This talk explores stories about getting hitched in a hurry in days gone by. Eloping couples once came to Wilmington for a licenses and a quick ceremony, but just before World War I, Delaware passed more restrictive laws. A city newspaper, proclaiming that Wilmington was no longer a “mecca” for marriages, remarked that “Wilmington’s Days…
Tag: elkton
Disasters Are Part of a Community’s History and Should be Remembered
A story about the passage of 37 years since a sudden, life-shattering tragedy hit San Diego came up in my Delmarva Newsfeed yesterday. On Friday, September 25, 1978, a beautiful, sunny southern California Day, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Fight 182 was on final descent into the airport when it collided with a Cessna. Thirteen seconds…
Old Commercial Maps for Delaware & Maryland Available from Philadelphia Free Library
While digging up some historical records on a Delaware property earlier this week, I discovered a large body of helpful online maps published by the Philadelphia Free Library. This urban institution has substantial online collections, including a large holding of maps. The resources that helped with my investigation was the Hexamer General Survey collection. Between 1866 and…
Bringing Communities Together to Remember Tragedies: Southern Flight 242 in New Hope, Ga & Pan Am Flight 214 in Elkton, MD
This afternoon while driving home from the University of Delaware during a heavy downpour, I listened to Transom, a new public media show. The broadcast, “Southern Flight 242: Bringing My Father Home” by Will Coley, was the piece that had me attentively listening as the rain came down. In it, an audio documentarian digs deeply…