Endowment for Education, Research and Preservation

FAIN: CZ-50062-04

Shady Side Rural Heritage Society (Shady Side, MD 20764-9713)
Janet Harris Surrett (Project Director: June 2003 to December 2006)

Endowment for a professional curator to research local history, develop humanities programs, and maintain collections for the society's Captain Salem Avery House Museum.

The Shady Side Rural Heritage Society seeks a $100,000 NEH Special Initiative for Local History Challenge Grant to combine with a $100,000 match to establish an endowment fund to be used for humanities programming in local history. The projected annual income from the endowment will support the hiring of a professional curator for the Society's Captain Salem Avery House Museum. The curator will research the history of the Museum site when it was the National Masonic Fishing and Country Club, owned by a group of Jewish masons to provide them and their families access to the Chesapeake Bay's recreational pleasures. The curator will then develop high-quality interpretive humanities programming and exhibitions to share this story with local and regional audiences. Additionally, the curator will direct the management of the Society's artifact and library collections and direct continued research into the Captain Avery period and the history of the surrounding community. These activities will transform the Society's humanities programs by deepening the interpretation of the Museum site and sharing the hitherto untold story of a minority group circumventing the discrimination of its time to gain access to the Bay and its pleasures. Through the exploration of this story, the Society's programs will appeal to a broader, more diverse audience.