Tell us what you think of this exhibit!
Let us know what you like about this online exhibit -- and what we can improve. All your comments are appreciated.
CLICK HERE to send us a message or simply email us at info@chevychasehistory.org.
Funding and Support
The Cummings Lane online exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland. We thank the Council for its ongoing support.
Special thanks to Angela Lancaster, President, and Mary Sheehan, Member at Large, and all of the Board Members of the Chevy Chase Historical Society for their interest and support of this project.
Credits
Gail Sansbury, PhD, Director of the Archive and Research Center, Chevy Chase Historical Society, curated and wrote the narrative for this exhibit, based on her own historical research, as well as research by Diane Riker and Andrew Hellerstein. Text about 3502 Cummings Lane is taken from the wonderful house history Diane Riker wrote in May 2013 for the owners of the 2013 CCHS Gala House, Spence and Renata Patterson. This online exhibit is an expansion of the exhibit displayed at that event, and many CCHS Board Members and volunteers helped with research and production of Gala exhibit. Carolyn Greis made the figure/ground drawings which compare Cummings Lane in 1885, 1931 and 1959. Elizabeth Kay took time away from her work on another exhibit to mount photographs, and Angela Lancaster, Jean Sperling and Helen Secrest helped with the final preparations for the Gala exhibit.
Many thanks to Margaret Miles Ayres who introduced CCHS to her cousins, Barbara Miles and Mary Miles Patten. Barbara and Mary gave us copies of childhood photos taken in the 1950s and 60s, when they lived in the old Cummings farmhouse. The current owner of the farmhouse, Jean Meisel, kindly let us tour the house, and Wayne C. Fowler took beautiful photographs of her home for CCHS.
Many thanks to Cee Cee Cummings who reviewed our section on the Cummings family, and allowed us to copy additional photographs, including family photographs of her mother’s family, the Ormes.
Many thanks to Robert Donnelly, Harry M. Martin’s grandnephew. Mr. Donnelly lent us photographs for this exhibit, and also shared his own memories of his great uncle.
We also thank Professor William M. LeoGrande, for allowing us to use a survey that appeared in his article “’No Gain:’ Portrait of a Family Farm,” that appeared in The Montgomery County Story, Vol. 42, No. 2, in May 1999.
Finally, we are indebted to the CCHS members who interviewed Andrew J. Cummings, Jr. and George Winchester Stone, Jr. for the CCHS Oral History Project. Marjorie Zapruder and Marilyn Hanlon interviewed Mr. Cummings in 1998, and Marjorie Zapruder interviewed Mr. Stone in 1993. Both of these interviews, and the photographs and other materials that Mr. Cummings and Mr. Stone gave to CCHS were invaluable for this online exhibit.
We used the following sources for newspaper accounts of Cummings Lane residents:
The Evening Star (1854 - 1972), The Evening Times (1895 - 1902), The Washington Herald (1906 - 1939), andThe Washington Times (1902 - 1939). Accessed through "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers," available online at the Library of Congress.
The Washington Post (1877 - 1995). Accessed through ProQuest Historical Newspapers, available online at the Montgomery County Public Library.
Digitization of images, documents and printed materials from the CCHS collection, was done at the CCHS Archive and Research Center, located at the Chevy Chase Library, Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Sandglass Systems, Inc. designed and developed the website for this exhibit. Special thanks to Andrew Fraser, Principal, and the Sandglass staff for their assistance.
