Currents
urrents
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Summer 2015
The Society of The Ark and The Dove
2015 Spring Assembly a Great Success
at the State House in Annapolis
by Davis Calvert
Photo by Gladys Roberts Thomas
The Spring Assembly of the
Chamber and was used by
Society of The Ark and The
lesser personages and ladies
Dove was held in Annapolis on
wishing to observe the proceedMay 2, 2015. Members and
ings.
their guests began convening at
Next followed an antechamthe State House around 9:30
ber with a mural depicting
a.m. Senate President Mike
Washington’s resignation recreMiller, our host, gave a few reated from letters by those attendmarks at 10:30 a.m. and then
ing. This room features a full
turned the Assembly over to
size portrait of George WashingElaine Rice Bachman, Director
ton, General Lafayette, and Col.
of Artistic Property, Exhibits
Tench Tilghman painted in
and Outreach at the State House
1784 by Charles Wilson Peale.
and Acting Secretary of the State
Peale presented his work to
House Trust, Maryland State
Congress, along with a bill far
Archives.
larger than expected, and when
The first exhibit we visited in
queried, Peale replied that he
the Main Hall was that of George
had to charge more because he
Washington’s copy of his
added the extra two men. This
speech, resigning his military
famous portrait of George
commission. This momentous
Washington has hung in the
Elaine Rice Bachman with Peale portrait
event took place on December
State House since 1784 – our
23, 1783, in the Maryland State
State House being the oldest one
House, where the Continental Congress was meeting at in the United States still in continuous use.
the time. After learning the circumstances of the event
The Old Senate Chamber is in the process of being
and about how wonderful it is that the State House has an restored to its original 1784 appearance. As of now, the
actual copy of the speech in the place where it occurred, gallery has been restored, and a life size bronze sculpthe group broke into four smaller groups in order to see ture of George Washington reading his resignation to
the other rooms on the main floor.
Congress is in place. There is also a sculpture of Molly
The Stairwell Room got its name from a stairway that Ridout, whose letter to her mother describing the resigoriginally led to the cupola on the State House dome. It nation is a valuable first-hand account of the ceremony.
is filled with historical document replicas and portraits. Original sketches show that the large allegorical painting
In the 18th century, the stairway on the opposite side of of William Pitt hung above the fireplace, where it has
the room led to the gallery overlooking the Old Senate now been rehung. Also in the chamber is an original John
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The Society of The Ark and The Dove
Photo by Gladys Roberts Thomas
and chairs with cane seats and backs.
It is designed to be used as a meeting room, but it hasn’t yet been used
for this purpose. Mayer’s paintings
“The Planting of the Colony of
Maryland” and “The Burning of the
Peggy Stewart” dominate one wall,
as does the oversized portrait of Governor Thomas Hicks.
Next door is the Caucus Room,
which is currently used for small
meetings by the legislature. Its large
conference table and chairs are surrounded by period furniture and
various portraits, the most prominent of which is the original portrait
of Leonard Calvert, which our
former Governor Truman Semans
purchased and our current Lieutenant Governor Bob Oster had restored. Two large cabinets display
the original Kirk silver service
placed aboard the USS Maryland in
1906. Consisting originally of 48
pieces, currently a creamer and
sugar bowl and a pair of candlesticks
are aboard the nuclear submarine
USS Maryland as decreed by the
Navy when putting the silver service
on permanent loan to the State of
Maryland.
On the way upstairs on the Grand
Staircase, we passed the huge paintFuture Ark &Dove member Alexi Weinberg (Gene Roberts’ grand-nephew) with the
ing “Washington Resigning his Comfather of his country
mission” by Edwin White. Overhead, is one of the brilliantly colored
Shaw desk and chair – John Shaw being the foremost Tiffany stained glass skylight windows in the Capital.
Annapolis cabinetmaker in the late 18th century. There
The Governor’s Reception Room contains the porare a large number of reproduction chairs, copied from traits of the eight most recent past governors, from Ehrlich
the originals which were lent to Congress by John Paca, to Tawes. Governor O’Malley’s is still being painted and
since the newly ordered chairs were on a ship frozen in will cause Governor Tawes’ portrait to be moved. There
the Baltimore harbor and could not arrive in time for the is also a large portrait of Cecil Calvert, Second Lord Balopening of Congress.
timore, a copy of the original at the Enoch Pratt Free
The Old House of Delegates has been completely re- Library in Baltimore. Another large portrait of Goverstored to the 1850’s time period, but with the addition of nor Leonard Calvert is on the other side with a small
modern conveniences, hidden of course. There are twenty portrait of George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, in the
Eastlake style desks, copied from an original, large desk, middle.
Summer 2015
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Photo by Gladys Roberts Thomas
pendence and the two governors, under
whom the addition to the original State
House was made, which includes the
current Senate and House Chambers.
Senator Miller discussed the makeup of the Senate and its committees,
the filibustering that took place prior
to the abortion bill and then some
personal family history. His ancestor,
Lady Alice Lyle was the last female
beheaded in England in 1685.
Lunch was served in the Miller
Building; the room designed for large
public hearings worked very well for
our meal. Cold plates of chicken
salad, on a bed of fresh pineapple,
rice-quinoa pilaf, and blanched
asparagus were on the table, along
Elaine Rice Bachman in Governor’s Reception Room with portraits of Leonard Calvert with a pitcher of iced tea and desserts
of fruit tarts. An open bar was also
and George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore
available.
At
approximately
2 p.m., some of the group continThe Ark and Dove Assembly gathered in the current
Senate Chamber to hold a short business meeting. Gov- ued with a brief walking tour of Annapolis, past the
ernor Roberts included in his opening remarks a mo- Paca House, Hammond Harwood House and others.
ment of silence for Samuel Lyles Freeland, Chancellor, This was a smaller group, as many left at the concluand Timothy Beard, Historian and well-known genealo- sion of lunch due to prior engagements later in the day.
Photo by Gladys Roberts Thomas
gist. The Council presented the following candidates for election:
Oden Bowie Arnot for Deputy
Governor, Robert Lee Oster for
Lieutenant Governor and Charles
Wellman Mitchell for Historian.
There were no additional nominations from the floor. The candidates were voted into office without opposition.
Registrar Sarah Mitchell introduced recently confirmed members in attendance: Thomas A.
Brooks, member # 812L; Ann
Watson Fenwick, #813L; Ann
Bowie Briscoe, #815; and
Stephanie Goldsborough, #816.
Senator Mike Miller again addressed the Assembly, discussing
the portraits of the four Maryland
signers of the Declaration of IndeSen. Mike Miller addresses the Assembly guests
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The Society of The Ark and The Dove
Honoring Maryland’s First Governor,
Leonard Calvert
by Elaine Rice Bachman
The staff of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property
(APC) of the Maryland State Archives was honored to provide the
Society of The Ark and The Dove a tour of the Maryland State
House on Saturday, May 2. A highlight of the tour was the 17th
century portrait of Leonard Calvert (1606-1647) that was given to
the state by Truman Semans in 2010 (on left). Conservation of the
portrait was made possible by another Society member, Bob Oster.
This portrait is now the centerpiece of the display of portraits
and paintings in the State House Caucus Room. Attributed to Jacob
Van Oost I (1601-1671), it was this portrait that was used by Florence Mackubin, an ancestor of Truman Semans, as the model for
her 1914 portrait of Leonard Calvert that was commissioned by
the Society for the State of Maryland. That portrait is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society as part of the MHS exhibit
of Calvert family papers.
The younger brother of Cecil Calvert, who received the grant of
the province of
Maryland in
1632, Leonard
Calvert sailed to
Maryland on
The Ark in 1634
and oversaw the
establishment of the new colony until his death in 1647. This portrait is the second one of Leonard Calvert that the state of Maryland
is very fortunate to have received over the past 10 years.
The first was a full-length portrait of Leonard Calvert that was
given to the APC by Brice and Diana Clagett after it was deaccessioned from Tudor Place in Washington, DC, in 2006. Tudor Place had purchased the portrait in 1991 from the estate of
Helen Chapman Calvert, the 6th great-grand-niece of Leonard
Calvert. The Clagetts also made possible the conservation of both
the portrait and its original 17th century “auricular” gilt and gesso
frame. The portrait has hung in the Governor’s Reception Room
since its acquisition.
All donations for the acquisition and conservation of both of the
Leonard Calvert portraits were made through the Friends of the
Maryland State Archives, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization established in 2006 to support the mission of the Archives.
Summer 2015
George Calvert Portrait May Be
Going to Trinity College, Oxford
At press time, Dr. Henry Miller of Historic St. Mary’s City has
been working with the Maryland Historical Society to gain a credible image of the Daniel Mytens (1590-1648) portrait of George
Calvert, First Lord Baltimore (c.1590-1632), that hangs at the Enoch
Pratt Free Library in Baltimore City. Calvert started his meteoric
career at Trinity College, Oxford, and Henry feels that the current
administration would welcome an appropriately framed image of
the well-known Mytens painting of Lord Baltimore. We may need
a little financial help to pull this off. If you are inclined to help,
please contact Henry Miller (HenryM@ digshistory.com) or Eugene Roberts ([email protected]). Thank you!
George Calvert,
First Lord Baltimore
Trinity College, Oxford
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The Society of The Ark and The Dove
Save the Date: Sunday,
November 22, 2015
2016 Spring Assembly
(date TBD)
Fall Assembly at the
Green Spring Valley Hunt Club
Owings Mills, Maryland
Riversdale House Museum
Riverdale, Maryland
Henry Miller will tell us about the Calvert
lead coffins of St. Mary’s City, which are
currently featured in the Maryland Historical Society’s exhibit A Tale of Three Coffins, which runs through December 6, 2015.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the
exhibition of Henri Stier’s Old Master
paintings (their first and only public showing
in America), Riversdale will exhibit highquality reproductions of a selection of these
paintings in their original locations.
Ark and Dove Marketplace
Captain’s chairs,
from Standard
Chair of Gardner, are $325 plus $25
shipping.
Please call or e-mail
Courtney McKeldin to order:
(410) 435-4085 or
[email protected].
Summer 2015
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Ark and Dove Centennial Scholarship
In our Centennial year, 2010, the
Society of The Ark and The Dove established an annual $5000 scholarship
at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in
St. Mary’s City to be awarded to talented students with a genuine interest
in history, archeology, anthropology,
or museum studies. Each year St.
Mary’s has divided the amount in half
and the Ark and Dove Scholarship has
supported two intelligent and deserving students.
This last year’s winners were Allison
Curry, an anthropology laboratory fellow at St. Mary’s who plans on one day
getting a Ph.D.; and Lydia Roca, who
plans to study archeology or art history
in graduate school, after which she
hopes to work in the museum field.
The Ark and Dove Scholarship is
not just a wonderful cause, but also an
investment to ensure the future of history scholarship. Our members have
been most generous in the past, and if
you have not contributed yet this year,
please consider making a tax-deductible donation in any amount and sending it to: Scholarship Fund, The Society of The Ark and The Dove, P.O.
Box 401, Riderwood, Maryland,
21139.
Ark & Dove Centennial Scholarship winner Allison Curry being congratulated by
St. Mary’s College of Maryland President Tuajuanda C. Jordan at the 2015
Awards Convocation
The Society of
The Ark and The Dove
P.O. Box 401
Riderwood, MD 21139-0401
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
1634
The Society of The Ark and The Dove
Officers
Governor
Eugene Bowie Roberts, Jr.
Lieutenant Governor
Robert Lee Oster
Deputy Governor
Oden Bowie Arnot
Treasurer
Helen M. Toomey
Registrar
Sarah Heiskell Mitchell
Surgeon
Iredell W. Iglehart III
Chaplain
Rev. Caroline Stewart
Historian
Charles Wellman Mitchell
Council
Robert Brent
Alexander Clarke Magruder, Sr.
Brian Thomas Hessick
James Dorsey Stone
1910
PAID
BALTIMORE, MD
PERMIT #5360
Membership Drive
Let’s keep the spirit of our adventurous ancestors
alive by recruiting new members. Encourage your
children, grandchildren and cousins to join our
engaging society—there is NO minimum age
requirement. You might even consider giving a
membership as a gift.
Application fee: $50 (covers the cost of our
genealogist)
Initiation fee: $50
Annual dues: $50 or life membership: $500
For an application, please write to:
The Society of The Ark and The Dove
Attn: Membership
P.O. Box 401
Riderwood, MD 21139-0401
or e-mail:
[email protected]