You are standing in front of a timeline titled “Historic Milestones: From First Peoples to the Arrival of SERC.” To your left is an emergency exit. To your right is a doorway leading to section three of the exhibition: Who Lived in This House?

The timeline includes five sections titled “Origins,” “1492 to 1650,” “1650 to 1776,” “1776 to 1865,” and “1865 to 1970.”

Each section includes a series of local and national events, many illustrated with images.

The first section of the timeline is titled “Origins.”

12,000 Years Ago
The first humans arrive in the Chesapeake Bay region toward the end of the last ice age. Archaeologists refer to these first inhabitants as “Paleoindians.”

10,000 Years Ago
Melting glaciers cause sea levels to rise, flooding the lower Susquehanna River valley to form the Chesapeake Bay.

3,000 Years Ago
Eastern Woodland peoples inhabit the region. Archaeologists have discovered many artifacts from this period, including tools, pottery, and shell middens.

The second section of the timeline is titled “1492 to 1650.”

1492
Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas. The accompanying image shows a Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519.

1607
English colonists establish their first permanent settlement in America at Jamestown, Virginia.

1608
Captain John Smith sails up the Chesapeake Bay and later maps it. The accompanying image shows a portrait of Captain John Smith.

1619
The first enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia.

1634
English settlers establish the colony of Maryland. The accompanying image shows a detail from a map of Maryland by John Ogilby, 1671.

1649 to 1650
Puritan exiles from Virginia establish the settlement of Providence, which later becomes known as Annapolis. The accompanying image shows a painting, The Founding of Maryland by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, 1853.

1650s
The first European settlers arrive in the Rhode River area. Thomas Sparrow and John Shaw establish plantations here.

A background image at the bottom of the panel shows a print of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

The third section of the timeline is titled “1650 to 1776.”

1652
The Susquehannock people sign a treaty with Maryland.

1658
John Sellman, aged 12 or 13, arrives in Maryland from England as an indentured servant.

1663
Maryland establishes the formal laws of slavery, which stipulate that Africans and their children be held in slavery for life. The accompanying print shows enslaved people gathered around a fireplace.

1664
Maryland bans marriage between white women and Black men.

1668
The Nanticoke people sign a treaty with Maryland. The accompanying image shows a map of Maryland by George Alsop, 1666.

1683
The nearby port of London Town is founded.

1735
Tobacco planter William Sellman and his family build this house. The accompanying drawing shows what the 1735 house may have looked like. It is a rectangular building with two chimneys, two windows, and a door on the lower level, and three windows on the upper level.

1747
Annapolis merchant Nicholas Maccubbin builds his mansion, Squirrel Neck, nearby. The Maccubbins are related to the influential Carroll family of Maryland. The accompanying drawing shows a central three-story house with two chimneys. On either side of the main house are two-story wings, attached to the main house by single-story structures.

1751
Shipwright Stephen Steward establishes one of the oldest shipyards in the country on the nearby West River.

1754 to 1763
Great Britain and France fight for control of North America in the French and Indian War. The accompanying image shows a painting by Benjamin West depicting the death of British Major General James Wolfe at the Battle of Quebec in 1759.

1765
Great Britain passes the Stamp Act, which requires American colonists to pay taxes on printed materials.

1767
Enslaved African Kunta Kinte, immortalized in Alex Haley’s book Roots, is sold at auction in Annapolis. The accompanying photo shows the Kunta Kinte–Alex Haley Memorial in Annapolis, Maryland.

1774
Just months after the Boston Tea Party, Annapolis residents protest taxes by burning the Peggy Stewart, a ship carrying tea from England. The accompanying image shows the painting The Burning of the Peggy Stewart by Francis Blackwell Mayer, 1896.

1776
The 13 American colonies declare independence from Great Britain. The accompanying print shows the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1776
Jonathan Sellman joins the Continental Army. The accompanying image shows a portrait of Jonathan Sellman by John Beale Bordley.

A background image at the bottom of the panel shows the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

The fourth section of the timeline is titled “1776 to 1865.”

1781
British marines burn Steward’s shipyard on the nearby West River during the American Revolution.

1783
Maryland outlaws the importation of slaves. But African American men, women, and children already in the state remain enslaved.

1783 to 1784
Annapolis briefly serves as the capital of the United States. General George Washington resigns his Commission at the State House.

1789
The U.S. Constitution establishes the federal government. George Washington takes office as the first U.S. president. The accompanying image shows a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, ca. 1798 to 1800.

1812 to 1815
Great Britain and the United States clash during the War of 1812. Lieutenant John Contee serves aboard the USS Constitution and helps defeat the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil in December 1812. The accompanying image shows a painting of the USS Constitution engaging the HMS Java.

1820
Lieutenant John Contee purchases Squirrel Neck plantation and renames it Java.

1838
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, escapes to the North. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows Frederick Douglass as an older man.

1841
The Sellmans build a major addition to their house. The accompanying drawing shows what the house may have looked like at the time. It shows a larger, three-story addition on the left attached to the original house, which has been reduced in length to make way for the new addition.

1846
The Smithsonian Institution is founded. The accompanying print shows the Smithsonian Castle.

1850
Abolitionist Harriet Tubman, born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, leads her first rescue mission on the Underground Railroad.

1857
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision rules that African Americans are not and can never be U.S. citizens. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland delivers the majority opinion. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows Dred Scott, ca. 1857.

1861 to 1865
The Union and the Confederacy face off during the Civil War. Members of the Sellman family fight on both sides. The accompanying black-and-white photos show John Poole Sellman, Confederate, and Thomas M. Sellman, Union.

1863
President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in rebellious states. The accompanying black-and-white photo is a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardener, 1863.

1864
Maryland outlaws slavery.

1865
The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States.

A background image at the bottom of the panel shows artillery at Gettysburg National Military Park.

The fifth and final section of the timeline is titled “1865 to 1970.”

1868
The Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship rights to all people born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves.

1870
The Fifteenth Amendment grants voting rights to African American men.

1890
Java Mansion burns after being struck by lightning. It is later rebuilt. The accompanying drawing shows a central three-story house with two chimneys and two smaller wings on either side.

1910s
Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Howat and her family purchase the neighboring Contee farm and Java Mansion, and later purchase Woodlawn. The accompanying image shows a painting of Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Howat wearing horse-riding clothes accompanied by a black-and-white dog.

1920
The Nineteenth Amendment grants women the right to vote. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows suffragists picketing the White House, ca. February 1917.

1915 to 1946
Entrepreneur Robert Lee Forrest owns and operates the Java Dairy Farm. The accompanying black-and-white photos show Robert Lee Forrest as a young man and cows grazing on the farm.

1929
The stock market crash triggers the Great Depression. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows unemployed men lining up outside a Chicago soup kitchen.

1947
Yvone Kirkpatrick-Howat and his wife Lauraine move into Woodlawn full time. The accompanying images show paintings of Yvone and Lauraine Kirkpatrick-Howat and a drawing of what the house looked like at the time.

1963
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads the March on Washington. The accompanying black-and-white photo shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

1960s to 1970s
Native Americans lead the American Indian Movement, a nationwide effort to call attention to problems facing Native communities.

1965
Opening of the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology, now the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The accompanying aerial photo shows SERC’s campus at the time.

1970
Twenty million Americans participate in the first Earth Day.

A background image at the bottom of the panel shows a black-and-white photo of the March on Washington, 1963.