rosato
Location: 104 Race St.
The mural records five periods in Vienna’s history: Indigenous people, Europeans’ early contact with Native Americans, the colonial period, the Civil War period, and early in the 20th Century. Founded in 1706, for most of its history Vienna was situated directly on the Shore’s principal highway, linking Cambridge, Salisbury, Ocean City, and points west and south. The Rte. 50 bridge now crossing the Nanticoke River just north of Vienna has turned the village into a quiet backwater.
“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
—David McCullough
*****
East New Market (Dorchester) — Frederick Douglass
Artist: Michael Rosato
Location: Main St. and Railroad Ave. (Rte. 14)
Carrying suitcase and walking stick, a mature, well-dressed, and top-hatted Frederick Douglass has just alighted from a train in an unknown town. He is by himself, and no one acknowledges the great man’s presence. Two children play in the foreground and several well-dressed Whites converse to his left. Behind him are streetcar tracks, a man pushing a wheelbarrow, and a wagon full of dried tobacco leaves.
*****
Port Deposit (Cecil) — Ships on the Susquehanna
Artist: Unknown
Location: Post Office on S. Main
Residents of Creswell’s Ferry, now Port Deposit on the Susquehanna River in Cecil County, were apprehensive on May 3, 1813. Smoke rising across the river meant British raiders might strike here, too. Perhaps due to its well-defended battery, Port Deposit was spared. Or, as legend has it, enemy raiders heard the defenders could “shoot the eye out of a crow upon the wing.”
“I am what time, circumstance, history have made of me,
certainly, but I am also, much more than that.
So are we all.” —James Baldwin
*****
Easton (Talbot) — Frederick Douglass
Artist: Michael Rosato
Location: Bike path between Dover and South Sts.
To honor their ancestor, descendants of Frederick Douglass commissioned and installed this allegorical mural in Easton’s historic African American Hill Community. The work features a timeline of Douglass and his wife, Anna Murray Douglass, and chronicles Douglass as a man and advocate for human rights, highlighting his emphasis on education, his work in a Baltimore shipyard, and his newspaper, the North Star. The mural illustrates Douglass’ lasting contributions to the progress of African Americans from his enslavement in Talbot County, to Lincoln’s White House, his journalism and oratory, and his family’s proud history of military service.
*****
Salisbury (Wicomico) — Five African Americans
Artist: Paul Boyd
Location: N. Salisbury Blvd (Rte. 13) and E. Church
This large mural depicts five prominent figures from the Salisbury area in Wicomico County: (l-r) Sgt. William Butler, a World War I recipient of the American Distinguished Service Cross and French Croix de Guerre; Charles P. Chipman, educator and principal of Salisbury Industrial High School; Elaine Brown, a beloved teacher at Salisbury High School; James Stewart, undertaker for Salisbury’s African American community; and Dr. G. Herbert Sembly, who practiced medicine in Salisbury for over 60 years.
(While you’re in Salisbury, check out another Black history mural, at the VFW Post on Rte. 50.)
“A people without the knowledge of their history,
origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.”
—Marcus Garvey
*****
Tilghman (Talbot) — Tilghman Waterfront
Artist: Michael Rosato
Location: On Tilghman Island Rd. between Oyster Shell and Chicken Point Rds.
The Tilghman Packing Co. opened in 1897 in the middle of the oystering boom. At its peak in the 1950s, the company was Talbot County’s largest employer, with over 600 workers. In a typical season, they shucked 100,000 gallons of oysters and processed more than 12 million pounds of fish. “TPC” closed in 1975.
*****
Federalsburg (Caroline) — Four Installations
Artist: Unknown
Location: Town Hall, N. Main and Morris Sts.
Neither the Town office nor the Town historical society can identify the artist, said, however, to be “not from Federalsburg.” Nor could anyone specify what’s depicted, other than “they represent parts of the town’s history.” Clearly, the four panels report six important churches, the area’s canning industry, shipbuilding and commerce on Marshyhope Creek, and the local railroad. “You could take the train to Cambridge to shop.”
*****
As a community organizer, journalist, administrator, project planner/manager, and consultant, Gren Whitman has led neighborhood, umbrella, public interest, and political committees and groups, and worked for civil rights and anti-war organizations.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
