The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has been known by a series of names reflective of its location, evolving role and mission since enrolling its first students on Sept. 13, 1886. It opened under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Delaware Conference. Benjamin and Portia Bird welcomed nine students that first day to a…Read more What’s in a name?
“The Hawk” ‘They want to call us what?’ … John Mitchell, a running back from Ohio on Maryland State College’s 1948 football team, and teammate Leonard Cisco, a defensive end from New Jersey, were relaxing in the campus canteen one fall afternoon when Charles C. Jacobs, the college’s public relations director, “walked up … in a high state of anxiety saying the…Read more The Mascot
The history of football at Maryland State College is well documented throughout the annals of Black college football. Following World War II, the Hawks marched through any and all competition and into the national spotlight by consistently defeating the era’s top teams. Their success was so quick the press dubbed them the “Raiders” from the…Read more The Trojans
Devenia Wallace enjoys a unique place in the long, storied history of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She was among its most beloved graduates and loyal faculty members during the latter part of the 20th century. Wallace earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1943 from Princess Anne College, as UMES was known then. She…Read more Devenia Victoria Pinder Wallace
“Degrees by the dozen on $40 a week” was the curious headline on a lengthy Life magazine article published in September 1955. The 10-page spread in the Sept. 19 edition of the weekly periodical chronicles the inspirational life story of Irene and Louis Martin of Somerset County, who raised 12 children and sent each to college….Read more Mister Doctor Professor Martin
Pezavia O’Connell holds the distinction of being the first principal of Princess Anne Academy with an earned doctorate. O’Connell was born March 2, 1861 in Natchez, Miss., a Mississippi River port where “the South’s second largest slave market in the 19th century” operated.1 The 1880 U.S. census for Adams County, Miss. identified O’Connell, then 19,…Read more Pezavia O’Connell
Stanford E. Davis is perhaps the first University of Maryland Eastern Shore alumnus to be a formally published belletrist — or “man of letters.” Davis’s 135-page book of poetry, Priceless Jewels (Knickerbocker Press, New York; 1911), is considered one of the rarer books of Delaware literature, according to John P. Reid, a collector who specializes in books…Read more Stanford E. Davis
During the 2011-12 academic year, UMES celebrates a journey from humble beginnings as a secondary school for Negroes in post-Civil War America to a vibrant, culturally diverse university taking on 21st century challenges. The school opened Sept. 13, 1886 with nine students in a Colonial-era farmhouse on 16 acres, a modest tract that remains the physical…Read more The Journey Begins
Historical research is like looking through a relative’s attic. It often turns up interesting and unexpected facts and anecdotes about people, places and things. Here are tidbits from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore first 125 years. Junior Saundra Williams made history Sept. 8, 1968 when she was named the first Black Miss America. The…Read more Who Knew?
One of the more enigmatic figures during the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s early years is Jacob C. Dunn, whom early oral histories portray as the school’s first faculty member. Little is known about the Delmarva native prior to enrolling in the Centenary Biblical Institute (now Morgan State University), where he encountered educator Benjamin O….Read more Jacob C. Dunn
