A Virtual Exhibit

Out of the Wilderness
 In 1667, Cecil Calvert ordered the incorporation of St. Mary's City as the first official city in Maryland. By using fashionable, urban design ideas, the Calverts may have wanted to make a statement with their new city in the "wilderness." The following decade saw the building of numerous ordinaries and dwelling houses as well as an elaborate brick church, a brick state house, and a brick jail. These brick structures were grand considering most people lived in crude wooden houses. All the functions of government - Assembly, the Courts, the Land Office—were centered in the town.

 

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Exotic artifacts from St. Mary's City
A: Tin glazed tile painted in blue depicting a soldier, 17th century
B: Glass drinking vessel with applied blue glass prunts, possibly Dutch, 17th century
C: Handleless cup with polychrome painted decoration, Turkish, late 17th-early 18th centuries
D: Tin glazed earthenware bowl with painted polychrome decoration, probably Dutch, late 17th century
E: Fragments of Venetian-style glassware, 17th century
F: German salt glazed stoneware jug fragment with medallion dated 1646