THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S PROJECT
Exploring America’s Past at Historic St. Mary’s City
During the 2025-2027 administration, we will continue with the prior administration’s project of sponsoring archaeological scholarships through the Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation.
A Brief History of the Historic St. Mary’s City
Field School in Historical Archaeology
Teaching students the art of archaeology has a very long history at Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC). It is one of the earliest training programs in historical archaeology offered in the United States, beginning in 1971. In that year, the museum’s first archaeologist, Garry Wheeler Stone, in collaboration with St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM), offered a summer training session. They investigated the lawn of the rebuilt 1676 State House, and located prehistoric and colonial features as well as evidence of a buried ravine. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
The Historic St. Mary’s City Field School in Historical Archaeology has trained generations of students who now teach in colleges and universities, or work in private, state, and national museums, government agencies, cultural resource managements companies, and other businesses. HSMC Field School graduates are found throughout the United States and Canada, in England, and in other parts of the world. By Henry M. Miller, March 2017. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
The winter months are spent processing artifacts from the site and conducting detailed analysis of the findings from the prior summer season. The 2023 dig yielded a determination that a timber-framed building that HSMC has been excavating since 2020 originally served as Maryland’s first public building: a large storehouse. The storehouse was approximately 56 feet long by 21 feet wide, including a cellar likely covered by a shed roof on the building’s north end. Much of the 2023 season was spent excavating a quadrant of cellar. This work yielded some incredible finds, including fragments of European ceramics, glass trade beads, rare metallic threads, and an iron tasset (part of a set of body armor designed to protect the wearer’s thigh; read more about the tasset by clicking on the link at the end of this paragraph. For the 2024 dig season, archaeologists and students returned to where the excavations at St. Mary’s Fort began: the west bastion. In 2019, they located much of the bastion and excavated a section of the palisade wall north of the bastion. In 2024, the work was spent excavating more of the palisade that formed the north and south walls of the fort on either side of the bastion. In order to access these sections of the palisade, the dig also targeted late 17th-century features related to a home occupied during the last quarter of the century. The house itself was constructed on top of where a portion of the fort’s south palisade wall had previously stood, indicating that the fort was no longer present when the home was built. Artifacts recovered to during initial investigations of this area—wine bottles, decorative buttons, horse furniture (metal objects used to ornament horse tack), a bone bodkin top, and a personal seal made of brass—suggest a household of means. HSMC will be reconstructing the west bastion and portions of the adjacent palisade wall. This will mark the first aboveground reconstruction erected at the St. Mary’s Fort site. The reconstructed bastion will augment interpretation at the site as it will provide visitors with a clearer sense of the fort’s construction, size, and position. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/May-Newsletter-2024.pdf page 6
Excavations during the 2025 season will again be focused on the western bastion and nearby palisade walls in an effort to learn more about the fort’s architecture. St. Mary’s Fort is the site of Maryland’s founding. St. Mary’s Fort was a large, palisaded fort constructed by the first wave of European colonists who arrived in Maryland in the spring of 1634. St. Mary’s Fort represented the first major foothold of European settlement in Maryland. Its discovery and interpretation are critical to understanding the early period of indigenous-colonial relations, a period that is not well-documented historically or archaeologically. This project also offers the opportunity to reflect on the nature of historical colonialism in Maryland and its continuing effects in today’s world.
https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
Please visit the Historic St. Mary’s City website to learn more. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/
Please send donations made payable to NSSDP for the Governor General’s Project to Treasurer General:
Edgar S Hicks
1132 N Eufaula Ave
Eufaula, AL 36027-5537
Thank you in advance.
Deborah W Hicks
Governor General, 2025-2027, NSSDP
During the 2025-2027 administration, we will continue with the prior administration’s project of sponsoring archaeological scholarships through the Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation.
A Brief History of the Historic St. Mary’s City
Field School in Historical Archaeology
Teaching students the art of archaeology has a very long history at Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC). It is one of the earliest training programs in historical archaeology offered in the United States, beginning in 1971. In that year, the museum’s first archaeologist, Garry Wheeler Stone, in collaboration with St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM), offered a summer training session. They investigated the lawn of the rebuilt 1676 State House, and located prehistoric and colonial features as well as evidence of a buried ravine. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
The Historic St. Mary’s City Field School in Historical Archaeology has trained generations of students who now teach in colleges and universities, or work in private, state, and national museums, government agencies, cultural resource managements companies, and other businesses. HSMC Field School graduates are found throughout the United States and Canada, in England, and in other parts of the world. By Henry M. Miller, March 2017. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
The winter months are spent processing artifacts from the site and conducting detailed analysis of the findings from the prior summer season. The 2023 dig yielded a determination that a timber-framed building that HSMC has been excavating since 2020 originally served as Maryland’s first public building: a large storehouse. The storehouse was approximately 56 feet long by 21 feet wide, including a cellar likely covered by a shed roof on the building’s north end. Much of the 2023 season was spent excavating a quadrant of cellar. This work yielded some incredible finds, including fragments of European ceramics, glass trade beads, rare metallic threads, and an iron tasset (part of a set of body armor designed to protect the wearer’s thigh; read more about the tasset by clicking on the link at the end of this paragraph. For the 2024 dig season, archaeologists and students returned to where the excavations at St. Mary’s Fort began: the west bastion. In 2019, they located much of the bastion and excavated a section of the palisade wall north of the bastion. In 2024, the work was spent excavating more of the palisade that formed the north and south walls of the fort on either side of the bastion. In order to access these sections of the palisade, the dig also targeted late 17th-century features related to a home occupied during the last quarter of the century. The house itself was constructed on top of where a portion of the fort’s south palisade wall had previously stood, indicating that the fort was no longer present when the home was built. Artifacts recovered to during initial investigations of this area—wine bottles, decorative buttons, horse furniture (metal objects used to ornament horse tack), a bone bodkin top, and a personal seal made of brass—suggest a household of means. HSMC will be reconstructing the west bastion and portions of the adjacent palisade wall. This will mark the first aboveground reconstruction erected at the St. Mary’s Fort site. The reconstructed bastion will augment interpretation at the site as it will provide visitors with a clearer sense of the fort’s construction, size, and position. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/May-Newsletter-2024.pdf page 6
Excavations during the 2025 season will again be focused on the western bastion and nearby palisade walls in an effort to learn more about the fort’s architecture. St. Mary’s Fort is the site of Maryland’s founding. St. Mary’s Fort was a large, palisaded fort constructed by the first wave of European colonists who arrived in Maryland in the spring of 1634. St. Mary’s Fort represented the first major foothold of European settlement in Maryland. Its discovery and interpretation are critical to understanding the early period of indigenous-colonial relations, a period that is not well-documented historically or archaeologically. This project also offers the opportunity to reflect on the nature of historical colonialism in Maryland and its continuing effects in today’s world.
https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/research/field-school/
Please visit the Historic St. Mary’s City website to learn more. https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/
Please send donations made payable to NSSDP for the Governor General’s Project to Treasurer General:
Edgar S Hicks
1132 N Eufaula Ave
Eufaula, AL 36027-5537
Thank you in advance.
Deborah W Hicks
Governor General, 2025-2027, NSSDP