Montgomery Parks has outdoor interpretive panels throughout their parks, sharing stories about the history of places and people. For Women’s History Month, they have four recommendations of parks to visit to learn about women in the past.
Jesup Blair Local Park
Jesup Blair Local Park(opens in a new tab) features a panel about mothers and children in Silver Spring from 1861 to 1865. You learn about Elizabeth Blair Lee and her son, Blair Lee. The Lee’s plantation in Silver Spring had enslaved laborers. The signs also discusses lives of those unknown enslaved mothers and their children.
Little Bennett Regional Park
During the Civil War, Montgomery County women played vital roles. They volunteered to prepare meals, mend clothes, and nurse wounds. The interpretive panel at Zeigler House(opens in a new tab) in Little Bennett Regional Park(opens in a new tab)highlights historic photographs and first-person accounts.
Burnt Mills West Special Park
Rachel Carson is the founder of the modern environmental movement and lived in Silver Spring. You can discover more about her at the interpretive panel at Burnt Mills West Special Park(opens in a new tab) near the head of the Rachel Carson-Greenway Trail.
Edith Throckmorton Neighborhood Park
Edith Throckmorton Neighborhood Park(opens in a new tab) has a received a temporary panel honoring its namesake. Edith Throckmorton was an award-winning educator who taught for twenty-five years in public schools. She was the first African American to serve on the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations. Throckmorton was president of the Montgomery County Chapter of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for sixteen years. The permanent panel will go into place later this spring.
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