Montgomery History

08/24/2026

𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦! Excited to have my three newest books featured in the latest Montgomery History newsletter. Each was created as a companion to one of Montgomery History’s online exhibits and helps preserve a different chapter of Montgomery County’s past through historic photographs taken by Lewis Reed and stories.

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀:
https://reedbrothersdodgehistory.com/about-2/featured-publications/

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗴𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆’𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀:
https://montgomeryhistory.org/

07/14/2026

07/13/2026

African colonization today is considered a misguided blip in American racial history, but it is an instructive misguided blip worth studying as in recent times the United States has been sending aliens “back to where they came from.” In 1816, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded to establish colonies in Africa for free African Americans. A year later, the Maryland Society was formed as a fundraising arm of the ACS. The colonization movement brought together odd bedfellows. On the one hand were Northern liberals who feared a biracial society was not possible. On the other hand were Southern enslavers who thought free Blacks were the "rabblerousers" behind slave rebellions and wanted to be rid of them. With help from President James Monroe, ACS began a settlement at Monrovia, Liberia. About 6,000 Americans moved there. In 1832, the Maryland Society secured funding from the state legislature and began settling people at Cape Palmas, four hundred miles to the south. Only 1,100 went there, but the vestige of that settlement survives as “Maryland County, Liberia.” Jim Johnston personalizes this overlooked racial history by focusing on the experiences of Mary Ann Tritt Cassell, a Georgetown woman of mixed race who went to Cape Palmas. See https://montgomeryhistory.org/events for the registration link.

07/03/2026

Established in 1987 by Larry Kramer, ACT UP ("AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power") was the first official group created to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic. Dozens of chapters throughout the United States and around the world sought to both find a cure for AIDS and provide accurate information and awareness of the disease, particularly at a time when lack of action on the part of governments and misinformation led to anti-gay prejudice and increased deaths. ACT UP was most active in the DC area, because of the proximity to government, in New York City--an epicenter of the epidemic--and other locations like Atlanta, where the Centers for Disease Control is based. On May 21, 1990 over 1,000 protestors at NIH in Bethesda showed up to demand more AIDS treatments and an end to the under-representation of women and people of color in clinical trials. In September of 1991, in protest of the anti-gay rhetoric of Senator Jessie Helms, who stated that there were no cases of AIDS in the United States that were not caused by gay s*x, ACT UP sheathed Helms’ house in a giant condom. ACT UP organized a funeral procession from the Capitol to the White House on October 11, 1992, with some participants scattering the ashes of loved ones who had died of AIDS on the White House lawn. ACT UP did perform a sit-in, demanding that the Catholic Church change its stance on teaching about safe-s*x and condom use as a means to prevent infection and save lives. However, that demonstration occurred at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, not the National Cathedral.

06/30/2026

This photograph from a set of fifteen taken on October 11, 1988, preserved in the collection of the Jane Sween Research Library, captures the ACT UP protest at FDA’s Parklawn Building in Rockville. Garnering nationwide attention, this demonstration resulted in the arrests of 176 activists, mostly charged with loitering. The protest at FDA was one of the earliest ACT UP staged, involving about 1,000 participants, carrying signs and chanting. The activists were demanding swifter government approval processes for the more than 80 potential drugs to fight AIDS, because the FDA's slow process of approving drugs as safe and effective was unnecessary with an already-terminal AIDS patient population. Three hundred fifty police officers, some wearing latex gloves, monitored the protest while President Reagan was burned in effigy. Pictured are Ride-On busses attempting to transport handcuffed activists away while protestors lie in their path.

06/16/2026

Co-sponsored by Historic Medley District and Montgomery History, on June 10, historian and author David O. Stewart explored the founding of Montgomery County 250 years ago. A retired attorney and lifelong student of the founding of the nation, Stewart explored the circumstances under which Frederick County was split in 1776 to form the new counties of Montgomery and Washington. Stewart also discussed the role in 1774 of future Montgomery County founders in protesting British taxes and the closure of the port of Boston, through their signing of the Hungerford Resolves at a tavern on the site of the future Rockville, Maryland. Finally, he touched on aspects of the new county’s support for the American Revolution after independence was declared on July 4, 1776. Recording of the talk is now available at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WQYYylagiE&t=384s

06/09/2026

Recording of our June 2 talk "Tracing Freedom: Mapping Enslavers & Historic Black Communities in Montgomery County, MD" now available for a limited time on our website and here:
https://youtu.be/0pfk7D65z3Y?si=J5ojYISihHJoioAC

05/25/2026

In Montgomery County, each of us lives around the corner from a former site of enslavement (SOE), whether it was a farm that was turned into a suburban development, the ruins of a mill that ground flour to feed the local people, or the ghost of an old tavern where enslaved people were bought and sold. Join Neile Whitney to hear about the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project's new interactive map, which hints at the connections between these SOEs and over 140 local, historic Black communities, and then tells their stories.

Register on our website or with this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2UACnGmmSHaKpq7mJ_2p0w #/registration

05/22/2026

Companies have been attracted to Montgomery County for myriad reasons: our proximity to the cooperative possibilities and talent pool that nearby universities provide as well as access to highly educated Montgomery Countians to support their workforces. The strategic location near the federal government is another large factor. As much as the county has attracted scientific research and development, the largest employer category is the food service industry, employing 27,382 people in 2024, according to the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation. As Montgomery County attracts and retains businesses like Otsuka, Astra Zeneca, Marriott, and Hughes, as well as government agencies like NIST and FDA, their employees are local residents who also eat out in the county, use health services, parks, and libraries, and send their kids to school here.

05/19/2026

This acrylic paperweight came to Montgomery History through a donation from Neal Potter, who served on the Montgomery County Council for 20 years, 1970-1990, served as County Executive from 1990-1994, and again on the County Council from 1994-1998. This paperweight, which dates from 1985, features both the Japanese and American flags, and bears the name of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company. Otsuka was the first company to locate at the Shady Grove Life Science Center on July 1, 1985, itself the first industrial park in the nation dedicated to biotechnology. At the ceremony, a Shinto priest was present to supervise the dedication and purification rites for the facility, according to Japanese custom. The 1980s saw a growth of Japanese investment in the United States as well as expansion of Japanese goods in American markets. At the same time, Montgomery County was encouraging growth by biotech companies in the county. Rockville soon became the center of its BioTech Corridor, which supports more than ninety-two biotech companies today in that area alone. The “very high degree of enthusiasm demonstrated by the government of Montgomery County” was key in encouraging Otsuka to locate here, according to an Otsuka official, beating out six other locations in the country including Boston, Long Island, Seattle, and San Diego.