Historic Sotterley Events

Thursday March 26 7:30pm - 9:00pm EDT

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Daugherty-Palmer Commons, 47720 College Dr., St Mary's City, MD, 20686, United States

Partner Event - Historically Speaking: George Plater: St. Mary's Forgotten Patriot

March 26, 2026 – David Brown, adjunct professor, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University With over thirty-three years as a Foreign Service Officer, David Brown unfolds the story of this largely unknown patriot. George Plater was ......More

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Daugherty-Palmer Commons, 47720 College Dr., St Mary's City, MD, 20686, United States

Saturday March 28 10:00am - 12:00pm EDT

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Daffodil Planting Volunteer Opportunity

March 28, 2026 – Calling all volunteers! We’re looking for help transplanting some daffodils from where the Homestead House originally stood to its new location on Historic Sotterley’s property and our Sacred Space. The daffodils are on a neighboring property, so you wi......More

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Monday March 30 through April 3

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Spring Break Activities

Historic Sotterley, Southern Maryland Folklife Center, St. Mary’s County Public Library, and author Nocola Williams are partnering for a week of low-cost activities during Spring Break to keep kids active and engaged in learning while having fun on their days off. Each day is a different activity for your family to enjoy. Explore how early Marylanders used the natural resources available to them to survive and thrive. Registration is required for each day’s activity. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are $5 per attendee per day. Monday is free thanks to St. Mary’s County Public Library and a generous donation from an anonymous donor. All activities take place from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm each day. Please note: Parents are required to purchase a ticket and stay with their children throughout the duration of the event. Activities are recommended for ages 3 and up. SOLD OUT Monday – Pollinator Party!Kick off the week with a celebration of pollinators! Children will meet a local author and beekeeper for a reading of Bugzee and the Bees, a story that introduces young readers to the important role pollinators play in our environment. After the story, students will rotate through hands-on learning stations. Campers will explore how pollination works, discover how bees see the world, practice the famous waggle dance, and plant pollinator-friendly seeds to take home. Along the way, they’ll learn why pollinators are so important to Southern Maryland’s ecosystems and how even kids can help protect them. Join local author and educator, Nocola Williams, the team from the St. Mary’s County Mobile Library, and educator Dorothy Birch for a fun filled day of exploration and hands-on learning opportunities. Tuesday – Wild Food, Wild Fiber, Wild Medicine – Register Here!We will explore the woods and fields of Historic Sotterley, learning to identify the plants and fungi that were used by Native, colonist, and enslaved peoples as food, fiber, and medicine! Wednesday – Gardening for Good Health – Register Here! We will explore, pot up, and take home the plants that the women of olden times grew in their gardens and used as medicine for their families! Thursday – A Wild Year in Maryland – Register Here!We will create a calendar of natural happenings, month by month, in this part of Maryland, when early people could harvest wild plants and catch wild animals, how they knew when to plant various seeds, and all of the secret cues that nature gives us all year! Friday – Dyeing from Nature – Register Here!We will use plants and other natural items to dye fabric the way people used to before commercial fabric dye was available they dyed clothes, but we’re dyeing bandanas to take home and keep!

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Saturday April 11 10:00am - 12:30pm EDT

Lexington Park Library, 71677 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Blvd, Lexington Park, 20653, United States

Partner Event—Front Porch Stories @ Lexington Park Library

Registration not required, but you can register HERE for a reminder email. An interactive training program rooted in the tradition of gathering stories in informal, welcoming spaces. Front Porch Stories invites you to learn the fundamentals of ethnographic research a......More

Lexington Park Library, 71677 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Blvd, Lexington Park, 20653, United States

Saturday April 18 All Day

Leonardtown Public Library, 23630 Hayden Farm Ln, Leonardtown, MD, 20650, United States

St. Mary's County History Day

April 18, 2026 – St. Mary’s County History Day is a local contest affiliated with Maryland History Day and National History Day. It is a district-level contest for middle and high school students to do in-depth research and create unique projects about each year’s theme......More

Leonardtown Public Library, 23630 Hayden Farm Ln, Leonardtown, MD, 20650, United States

Wednesday April 22 7:00pm - 8:30pm EDT

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Sotterley Presents: People & Perspectives with Michael Kent

April 22, 2026 – When the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808, other methods were tried to fill the labor void in the South. Border States like Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky began to breed slaves from the enslaved people they already owned. One such enslaved person was Jacob Broom who was owned by the Chew family from Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County. When Jacob was interviewed by a newspaper in 1890, he recalled fathering 375 children. Michael Kent joins us to discuss his book “Jacob’s Children: Black History Hidden in Plain Sight,” which discusses the horror of breeding and speculates on the plight of the children. This is a FREE hybrid event. Registration is required.All participants are welcome to join us to meet the speaker at the pre-reception at 6:30 pm with light refreshments. Register Here to Attend In-PersonRegister Here to Attend Virtually Michael Kent, born in Calvert County in 1957, grew up on his family’s tobacco farm before earning degrees from the University of Maryland in College Park and Baltimore. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserves’ JAG Corps and worked as an Assistant State’s Attorney in both Baltimore and Prince George’s Counties. His second career emerged from a passion for preserving history: beginning with his own family’s oral traditions, he expanded his research to document the full scope of Black history in Calvert County. This work culminated in his book Mulatto: The Black History of Calvert County, now used in local public schools and widely available in libraries and online. He continues to share this history through presentations across the state. Kent’s contributions have earned significant recognition, including the 2023 Library Foundation Award, the 2023 Republican Man of the Year Award, and an NAACP leadership award, along with a nomination for the Maryland Council for Social Studies’ 2024 Professional of the Year. He has served on the Maryland Commission for African American History and Culture under Governors O’Malley and Hogan and currently sits on the Calvert County Historic District Preservation Commission. A life member and former president of the Calvert County NAACP, Kent remains deeply engaged in preserving and interpreting the region’s history. If you’d like, I can also shape this into a brief bio suitable for a program or website.

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Wednesday May 20 7:00pm - 8:30pm EDT

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

Sotterley Presents: People & Perspectives with Edna Cummings

May 20, 2026 – Retired Army Colonel Edna W. Cummings joins us to talk about her life and memoir, “A Soldier’s Life,” which chronicles her unlikely but successful path to leadership in the army and after retirement. The memoir also tells the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the Six Triple Eight, a trailblazing African American World War II Women’s Army Corps, and the grassroots campaign Cummings led to honor them. She will have a limited number of copies of her book available for purchase and signing for in-person attendees. This is a FREE hybrid event. Registration is required.All participants are welcome to join us to meet the speaker at the pre-reception at 6:30 pm with light refreshments. Register Here to Attend In-PersonRegister Here to Attend Virtually A Fayetteville, NC, native and Army brat, Col. Edna Cummings is a distinguished alumnus of Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, and the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program whose 25-year Army career included influential assignments at Georgetown University, the Pentagon, and NORAD/USNORTHCOM. After retiring, she continued her leadership in homeland security and information technology roles and now serves as Vice President of Windsor Group, LLC and an Army Reserve Ambassador for Maryland. A dedicated advocate for honoring the all-Black WWII Women’s Army Corps unit known as the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, she played a pivotal role in securing the Six Triple Eight Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021 and co-produced two documentaries highlighting their legacy. Col. Cummings holds advanced degrees from Troy State University and the U.S. Army War College and has earned numerous prestigious honors, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, induction into the Army Women’s Foundation Hall of Fame, the NAACP’s Jesse Brown Distinguished Leadership Award, and recognition as a 2023 Trailblazer by the Center for Women Veterans. Her memoir, A Soldier’s Life: A Black Woman’s Rise from Army Brat to Six Triple Eight Champion, was released by the University of Virginia Press in 2025. Her continued work, leadership, and advocacy have made her a nationally recognized changemaker and a powerful voice in preserving military and African American history.

Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD, 20636, United States

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Partner Event - Historically Speaking: George Plater: St. Mary's Forgotten Patriot

Daffodil Planting Volunteer Opportunity

Spring Break Activities

Partner Event—Front Porch Stories @ Lexington Park Library

St. Mary's County History Day

Sotterley Presents: People & Perspectives with Michael Kent

Sotterley Presents: People & Perspectives with Edna Cummings

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Historic Sotterley

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