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MARYLAND'S NICKNAMES
Maryland is known as both the Old Line State
and the Free State.
OLD LINE STATE
According to some historians, Gen. George Wash-
ington bestowed the name "Old Line State" and
thereby associated Maryland with its regular line
troops who served courageously in many Revolu-
tionary War battles.
FREE STATE
The nickname "Free State" was created by Hamil-
ton Owens, editor of the Baltimore Sun. In 1923,
Georgia Congressman William D. Upshaw, a firm
supporter of Prohibition, denounced Maryland as a
traitor to the Union for refusing to pass a State
enforcement act. Mr. Owens thereupon wrote a
mock-serious editorial entitled "The Maryland Free
State," arguing that Maryland should secede from
the Union rather than prohibit the sale of liquor.
The irony in the editorial was subde, and Mr. Owens
decided not to print it. However, he popularized
the nickname in later editorials.
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STATE THEATERS
By Chapter 1003, Acts of 1978, Center Stage in
Baltimore was designated the State Theater of
Maryland. By the same act Olney Theatre in Mont-
gomery County was designated as the State Sum-
mer Theater of Maryland (Code State Government
Article, sec. 13-309).
POET LAUREATE OF MARYLAND
Maria B. Coker, 1959-1962
Vincent Godfrey Burns, 1962-1979
Lucille Clifton, 1979-1985
Reed Whittemore, 1985-1988
Vacancy, 1988—
In the 18th century, Ebenezer Cook, author of
The Sot-weed Factor: Or, A Voyage to Maryland
(1708), styled himself Poet Laureate. Maryland did
not have an official poet, however, until 1959. In
that year, the General Assembly authorized the
Governor to appoint a citizen of the State as Poet
Laureate of Maryland (Chapter 178, Acts of 1959;
Code State Government Article, sec. 13-306).
Since 1979 the incumbent has been appointed to a
three-year term.
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