(Editor’s note: DeeDee Wood is the owner of Black Cat Curiosities, an online antiques research and sales venue.)

Antiques of interest on display in this museum include military historical items (shown above), old-fashioned wedding dresses, a collection of Native American artifacts and ship models from ports and historical waterways of the area. (Photo by DeeDee Wood)

As you drive around Denton, you could find yourself in the downtown square that showcases the county’s historic courthouse. Adjacent to the courthouse green, there is a stately row of homes that encompass history in the area, one being the Museum of Rural Life, the headquarters of the Caroline County Historical Society. A perfect place for our first in a series of the 2025 Antiques Road Trip, treasures and the past await you in this historical building, packed full of surprises and local history.
I met with Robin Westre, Secretary of the organization, and leader of the docent program at the museum.
She showed me around the museum and pointed out some of the things visitors could view at the museum, and explained some of the displays.
From rural Caroline County history, to a display on military of different eras, to the presentation of an entire sharecropper’s house encased within the museum, there are artifacts, antiques and treasures to view and discover.
The museum house itself, the Annie Taylor House, was moved to the current location on the courthouse square back in the 1990s from the northside of Denton.
In the back rooms of the museum, one can’t help but notice a full, small house on display, a sharecropper’s cabin, Robin explains, “was placed here, and the museum was built around this, to showcase how a sharecropper lived and functioned in this area.”
Across from the cabin, there is a room display out of a middle-planter home from the area.
Westre explained the difference between a share cropper and a middle-planter: “The share cropper had 15-30 acres, and the middle-planter would manage 1500 acres or more.”
The middle-planter display had a wide variety of antiques to view, from old writing desks, oil lamps, fireplace accessories, chairs, dolls and more.
The interesting thing about this museum is the entire rooms or buildings encased therein, a nod to the preservation this museum attempts to manage to showcase the county’s rich agriculture history.
Other antiques of interest on display in this museum are numerous, from old fashioned wedding dresses, a collection of Native American artifacts, military historical items, ship models from ports and historical waterways of the area, (such as the mighty Choptank River and tributaries), and interesting items that find special interest for the visitor.
One of the more interesting displays in the museum covers a famous chicken of era.
Known as Lady Eglantine, the chicken was a white longhorn, and made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1915 for laying the most eggs by any chicken in the world, at 314 eggs in 365 days.
There are many historically significant narratives and exhibits in this museum that include artifacts and antiques to help tell the story.
There are displays that cover the Underground Railroad in Caroline County, African American history and important figures and historical figures of the era.
There is an entire wall out of a local historic home, the Frazier Flats House, that has been reassembled, brick-by-brick, complete with original window, and reinstalled in the museum, to preserve and present the story of historic dwellings of the era.
The middle room and peppered throughout the back rooms of the museum, there are smaller and larger military displays and narratives, showcasing local military heroes and their roles in wars and combat.
Contained in these displays, you can find artifacts of the military persuasion, such as stories on Buffalo Soldiers (African American soldiers who served the U.S. military in Western campaigns after the Civil War), displays, stories and artifacts telling the stories of local war heroes and people who served in the military locally, and even a wooden crate on display that brought home a coffin of a local war hero. Military uniforms, war posters and historic artifacts complete the military representations in this museum.
Other artifacts and antiques of interest in this museum are numerous.
I viewed a dollhouse replica of house museum, portraits of historical local figures, antique furniture, bottles, sundries, and numerous goods and personal items of the people from this area.
There are examples of rural life in this museum, of course, from canning history, to farm implements, to school girl samplers and even silhouettes.
There is a pier mirror from a local iconic “Two Johns” historic home of the area, tidbits on many local and historic residential dwellings, some long gone, but documented and photographed, and nautical items, such as a long-lost sea captain’s trunk and content information, represented in this quaint and well-represented museum.
It is interesting to note and view the history of Caroline County, presented with many antiques, artifacts and narratives, represented in this museum with many rooms and displays.
From a small portrait of Moses Viney, a former enslaved person who achieved many great achievements in the area in his lifetime, to World War II stories of bravery and courage, pivoting over to nautical tales and waterway history of the area and more, the artifacts, entire cabins, military displays and narratives guide the antique enthusiast and history buff into a world of appreciation and carefully crafted narrative.
Recently, The Caroline County Historical Society has had some major losses.
In memoriam, JOK Walsh, a passionate local history authority and major administrator/contributor to the museum and society, had a lasting, indelible mark on this museum and society, and Charles Andrew, the Caroline County Historical Society’s President.
Both of these individuals and their contributions are honored and remembered in this historical community.
The Museum of Rural Life for Caroline County is located at 16 N. Second Street in Denton, and is open on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., from March through November.
For more information, visit their website at carolinehistory.org, or call 443-305-9693.