As St. Mary’s College of Maryland prepares to celebrate its 175 year anniversary, the archive is looking for materials to help document its history.  This includes any correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, journals, and any other ephemeral items (such as play programs, school assignments, etc.) which belonged to former alumna and alumni. Materials related to the post-college careers of notable alumni are also welcomed.

Once the collections are housed at St. Mary’s, they will be properly cared for and stored in a modern storage area which is equipped with fire suppression and its own, dedicated HVAC unit that maintains a consistent temperature and relative humidity.  A staff of talented student employees and student interns are available to assist the archivist in the arrangement, description, and preservation of historical collections.

Collections are available to the public during regular business hours.  Many photographs are available via our digital collections, such as the scrapbooks of WW-II alumna D.A. (Hughen) Miller, and a 1910s photo scrapbook.

It is important to consider that the school suffered a devastating fire in 1924, resulting in the loss of much of the school’s history and records.  Any pre-1924 document or photograph related to St. Mary’s Female Seminary is an extremely important historical item.  Although archivists generally prefer originals, in the case of pre-1924 items, analog or digital copies of items are gladly accepted.

In addition to the school’s history, the archive is building a collection concerning St. Mary’s County.  The archive currently holds the papers of J. Frank Raley, former Delegate Paul Bailey, historian Regian Combs Hammett, the writings and notebooks of former County Commissioner and author Joseph S. “Jay” Guy, and the papers of Jane Yowiaski, the former president of the St. Mary’s County Democratic Party.

Questions? Please contact Kent Randell, the college archivist, at kdrandell@smcm.edu or 240-895-4190 regarding a prospective donation.