Lunch & Learn: The National Road - From George Washington’s Vision to a Museum in Boonsboro
About this Event
Program registration is recommended but not required.
For nearly as long as our nation has existed, many Maryland residents and interstate travelers have crossed or traveled on and often overlooked the importance of a roadway that is today known as the National Road Scenic Byway.
Reuben Moss, Director of the National Road Museum in Boonsboro will provide an overview of this road, exploring topics which include its history, construction and engineering challenges, the reasoning for the name “National Road,” why it was so important that it was named the epithet “The Road That Built The Nation,” and how it can be said at the same time that it begins in both Baltimore and in Cumberland (and ends in 5 different cities!).
The talk will end with a short history of the National Road Museum, from its concept in the early 2000’s through its grand opening in 2025, and how the railway exhibits in the Trolley Station Museum on the museum grounds relate to this national story.
A lifelong Maryland resident, Reuben Moss is the Volunteer Executive Director of the National Road Museum and has previously served as the Vice President of its parent organization: the National Road Heritage Foundation. He also has previously worked in various capacities with both Rose Hill Manor Park & Museums in Frederick and the Brunswick Heritage Museum. Reuben is also the President and Curator of the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway Historical Society, for which he has been providing well-received historical presentations related to the local trolley system for over a decade. As curator of that organization, he has prepared many temporary artifact exhibitions as well as the redevelopment of the Boonsboro Trolley Station Museum exhibits in 2023.
Joining Reuben will be Richard Keesecker, co-founder and current President of the National Road Heritage Foundation, who has been overseeing the development of the National Road Museum since the organization was founded in 2005.
ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.
Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.