'Served In Style: The Silver Collection Of The Maryland Historical Society'

BALTIMORE, MD.

:A new permanent exhibit, "Served in Style: Silver Collection of the Maryland Historical Society," will open on the second floor of the Maryland Historical Society Museum (MdHS) on September 16. The exhibition showcases stunning gifts and serving pieces from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and provides an overview of the extraordinary silver collection of more than 2,000 objects in the museum.

Recent gifts and purchases along with longtime favorites will be used to tell the story of silver ownership and manufacture over three centuries in Maryland. Significant pieces on display include a pap boat marked by George Hunter and engraved on underside "Sarah Ellicott 1757."

A pap boat refers to an object used for feeding pap, a soft mixture of bread, sugars and water or milk, to infants or invalids. This silver pap boat was used to feed Sarah Ellicott (1755-1779), the second of nine children born to Judith Bleeker Ellicott and Joseph Ellicott, when she was 2 years old. Joseph Ellicott was the founder of Ellicott's Upper Mills, 1774. Sarah was the sister of Andrew Ellicott, one of the surveyors of Washington, D.C.

Other pieces on display include tea sets, candlesticks and even a contemporary box signed by President Richard Nixon.

The MdHS Museum and Shop are open Wednesday-Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. The museum shop has items for sale in celebration of this new exhibit including antique and contemporary silver.

The Maryland Historical Society was founded in 1844. It is the state's oldest cultural institution and is at 201 West Monument Street, in the Mount Vernon Cultural District. One highlight of the MdHS collection is the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner" as well as several permanent exhibits including "Looking for Liberty, Furniture in Maryland Life" and "Maryland Through the Artist's Eye."

For information, 410-685-3750 or www.mdhs.org.