St. Mary’s College Given Oral Histories of “The John Hanson Briscoe Historical Project”
Upon the January 2014 passing of St. Mary’s County’s own Judge John Hanson Briscoe (who was also a former speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates), Rep. Steny Hoyer said, “He had a very decisive vision for Southern Maryland and the state that went far beyond local parochial politics. We’ll miss his humor. We’ll miss his wisdom. We’ll miss his sense of history.”
In keeping with Judge Briscoe’s sense of history, the judge’s son-in-law, Samuel Baldwin, of Baldwin and Briscoe, P.C., is continuing to honor the judge’s legacy by writing a book about his late father-in-law. The book will also cover other aspects of St. Mary’s County history and life.
In the interest of providing the public easy access, Baldwin is publishing the book in a groundbreaking way. He is removing the ‘middle man’ from the publication process and is making the book available for free online. Chapter 1, “Johnny Briscoe, a Great Life,” is available online today at http://tinyurl.com/JHB-ChapterOne. The website also includes multimedia features, such as video and audio. Chapter 2 will be about lawyers practicing in the county during the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and will be published online in January 2015. Chapter 3 will highlight Sotterley Plantation.
In the process of writing the book, Baldwin has conducted oral histories of dozens of St. Mary’s County citizens. He has also arranged for these interviews to be transcribed. With the completion of each chapter of the book project, the oral histories used in each chapter are then transferred to the archives of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, which will house the paperwork and digital files in a climate-controlled storage area equipped with fire suppression. The text of the oral history transcripts will then be made available to the public on the SlackWater Oral Histories Collection website. The 18 transcripts from interviews captured in Chapter 1 are available now at http://tinyurl.com/pzp3bpr.
– See more at: http://webdev.smcm.edu/news/pressrelease/2014/12/14-112.html#sthash.V8XP55Ra.dpuf