Oxford, Bellevue museums receive awards

Maryland Historic Trust recognized the Bellevue Passage Museum, Water’s Edge Museum in Oxford, and the UNESCO Middle Passage Marker with an award for outstanding organizational leadership at the local level. Oxford originated as a tobacco port and became the only documented stop on the Middle Passage in this part of Maryland with the arrival of the first trans-Atlantic slave ship in 1763.

Museum Director Monica T. Davis of the Bellevue Passage, Water’s Edge, and Middle Passage Port Marker stands with Dr. Dennis De Shields, Founder of the Bellevue Passage Museum. Among the oil paintings on the wall is a portrait of one of De Sheild’s ancestors, entitled “Clarence DeShields.”

Photo by Philip Logan