Historic Shepherdstown Museum opening April 15 with map exhibit.

In 2023, Historic Shepherdstown Museum will be celebrating the 40^th anniversary of its opening with a new exhibit, “Great Dreams: Maps of Shepherdstown and Jefferson County from the 17^th through the 21^st Century.” The museum reopens for the season on Saturday, April 15, at 11 a.m.

The exhibit features 20 maps, including six original maps owned by the museum. The maps are grouped by era: Early Maps, Civil War maps; and 20^th and 21^st 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 Virginia. That map was donated to the museum by Mary Hartzell Dobbins and was restored in 2022 thanks to an Americana Corner grant, which also funded the exhibit.

Brown and noted mapmaker Jedediah Hotchkiss both served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and 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 August of 1864 by Hotchkiss.

The final era depicted features an original 1883 S. Howell Brown map of Jefferson County, West Virginia, and a 2007 Jefferson County map by local cartographer Lori Simmons. The Jefferson County Historical Society donated the Brown map, and Simmons donated the 2007 map. 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 produced by the Jefferson County GIS/Addressing office.

The map exhibit is the second new exhibit the museum has opened in the past 12 months. Educational Opportunities for Black Jefferson County Residents Before and After Brown v Board of Education opened in May of 2022.

Also new to the museum this year is the Baptismal Font from the former Christ Reformed Church 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.

The museum will open on April  15 with hours 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. The suggested donation is $4 per person. Admission is free for members of Historic Shepherdstown, the military, children, and students. Special tours are possible if a volunteer docent is available. Call 304-876-0910 on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday to inquire.