Photographs (MD)

Mountain Lake Park, a town of unique character in Garrett County, Maryland, is a fine example of a Victorian resort that grew out of two American activities of the nineteenth century, the Methodist Camp Meeting which was aimed at spiritual renewal and a Chautauqua, an educational and recreational assembly with programs that included lectures and concerts modeled after the original summer schools inaugurated at Chautauqua, New York. 

Garrett County, Maryland is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. The county was split off from Allegany County in 1872, This collection of Albert Feldstein's historic postcards shows the beauty and diversity of Garrett County from the 1910s to the 1960s, with streets and buildings some familar and some completely changed. 

A 1937 photograph of Hagerstown, looking north from the steeple of St. John's Lutheran Church, shows many familar buildings and some replaced many years ago. Heidwohl Studio created this panoramic image using a cirkut camera. 

These Heidwohl cirkuts included church groups, fire and police departments, sports teams, school classes, clubs and fraternal organizations, college classes at Shepherd College, landscapes including views across the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown, as well as the penal farm and the water treatment plant. The Cirkut camera captured a panoramic image by pivoting horizontally (along a vertical axis), while a roll of film moved across the film plane.

Melvin "Mel" Collins was passionate about the history of Western Maryland, in particular the architectural history, and was a photographer and collector. This collection covers the bridges of Allegany County, Maryland, both Mel's photographs and older historical photographs. 

Photographs of the National Road from Town Hill in Allegany County to the Pennsylvania Line north of Grantsville, taken in 1900 to 1915,  show the need for repair of this road. Irvin Gilbert was a Frostburg photographer whose work was published in Good Roads and the Annual Report of the Maryland State Roads Commission 

Marcia Swain, Washington County resident, shared family photographs of Washington and Allegany Counties. The photos include the Huffer family of Boonsboro and the Swain-Poffenberger families of Sharpsburg, The collection includes photos of other South County events and families.

Recently added were items from Madge Poffenberger Carter, a local educator, who died in 1982.

Mary Miller Strauss was born in Accident, Maryland and taught in the elementary schools of the Garrett County Public School system for 33 years. After her retirement in 1976, she continued as a resource teacher in many local county schools. She was well known throughout the state as a very knowledgeable local and Garrett County historian. She wrote Flowery Vale, a history of Accident, Maryland. This book brought alive her love for her birthplace and the people from the time of the first settlers, the James Drane Family, to the present.

American soldiers of the First World War collected postcards in the US as they traveled to training camps and then later in France. The cards were of three types - photographic views of landscapes or buildings; posed views of army life; and comical drawings of life in the army. Most of the cards were not sent through the mail - they were brought back from France or elsewhere and became part of the war memories of family members. 

Robert Moses Grove, known in baseball circles as Lefty Grove, was born in Lonaconing, Allegany County, Maryland in 1900. He went on to win the first Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy awarded to an American League player by the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1931 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.