C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience
Our free weekend “road trips” to some of the region’s most historic places provide hands-on learning opportunities for inquisitive Washington College students. Road trips take students behind-the-scenes at national museums, put them in front row seats to experience professional theater, and lead them through city streets and down dusty country lanes exploring our nation’s past.
Spring 2018
Frederick Douglass Bicentennial
Follow in the Footsteps of Douglass
in Talbot County, Maryland 
Date: Saturday, March 3
Please dress for the weather as most of this trip will be outdoors.
Explore the new county park on the Tuckahoe River near where Douglass was born into
slavery, the plantation where he spent his early life, and the community where he
returned as a free man. We’ll meet with scholars and community leaders working to
preserve Douglass’s history and memory for future generations. The trip includes a
behind-the-scenes tour of the grounds at Wye House where noted University of Maryland
archaeologist and anthropologist, Dr. Mark Leone, will discuss the excavations that
led to a greater understanding of the lives of the plantation’s enslaved African workers.
We will visit Unionville, a community founded by African American Civil War veterans,
and conclude at the Talbot County Court House, the site of the Frederick Douglass
statue.
Frederick Douglass Bicentennial 
Road Trip to Washington, DC
Date: Saturday, March 31
In the morning, we’ll explore the newest Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, before traveling on to Cedar Hill, Douglass’s home in Anacostia where he lived the last 17 years of his life.
Past Road Trips
We’ve traveled to destinations as diverse as Colonial Williamsburg, Arena Stage, Washington, D.C., Old City Philadelphia, Broadway, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty in New York City, and Gettysburg National Military Park.