17th Century

Without a word, archivist Robert W. Schoeberlein holds the 17th-century world in his white-gloved hands, turning one amber-colored book page after another. "The pages will chip if you don't use a palette knife," he says of the tool he uses to handle the Latin- engraved pages. The books came from Thomas Bray, a highly educated Englishman with a big job in the Old World. As the Church of England's commissary for Maryland, he started a trans-Atlantic book club of sorts, shipping heavy volumes in Latin and Greek to the newly settled colony and its seaport city, Annapolis.

The 17th-century Dutch master Gerard ter Borch is remembered today mainly for his refined genre scenes of middle-class life and portraits of the era's public officials. Some 50 of ter Borch's works are on view in the exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, the first devoted to the artist in this country. It reveals ter Borch as a painter of subtlety and sensitivity whose works were remarkably varied in subject matter. Early in his career, ter Borch created a striking painting of a lonely soldier on horseback, a theme that must have resonated with viewers of the period accustomed to seeing the constant military activity associated with the Dutch republic's long war for independence from Spain.

For those who appreciate collecting or spending hour upon hour studying maps, this has been a very good year. Johns Hopkins University Press issued an expanded edition of The Hammond-Harwood House Atlas of Historic Maps of Maryland, 1608-1908 ($69.95), by Edward C. Papenfuse, state archivist, and Joseph M. Coale III. Their original edition was published in 1982 to mark the 350th anniversary of Maryland's charter. The Hopkins Press also published Richard C. Carpenter's A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946: The Mid-Atlantic States ($65)

Etchings and engravings were big in northern Europe during the 17th century. Mass literacy ignited during the Protestant Reformation created an unprecedented demand for books, and engravings became the rage for artists eager to place their paintings, sculptures and drawings before the public. The opportunity for money and fame had never been greater. As Rembrandt: The Consummate Etcher and Other 17th Century Printmakers, an exhibit on display at the Mitchell Gallery in Annapolis through Feb. 20 makes clear, even the greatest Dutch master of them all was inspired by this medium.

People magazine picks the world's sexiest men. Forbes ranks the richest Americans. U.S. News and World Report calculates the country's top colleges. To the rankings of Hollywood beefcakes and business tycoons, add this nerdy new list: the 50 most influential scientists of the last two decades. No. 1 on the list is the Johns Hopkins University's Bert Vogelstein. "It's nice," says the 54-year-old cancer researcher, one of four Maryland scientists to make the cut and three to land in the top 10. "Whether you're in science or not, you like to think what you're doing is making an impact."

Al Luckenbach, who smokes several Tareytons a day, is within a few days of fulfilling his pipe dream. He intends to fire up -- at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit -- a reproduction of a 17th- century clay pipe kiln. If he succeeds, he and his colleagues at Anne Arundel County's "Lost Towns" archaeological project will have effectively re-created the only kiln of its kind known to have been unearthed in the New World. The kiln remains were discovered in 1991 by Luckenbach and his colleagues on a plot of land that is known as Providence, a Colonial settlement along the Severn River.

A sandy riverbank stretches into acres of deserted farmland, where it appears that only a trace of civilization remains - as a plot of graves and a marker. But on that very site in 1998, excavation crews uncovered significant archaeological remnants of Colonial life in Old Baltimore, the first permanent seat of government in Baltimore County. What they discovered continues to teach scholars, historians and others about the way people lived in Maryland during the turn of the 17th century.

THIS CENTURY'S first potential large-scale political experiment takes its next baby-step today. The 5,400-some folks in the Free State Project will find out which of 10 low-population U.S. states their majority picked to conquer by persuasion. If the Free Staters can swell their ranks to more than 20,000 by 2006, all have pledged to move in (but not live together) across the favored state by 2011. The goal for this small-government-loving cadre is classically American: to get their voices heard by tipping the political scales in their favor.

Ten years ago, Ruth and Frances Brown willed their 300-year-old family farm to the Howard County Conservancy. The sisters, who had been schoolteachers in the area, wanted Mount Pleasant preserved and used for outdoor education. This week, in keeping with the Browns' vision, the conservancy formalized a partnership with Howard County public schools. During a reception on the porch of the original farmhouse, conservancy President J. Edward Tillman said, "We think the Brown sisters, who were teachers, would be very happy to see us in this mode."