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40 years later: Historic Shepherdstown Museum to celebrate anniversary with opening of exhibit

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Apr 7, 2023

Historic Shepherdstown Museum is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its opening with the installation of a new exhibit, “Great Dreams: Maps of Shepherdstown and Jefferson County from the 17th through the 21st Century.” To the left is a copy of the map of Thomas Shepherd’s 222-acre grant for Shepherdstown; in the center is a hand-drawn plat map of Mecklenburg, the original name of Shepherdstown, dating back to the 1760s; and on the right is a copy of the map of Lord Fairfax’s grant from George III. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Next Saturday morning, the Historic Shepherdstown Museum (HSM) will be celebrating its 40th anniversary year with the opening of a new exhibit, “Great Dreams: Maps of Shepherdstown and Jefferson County from the 17th through the 21st Century.”

The exhibit opening will be held in conjunction with the museum’s reopening for the tourist season, according to HSC Board of Directors President Donna Bertazzoni.

“The Historic Shepherdstown Museum is reopening for the season on April 15. This year, 2023, is the 40th anniversary of the opening of the museum,” Bertazzoni said. “We are celebrating by opening a new map exhibit — the second new exhibit the museum has opened in the past 12 months. Also new to the museum this year is the baptismal font from the former Christ Reformed United Church of Christ in Shepherdstown. The font was handmade in 1881 by S.P. Humrickhouse, who drew the 1890 plat map of Shepherdstown featured in the map exhibit.”

According to Bertazzoni, the exhibit, which was compiled by HSM Museum & Archives Committee Chair John Kavaliunas, features 20 maps grouped by era: early maps; Civil War maps; and 20th and 21st century maps.

The early map exhibit includes what is believed to be the earliest plat map of Shepherdstown, then known as Mecklenburg. The map, which is owned by the museum, has been dated to the 1760s by paper conservators. Also included in the early map era are copies of the first map of British America drawn by John Smith; Charles Varle’s 1809 map, which includes the first depiction of Jefferson County; and Thomas Shepherd’s original 222-acre land grant.

The Civil War maps include one pre-war map, an original of S. Howell Brown’s 1852 map of Jefferson County, Va. That map, which was donated to the museum by Mary Hartzell Dobbins, was restored in 2022 with funding from an Americana Corner grant, which also funded the creation of the map exhibit. Brown and noted mapmaker Jedediah Hotchkiss, who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, both drew detailed maps of actions in the Shenandoah Valley. The Civil War maps include depictions of the Battle of Antietam by Brown and the U.S. Government; the Battle of Shepherdstown by the American Battlefield Trust; and actions near Kearneysville and Shepherdstown in Aug. 1864 by Hotchkiss.

The final era depicted features an original 1883 S. Howell Brown map of Jefferson County, W.Va., donated by the Jefferson County Historical Society, and a 2007 Jefferson County map created and donated by local cartographer Lori Simmons. Also included in that grouping are an original 1890 plat map of Shepherdstown by local architect S. P. Humrickhouse, an original 1920s Shaw and Whitmer map of Jefferson County and an overlay of the Shepherdstown Historic District done by the Jefferson County GIS/Addressing Office.

For the first time in three years, the HSM will be returning to its normal operating hours, ready to return to a regular tourist season, Bertazzoni said.

“When it reopens in April, the museum will be resuming its pre-COVID hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays,” Bertazzoni said. “The suggested donation is $4 per person. Admission is free for members of Historic Shepherdstown, the military, children and students.”

Special HSM tours outside of regular operating hours may be possible, if a volunteer docent is available. Call 304-876-0910 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday to inquire.