Governor Larry Hogan Celebrates Maryland Day

Governor Larry Hogan Celebrates Maryland Day

Visits Maryland State Archives, Issues Proclamation

ANNAPOLIS, MD – In observance of Maryland Day, Governor Larry Hogan today visited the Maryland State Archives and issued a statewide proclamation in recognition of March 25, 2015 as Maryland Day. The governor presented the Maryland Day proclamation to Acting State Archivist, Timothy D. Baker.

The holiday commemorates the day in 1634 when English settlers from the Ark and the Dove landed at St. Clements Island, in what is now St. Mary's County. The formal observance of Maryland Day began in schools in 1903 and was named a legal holiday by the Maryland General Assembly in 1916.

“This day commemorates the 381st anniversary of settlers landing on Maryland soil,” said Governor Hogan. “Today, I am reminded of those brave first Marylanders, who came to this land seeking freedom and opportunity when the Ark and the Dove landed at St. Clements Island. While the challenges facing us today are different, I know that the courage and spirit of Marylanders is the same.”

As part of Maryland Day, Governor Hogan visited the Maryland State Archives and viewed historic records, representing Maryland’s four centuries of history including:

• A Relation of the Successfull Beginning of the Lord Baltemore's Plantation in Mary-land – volume of the original account by Father White of the arrival of the Ark and the Dove to St. Clements Island in 1634 and the original settlement of the Maryland Colony.
• Documentation identifying enlisted men who comprise the “Maryland 400” – currently being studied as part of an effort to identify the soldiers from Maryland who defended Long Island in Battle of Long Island during the Revolutionary War.
• Birth record for Frederick Douglass, contained in a slave ledger of 1818.
• Mace from Constitutional Convention of 1967; the ceremonial mace used during Maryland's last constitutional convention.