In the decades before state directories and similar resources appeared, there were gazetteers or geographical dictionaries. These valuable titles, many over 200 years old, focused on geography as they examined an area in detail, presenting information about a community, its landscape, political economy, business enterprise, population, and natural resources.
Today genealogists and local historians will find these works helpful as they offer detailed insights into a county, town, or village. Since hard-to-find details, such as social statistics, are contained in the works, I often consult the volumes when trying to understand the changes that have taken place in an area over the centuries.
In this region, “A Geographical Description of the States of Maryland and Delaware,” published by Joseph Scott in 1807, is helpful. As its nearly 200 pages focus on this region, it contains a large amount of productive information. In addition to details on most of the towns and villages of any size on Delmarva, there is lots of text discussing the states and each county.
This title was once hard to access. I purchased one from an antiquarian bookstore in New England decades ago to have it instantly available for my needs. Before that, I had to travel to a distant special collections library.
But now, thanks to the Digital Public Library of America and other public domain e-content providers, we all have instant access to this and many more titles.
Click here to go to the Digital Public Library of America’s catalog item for this product.
