For International Music day on October 1, We’re sharing this presentation from the 2021 Montgomery County History conference with Jake Blount. This presentation goes in-depth in describing the fiddle and banjo traditions of the Montgomery County area throughout history, with special focus on the music of Will Adams, a Black fiddler from Kensington, Maryland. Topics […]

For National Archives Month, we’re highlighting this talk with Rachel Frazier, Searchroom Coordinator at the Maryland State Archives, as we explore the spookier side of archives. Get into the Halloween spirit with strange records and spooky stories from the stacks of the Maryland State Archives, covering Montgomery County and beyond. Rewind available October 16-22. 

Register HereCanavest (located on Heater’s Island) was the last permanent village of the Piscataway Indians in Maryland. Various aspects of the site—which was occupied from 1699 to at least 1712—are vividly described in a series of colonial documents from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. These archival records are paired with analysis of archeological remains to provide […]

With Susan Soderberg and Eileen McGuckianOn November 1, 1864, Maryland became the first state below the Mason-Dixon Line to free slaves within its boundaries by popular vote. On the 156th anniversary of Emancipation in the Old Line State, two chroniclers of Montgomery County history will describe local experiences with slavery, war, emancipation, and its aftermath.Rewind […]

Join Montgomery History on November 4, 2023 for the 18th edition of the ever-popular Montgomery County History Conference. We’re again partnering with Montgomery College and will be holding it in-person, for the first time since 2020, on their Rockville campus. As always, the conference will offer myriad opportunities to engage with local history, including a […]

Historian Anthony Cohen will discuss his findings for Gaithersburg’s Black History Project. He will focus on the period after Gaithersburg was incorporated in 1878 as well as the emergence of African American settlements, businesses, and important figures. This event is part of the Gaithersburg History Project, and it’s sure to be an enlightening and thought-provoking […]

With Kacy Rohn For 25 years, Montgomery County’s Rustic Roads Program has protected the historic and scenic roadways that reflect the county’s agricultural character and rural origins. An update to the Rustic Roads Functional Master Plan is currently in progress. This talk, originally presented during the 2022 Montgomery County History Conference, will outline the work underway […]

History Conversations REWIND Since the late 1970s, the punk rock subculture has thrived in Montgomery County. The time between the opening (1977) and closing (2002) dates of Yesterday & Today Records—a punk scene hub that both inspired and employed countless punks—was a profoundly active time for punk music and culture in Montgomery County. This presentation by […]

with Jeanne Gartner, Barry Gartner, and Sarah HedlundJoin the creators of Montgomery History’s upcoming online exhibit, “Montgomery County, Then and Now: Photography of Lewis Reed and Barry Gartner” as they discuss the fascinating process of recreating historical photographs. In the early 1900s, photographer Lewis Reed captured hundreds of images throughout Montgomery County, featuring iconic structures, […]

with Hannah LaneThe Maryland State Colonization Society was a former auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS) that recruited free and manumitted black Marylanders to settle in Liberia. From 1832 to 1861, the Maryland State Colonization Society was largely supported by appropriations from the Maryland General Assembly. Join Hannah Lane, research archivist in the Legacy of […]

with Robert AmbroseFort Frederick was built during the French and Indian War to protect Maryland from attack, but it would play an active part of American history over the course of three centuries. The fort would see service in the 1750s, and again during the American War of Independence and Civil War. It would be […]

with Claudia KousoulasJust as the force and flow of ancient glaciers deposited soil and shaped hills, our decisions about property, policy, family, and food also shape the landscape. So much of what we value—a clean environment, local food, a diverse landscape, and a varied economy—comes together in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve. This talk, based on Bread & […]

with Sarah Hedlund | When eccentric Montgomery County cattle farmer and land speculator Herman Rabbitt died in 1972, part of his $2.5 million estate was found buried in milk cans on his property. The rest was part of a three-year legal battle between bickering heirs. But the story of his unlikely millions was only one […]

with Maria Day, Senior Director of Special Collections, Conservation and Library Services, Maryland State Archives | A team from the Maryland State Archives has been building partnerships with Indigenous communities in the Chesapeake region since 2019. Learn about the website, Mayis Indigenous records, where the Archives provides public access to records and information about Native Americans. Ms. […]

with Hank Levine | Ever wondered how (and why) Bethesda came to be where and what it is today? Bethesda Historical Society Secretary and Tour Chair Hank Levine will take us through how, between 1750 and 1920, a fall line, a ridge line, a turnpike, a trolley line, rail lines, the coming of the automobile, […]

Presented by Nancy Pickard, with an introduction from Ellen Prentiss Campbell | On January 13, 2021, the Secretary of the Interior designated a small cottage in Rockville, Maryland, locally known as Frieda’s Cottage, as a National Historic Landmark. It earned this remarkable national recognition for its association with Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and her significant contributions […]

Tuesday, February 6 at 2 p.m.with Dr. Kisha Davis | Through daily weekday breakfasts with her grandmother Ida Pearl Green, Dr. Kisha Davis learned stories of family and an African American community in Quince Orchard which went much deeper than the name of her school or a road named Quince Orchard. At 105 years young, Mrs. […]

New Date Tuesday, February 13 at 2 p.m.with Phil Edwards | Washington Grove is a small town in the middle of Montgomery County with a unique form of government. It was called by its first mayor, “a Town within a forest, an oasis of tranquility and a rustic jewel in the diadem of the great free state […]

with Jenny Masur | Maryland was the starting point of many unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad. Freedom seekers embarked on the perilous journey from slavery to freedom in whatever way they could. John Thompson signed onto a whaling ship. James Watkins sailed to England and became a lecturer on slavery. Hester Norman fled, was […]

Tuesday, February 27 at 2 p.m.with Paul Kreingold | In his talk on “Potomac Marble: The History of the Search for the Ideal Stone,” Paul Kreingold explores the aftermath of Washington’s 1814 destruction by the British, highlighting President Monroe and Benjamin Latrobe’s quest to rebuild the capital with symbolic and aesthetically pleasing materials. They selected Potomac […]

with Jennifer Wilcox, National Cryptology Museum Director of Education |Women played a large, but rarely told, role in WWII cryptology. College women were recruited from math departments at colleges around the country to learn cryptanalysis. Thousands of other women joining the Army and Navy were assigned to code work operating machines that broke enemy codes […]

with Hank Levine, President of the Bethesda Meeting House FoundationThursday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. | Despite being among the community’s most storied buildings, the Bethesda Meeting House -- “the church that named Bethesda” -- was vacant and deteriorating when acquired last year by the Bethesda Historical Society. Constructed in 1820 (and rebuilt in 1850 after […]

with Julianne ManginTuesday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. | What do you do when your family stories don’t add up? All Julianne Mangin had wanted to do was fact-check her mother’s cryptic stories. But when she acquired her grandmother’s patient record from the state hospital, the secrets just poured out. In her book, Secrets of the […]

With John Lustrea from The Civil War Medical Museum | Clara Jones is just one of many volunteer Civil War nurses who helped care for the sick and wounded of the Civil War. Her letters in the collection of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine offer a unique view into the life of one woman […]

with Royce Hanson and Harold Wolman | Join authors Royce Hanson and Harold Wolman as they discuss their new book, Nation’s Metropolis, which describes how the national capital region functions as a metropolitan political economy. Hanson and Wolman distinguish aspects of the Washington region that reflect its characteristics as a national capital from those common to […]

with Blyth McManus, Museum Curator C&O Canal National Historical ParkTuesday, April 9 at 2:00 p.m. | In the museum collection of the C&O Canal National Historical Park is a shop ledger from a merchant in Williamsport, MD. Tracking purchases made between 1856-1858, the ledger provides tantalizing glimpses into the everyday lives of its customers. Materials like […]

with Don Housley | This presentation focuses on the rise and fall of the milling industry in Montgomery County. The talk describes the nature and diversity of milling operations on the major stream valleys in the County, along with some archaeology done on selected mill sites. Originally aired in December of 2021.  Available April 15 - 21.

with Ralph Buglass | Tuesday, April 23 at 2:00 p.m. | The Washington Aqueduct, carrying drinking water to the nation’s capital but running mostly through Montgomery County from Great Falls, was a technological marvel when completed 160 years ago in 1864. After all that time of continuous service, it is currently undergoing a major rehabilitation. Through current […]

with Tom Farquhar | The rich soil of Montgomery County has supported a wide variety of agricultural enterprises, ranging from millennia of crop cultivation by indigenous communities, to tobacco plantations of the first colonial settlers of European descent, progressing to market farming serving growing populations in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Today the agriculture of Montgomery County […]

with Jim Johnston | Tuesday, May 14 at 2:00 p.m. | The word “slavery” brings up a mental image of the “peculiar institution” as it existed in the Deep South right before the Civil War. Slavery in the Washington area was different. It began the same – in the late 1600s, Ninian Beall’s tobacco plantation occupied the […]