"I will leave no stone unturn’d to find out who keeps them from me..." Online shipment tracking has really spoiled us. Through the magic...

250 years ago, on July 4, 1771, the American colonies were only five years away from declaring their independence from England....

Several months ago, I wrote about actress Nancy Hallam (“In Praise of Artistic Genius,” September 10, 2020) and the rundown playhouse (“A...

The Maryland Gazette provides an invaluable window into what Annapolis was like 250 years ago. News articles and public letters tell us...

My last blog included a piece by John Clapham printed in the May 2, 1771 Maryland Gazette. In it, the son-in-law of Annapolis printer...

This past Monday was World Press Freedom Day, and the theme “Information as a Public Good” was just as relevant 250 years ago as it is...

Two hundred fifty years ago, Joshua Johnson was about to embark on a bold commercial venture. The Annapolis merchant placed an ad in the...

England and France engaged in military conflict with one another for 73 of the 126 years between 1689 and 1815, or almost 60% of the...

In the five months since Maryland’s official tobacco inspection system stopped functioning because of a political dispute between...

I’ve commented before about the innate delays in 18th-century reporting. Because the latest news could travel only as fast as a horse...

Some news cycles are lighter than others, and that was just as true 250 years ago as it is today. Of course, some 21st-century media work...

I’ve written before (see my November 5, 2020, November 26, 2020, and January 14, 2021 blog entries) about Governor Robert Eden’s...

William Eddis arrived in Annapolis in September 1769, three months after his patron, Governor Robert Eden. The Englishman quickly...

It would be a wonderful world if old problems simply disappeared with the start of a new year, but that’s not the real world that we...

Christmas Eve 2020 is a fitting day to look back to a Christmas poem published in the Maryland Gazette 250 years ago. The verses penned...

Two months had passed since a group of Baltimore merchants called for a meeting in Annapolis to consider whether Maryland should continue...

Maryland’s last proprietary governor, Robert Eden, was nothing if not predictable. Early in his administration, he established a pattern...

Following her husband Samuel’s death in August 1770, Anne Middleton assumed control of the family’s Annapolis tavern and ferrying...

By the autumn of 1770, serious cracks were appearing in the American colonies’ united front against unpopular British policies. More than...

Last month, I wrote about actress Nancy Hallam, who caught the eye of an Annapolis gentleman (most likely Rev. Jonathan Boucher, rector...