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Bay Psalm Book

The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly called the Bay Psalm Book, is a metrical psalter first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the first book printed in British North America. The psalms in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and none have remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived (for instance, "Old 100th"); however, its production, just 20 years after the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century.

In November 2013, one of eleven known surviving copies of the first edition sold at auction for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.

17th century
The early residents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought with them several books of psalms: the Ainsworth Psalter (1612), compiled by Henry Ainsworth for use by Puritan "separatists" in Holland; the Ravenscroft Psalter (1621); and the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter (1562), of which there were several editions. Evidently they were dissatisfied with the translations from Hebrew in these several psalters and wished for some that were closer to the original. They hired "thirty pious and learned Ministers", including Richard Mather, Thomas Mayhew, and John Eliot, to undertake a new translation, which they presented here. The tunes to be sung to the new translations were the familiar ones from their existing psalters.

The first printing was the third product of the Stephen Day (sometimes spelled Daye) press, and consisted of a 148 small quarto leaves, including a 12-page preface, "The Psalmes in Metre", "An Admonition to the Reader", and an extensive list of errata headed "Faults escaped in printing". As with subsequent editions of the book, Day printed the book for sale by the first bookseller in British America, Hezekiah Usher, whose shop at that time was also located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An estimated 1,700 copies of the first edition were printed.

The third edition (1651) was extensively revised by Henry Dunster and Richard Lyon. The revision was entitled The Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of the Old and New Testament, faithfully translated into English metre. This revision was the basis for all subsequent editions, and was popularly known as the New England Psalter or New England Version. The ninth edition (1698), the first to contain music, included 13 tunes from John Playford's A Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick (London, 1654).

18th century
The expansion of the neoclassical movement in England led to an evolution in the singing of psalms. These changes found their way to America and subsequently new psalm versions were written. In the early part of the 18th century, several updated psalms, notably those written by Tate and Brady and by Isaac Watts, were published. Shortly thereafter several congregations in New England elected to replace the Bay Psalm Book with these new titles.

In 1718, Cotton Mather undertook the revision of the original Bay Psalm Book which he had studied since youth. Two subsequent revisions were published in 1752, by John Barnard of Marblehead and in 1758 by Thomas Prince. Prince was a clergyman at the Old South Church in Boston. He convinced the members of the congregation of the need to produce a revised, more scholarly, edition of the Bay Psalm Book. However, Prince's version was not accepted outside of his membership and in 1789, the Old South Church reverted to the earlier edition published by Isaac Watts.

Title page
The title page of the first edition of 1640 reads: The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully TRANSLATED into ENGLISH Metre. Whereunto is prefixed a discourse declaring not only the lawfullness, but also the necessity of the heavenly Ordinance of singing Scripture Psalmes in the Churches of God.

Imprinted, 1640

An example of the text
"Psalm 23" provides an example of the translation, style and versification of the text of the Bay Psalm Book:

Extant copies and auction records
Eleven copies of the first edition of the Bay Psalm Book are still known to exist, of which only five copies are complete. Only one of the eleven copies is currently held outside the United States. One copy is owned by each of the following:

A 1648 edition, described in American Book Prices Current as the "Emerson Copy", fetched $15,000 on May 3, 1983, at New England Book Auctions in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. On September 17, 2009, Swann Galleries auctioned an early edition, c. 1669–1682, bound with an Edinburgh Bible, for $57,600.

title: Bay Psalm Book


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Psalter

A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons. They were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated, and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.

The English term (Old English psaltere, saltere) derives from Church Latin. The source term is psalterium, which is simply the name of the Book of Psalms (in secular Latin, it is the term for a stringed instrument, from ψαλτήριον psalterion). The Book of Psalms contains the bulk of the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church. The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary. In Late Modern English, psalter has mostly ceased to refer to the Book of Psalms (as the text of a book of the Bible) and mostly refers to the dedicated physical volumes containing this text.

Western Christianity
Dedicated psalters, as distinct from copies of the Psalms in other formats, e.g. as part of a full edition of the Old Testament, were first developed in the Latin West in the 6th century in Ireland and from about 700 on the continent.

The extensively illustrated Utrecht Psalter is one of the most important surviving Carolingian manuscripts and exercised a major influence on the later development of Anglo-Saxon art. In the Middle Ages psalters were among the most popular types of illuminated manuscripts, rivaled only by the Gospel Books, from which they gradually took over as the type of manuscript chosen for lavish illumination. From the late 11th century onwards they became particularly widespread - Psalms were recited by the clergy at various points in the liturgy, so psalters were a key part of the liturgical equipment in major churches.

Various different schemes existed for the arrangement of the Psalms into groups (see Latin Psalters). As well as the 150 Psalms, medieval psalters often included a calendar, a litany of saints, canticles from the Old and New Testaments, and other devotional texts. The selection of saints mentioned in the calendar and litany varied greatly and can often give clues as to the original ownership of the manuscript, since monasteries and private patrons alike would choose those saints that had particular significance for them.

Many psalters were lavishly illuminated with full-page miniatures as well as decorated initials. Of the initials the most important is normally the so-called "Beatus initial", based on the "B" of the words Beatus vir... ("Blessed is the man...") at the start of Psalm 1. This was usually given the most elaborate decoration in an illuminated psalter, often taking a whole page for the initial letter or first two words. Historiated initials or full-page illuminations were also used to mark the beginnings of the major divisions of the Psalms, or the various daily readings, and may have helped users navigate to the relevant part of the text (medieval books almost never had page numbers). Many psalters, particularly from the 12th century onwards, included a richly decorated "prefatory cycle" – a series of full-page illuminations preceding the Psalms, usually illustrating the Passion story, though some also featured Old Testament narratives. Such images helped to enhance the book's status, and also served as aids to contemplation in the practice of personal devotions.

The psalter is also a part of either the Horologion or the breviary, used to say the Liturgy of the Hours in the Eastern and Western Christian worlds respectively.

Eastern Christianity
Non-illuminated psalters written in Coptic include some of the earliest surviving codices (bound books) altogether; the earliest Coptic psalter predates the earliest Western (Irish) one by more than a century. The Mudil Psalter, the oldest complete Coptic psalter, dates to the 5th century. It was found in the Al-Mudil Coptic cemetery in a small town near Beni Suef, Egypt. The codex was in the grave of a young girl, open, with her head resting on it. Scholar John Gee has argued that this represents a cultural continuation of the ancient Egyptian tradition of placing the Book of the Dead in tombs and sarcophagi.

The Pahlavi Psalter is a fragment of a  Middle Persian translation of a Syriac version of the Book of Psalms, dated to the 6th or 7th century.

In Eastern Christianity (Eastern Orthodox, and in modern times also Byzantine Catholic), the Book of Psalms for liturgical purposes is divided into 20 kathismata or "sittings", for reading at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma means sitting, since the people normally sit during the reading of the psalms. Each kathisma is divided into three stases, from stasis, to stand, because each stasis ends with Glory to the Father..., at which everyone stands. The reading of the kathismata are so arranged that the entire psalter is read through in the course of a week (during Great Lent it is read through twice in a week). During Bright Week (Easter Week) there is no reading from the Psalms. Orthodox psalters usually also contain the Biblical canticles, which are read at the canon of Matins during Great Lent.

The established Orthodox tradition of Christian burial has included reading the Psalms in the church throughout the vigil, where the deceased remains the night before the funeral (a reflection of the vigil of Holy Friday). Some Orthodox psalters also contain special prayers for the departed for this purpose. While the full tradition is showing signs of diminishing in practice, the psalter is still sometimes used during a wake.

Manuscripts
See also Category:Illuminated psalters

Early Medieval

 * Psalter of St. Germain of Paris, 6th century
 * Cathach of St. Columba, early 7th century
 * Faddan More Psalter
 * Vespasian Psalter, 2nd quarter of the 8th century
 * Montpellier Psalter
 * Chludov Psalter, 3rd quarter of the 9th century
 * Southampton Psalter
 * Utrecht Psalter, 9th century
 * Salaberga Psalter
 * Lothair Psalter, 840–855, British Library, Add. MS 37768
 * Stuttgart Psalter

High Medieval

 * Paris Psalter, 10th century
 * Ramsey Psalter
 * Gertrude Psalter, late 10th century with mid-11th century illuminations
 * Theodore Psalter, 1066, at the British Library
 * Psalterium Sinaiticum, 11th century
 * Melisende Psalter, circa 1135
 * Eadwine Psalter, c 1160
 * Harley Psalter
 * St. Albans Psalter
 * Winchester Psalter
 * Westminster Psalter
 * Felbrigge Psalter
 * Great Canterbury Psalter (Anglo-Catalan Psalter or Paris Psalter), c.1200 and 1340s
 * Psalter of St. Louis
 * Ormesby Psalter, start 13th century, Bodleian Library
 * Potocki Psalter, mid 13th century, now Warsaw with detached leaves elsewhere.

Late Medieval

 * Queen Mary Psalter
 * Luttrell Psalter
 * Gorleston Psalter
 * Macclesfield Psalter
 * Tickhill Psalter
 * Sofia Psalter
 * Tomich Psalter
 * 232/15 Psalter at OPenn
 * Kiev Psalter of 1397
 * Psalter of Jean, Duc de Berry
 * Burnet Psalter

Early modern / Tudor period

 * Psalter of Henry VIII
 * Daskal Philip Psalter
 * 1953‑128‑7 Liturgical psalter at OPenn

Printed editions
See also Category:Psalters

Incunabula

 * Psalterium Romanum, 1457 [Mainz], Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer.  The first printed psalter.
 * Psalterium Benedictinum, 1459 [Mainz], Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer.  The second printed psalter.

Early modern editions

 * Coverdale's Psalter, 1535
 * Genevan Psalter, 1562
 * David's Psalter, a translation of the Book of Psalms into Polish by Jan Kochanowski, 1579
 * Scottish Psalter, 1635 and 1650
 * Bay Psalm Book, 1640, the first book printed in British North America. The Psalms in it are metrical translations into English.
 * New England Psalter

Modern editions

 * Grail Psalms, 1963, 2008
 * ICEL Psalter, 1995

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Psalter


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St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's City (also known as Historic St. Mary's City) is a former colonial town that was founded in March 1634, as Maryland's first European settlement and capital. It is now a state-run historic area, which includes a reconstruction of the original colonial settlement and a designated living history venue and museum complex. Half the area is occupied by the campus of St. Mary's College of Maryland. The entire area contains a community of about 933 permanent residents and some 1,400 students living in campus dorms and apartments.

The City is an unincorporated community under Maryland state law and is located in southern St. Mary's County, which occupies the southernmost tip of the state on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The community is bordered by the St. Mary's River, a short, brackish-water tidal tributary of the Potomac River, near where it empties into the Chesapeake.

St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Colony of Maryland—then called the Province of Maryland—where it served as the colonial capital from 1634 until 1695. The original settlement is the fourth oldest permanent English settlement in the United States.

Notably, St. Mary's City is the earliest site of religious freedom being established in the United States, as it is the first North American colonial settlement established with a specific mandate of providing haven for people of both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.

It is also an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists, and is home to the Historical Archaeology Field School. There have been over 200 archeological digs in St. Mary's City over the last 30 years. Archaeological research continues in the city.

Historic St. Mary's City: Reconstructed colonial town and living history

Historic St. Mary's City is a large public access historic interpretation area with four public museums and is a re-creation of the original colonial capital of Maryland and also the original settlers village.

It has several living history museums, and the entire complex is staffed by period dressed actors who recreate history theatrically, as well as archeologists and archeology students who provide scientific and historical interpretation, public archeological site displays, reconstructed colonial buildings, including ongoing year-round outdoor historical reenactments, a working colonial farm and the fully working replica of The Dove sailing ship, which was one of the "two original settlers ships that established the first Maryland colony" (Maryland's historical equivalent of the Mayflower).

Historic St. Mary's City also provides presentations on different aspects of colonial era woodland Indian life. At special times of the year, members of the Piscataway Indian Nation also provide reenactments and other cultural demonstrations. The Piscataway people were the original inhabitants of St. Mary's City and also befriended and helped the early colonists.

The area also hosts summer stock theater productions (with historical themes) and other special events. Historic St. Mary's City is owned by the State of Maryland and runs under a registered nonprofit charter. In addition to general tourism, the organization hosts special tours for school children, handling more than 20,000 students on field trips per year.

Historic St. Mary's is under the administration of the "Historic St. Mary's City Commission", a government agency of the State of Maryland.

St. Mary's College of Maryland
The public honors college, St. Mary's College of Maryland, is a state-funded coed undergraduate liberal arts college. It is only one of two "Public Honors Colleges" in the nation and one of only a handful of small public liberal arts colleges. It was specifically tasked by the state of Maryland to be modeled after far more expensive private elite liberal arts colleges with the intention of offering such an education in the public sector.

The school is secular (nonreligious); the name commemorates the original colonial settlement by that name, half of which was located where the college now stands.

In 2014, U.S. News & World Report, in its annual "Best Colleges and Universities" report, ranked St. Mary's College as "5th" in the nation under the category "Top Public Schools" in the "Colleges" ranking.

George Calvert
Colonial St. Mary's City was first envisioned by an English Lord, George Calvert. Calvert had been born in Yorkshire to a Catholic family, but when he was twelve, the local authorities compelled his parents to send George and his brother Christopher to a Protestant tutor. From then on George conformed to the established religion and had a successful career in service to the crown. His first attempt at establishing a colony was in 1621 in the Province of Avalon on land he purchased in Newfoundland, but after a few years, Calvert decided a warmer climate would be a better location.

After his wife's death in 1622, and a shift in his political fortunes, in 1625 Calvert resigned his position as a secretary of state and returned to the religion of his childhood, at a time of continued religious persecution of the Roman Catholics in England. In 1631, Calvert obtained a grant from King Charles I in recognition of his services to king and country. It had been a dream of George Calvert to establish a colony in North America and to also make it a haven for persecuted Catholics.

Cecil Calvert

George Calvert died shortly before the Maryland charter received the royal seal; however, the King continued the grant to his eldest son and heir, Cecil. Cecil Calvert continued and expanded his father's plans. While their interest in providing a haven for fellow Catholics was genuine, it was imperative that the enterprise be profitable. Supporters in England of the Virginia colony opposed the Charter, as they had little interest in having a competing colony to the north. Rather than going to the colony himself, Baltimore stayed behind in England to deal with the political threat and sent his next younger brother Leonard in his stead. He never travelled to Maryland.

Leonard spent the rest of his life there, leading the settlers through many trials and tribulations, as well as to great successes in the farming and selling of tobacco back to Britain. Leonard, more than anyone else in his family, became the actual founder of colonial Maryland.

The Ark and the Dove

Led by Leonard Calvert, in November 1633, two ships, The Ark and The Dove, set sail from the Isle of Wight, loaded with settlers, Jesuit missionaries and indentured servants. After a long, rough sea voyage with a stopover to resupply in Barbados, they arrived in what is now Maryland in March 1634. They made their first permanent settlement in what is now St. Mary's County, Maryland choosing to settle on a bluff overlooking the St. Mary's River, a relatively calm, tidal tributary near the mouth of the Potomac River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

The site had been occupied by members of the Yaocomico branch of the Piscataway Indian Nation, who had abandoned it as being vulnerable to attack by the Susquehanna. The settlers had with them a former Virginia colonist who was fluent in their language and they met quickly with the chief of the region. The Tayac Kittamaquund, paramount chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation, sold thirty miles of land there to the English newcomers. He wanted to develop them as allies and trading partners (especially because of their advanced technology, such as farming implements, metal-working, gunpowder and weapons, types of food and liquor, etc.). For some time, the Piscataway, their tributary tribes, and the English Marylanders coexisted peacefully.

Naming of St. Mary's City
St. Mary's City was officially named and founded on the site of the new settlement on March 27, 1634. "The name derived from the king's suggestion that the colony be named "Marianus" in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria...They settled on "Terra Mariae". The original group of settlers numbered 300, mostly English and also some Irish. There may also have been at least one mixed race (African and European heritage) indentured servant who had been picked up on the way over in Barbados. There were also other indentured servants from England and Ireland.

The group was a mix of Catholics and Protestants during a time of religious persecution of Catholics in the British Isles. Leonard Calvert (1606-1647), himself a Roman Catholic, became the governor of the new colony and continued to lead the settlers. St. Mary's City became the capital of the new Maryland colony, and remained so for sixty one years until 1694.

1634–1635: First Maryland legislative assembly
The first Maryland assembly, the first session of a non-native legislative body in Maryland, convened in 1634 and met periodically through 1635. The assembly quickly began to challenge a number of Cecil Calvert's edicts (sent in a letter along with the settlers), although they did not challenge his proprietorship over the new colony or his requirement for religious tolerance. Nevertheless, they pushed successfully for more personal freedoms and to adapt Calvert's edicts to the realities on the ground in the colony, which were not always the same as his expectations. For example, he wanted them to live in regimented fashion within the newly constructed fort in St. Mary's City but the greatest need perceived by the assembly was to allow for more spread-out farming. Leonard Calvert diplomatically lent support to the assembly's wishes in letters to his brother, and Cecil Calvert largely acceded.

Mathias de Sousa was a settler in the colony who was described in historical records by one witness as being "mulatto" (mixed African and European heritage, although sometimes this meant anyone who was dark skinned). He originally arrived in the new colony as an indentured servant working for the Jesuit missionaries who had come with the settlers. He later gained his freedom and went on to become an assemblyman, making him (possibly) the first person of African heritage to participate in a legislative body in North America.

Early mandates for religious tolerance
Instructions from George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, and the holder of the grant to the new Maryland Colony specified in 1633 that the new governor and all settlers were to practice religious tolerance. Upon the death of George Calvert, additional instructions written by his son Cecil Calvert, the new Lord Baltimore, also required religious tolerance in the new colony. They were sent along with his younger brother Leonard Calvert who accompanied the first settlers to Maryland in 1634 and who was appointed the first governor of the Maryland Colony, although they also encouraged Catholics to be reserved about expressions of their faith in order not to antagonize Protestants. These instructions became the first laws of Maryland.

This intent was carried forward and expanded upon by the majority of early settlers of the time, who upon forming their first legislative assembly, called "The Assembly of the Province of Maryland", passed the Maryland Toleration Act in 1649, further codifying the protection of religious freedom.

First colonial town
The original St. Mary's settlement was laid out according to a Baroque town plan, with the settlers living closely in a town with church, stores and homes close by and outlying farms, fields, woods and orchards laid out in a grid or strips of land. However, most residents of St. Mary's City later preferred to live on their tobacco plantations in the surrounding countryside. The settlement was meant to be the capital of the new Maryland Colony and Province of Maryland.

Tobacco successes and the expansion of slavery
St. Mary's City experienced an economic boom due to successful tobacco farming, which was the most important export commodity. Tobacco became an extremely valuable cash crop in the colony. This also drove the expansion of African chattel slavery. Older practices of allowing chattel slaves to gain freedom by converting to Catholicism or by eventually grandfathering indentured rights to them after many years of servitude were abolished. The character of the colony began to change more and more to a slave-based economy and slavery began to embed itself into the culture.

An increasing town population contributed to the desire for constructing public buildings, some of which were a state house, a Jesuit chapel, a jail, and an inn.

Growing religious tensions
During and after the English Civil War, fights between Protestants and Catholics developed in the colony. Often this tension went in long cycles, with extended periods where the tension was more repressed followed by acute periods where religious divisions would flare up, sometimes driving change in St. Mary's City and Maryland in the process.

Margaret Brent
Margaret Brent was a business-savvy and successful Catholic settler in St. Mary's City, who, contrary to the mores of the time that discouraged women from managing their own estates, although this was legal, insisted on managing her own business affairs. She had also traveled to the colony as a single, unmarried woman which was contrary to expectations of the time.

The law, in writing, had always been on Brent's side, but the common practices and beliefs of the day did not always guarantee enforcement, especially in the male-dominated frontier environment of the colonies, far away from the courts of England. As a woman, she had to defend her legal rights in order to be sure they were respected.

Brent defended her right to run her own estate in common law court before the assembly in St. Mary's City, making a spirited case, and won, making her the first woman in English North America to stand for herself in a court of law and before an assembly. She also demanded the right to vote in the assembly.

Brent also served as an attorney before the colonial court, mostly representing women of the colony. She is considered to have been very legally astute. Surviving records indicate that she pleaded at least 134 cases. Although she did not explicitly campaign for women's rights in general, she is credited for having done so implicitly.

1644–46: Plundering Time
The violence stemming from the English civil war eventually spread to the colonies and a Protestant raiding party attacked St. Mary's City, driving off many settlers and burning several structures. After the attack there were only about 100 people still living in the town. The raiders took control of the city and added further fortifications.

The raiders plundered the homes of all the Catholic residents of the city who refused to renounce their faith and anyone who professed friendship to a Catholic. This would later be called the Plundering Time by the colonists.

1647: Leonard Calvert retakes St. Mary's City
Leonard Calvert had spent a few years in exile from St. Mary's City but remained in the colonies. During this time he married Margaret Brent's sister which also brought Margaret Brent into the Calvert family as an in-law, advancing her in some ways to her advantage and in other ways to her detriment. Nearly two years later, Leonard Calvert managed to raise a militia and led an attack to retake St. Mary's City. They succeeded in driving off the Protestant militia and regained control of the town.

Then Calvert and his men carried out successful raids on Kent Island in the Chesapeake, which had become a stronghold of his foes, defeating the force there. At this point Calvert had the upper hand, although the threat still remained. However, within a year, Leonard Calvert became sick and died, creating a temporary power vacuum in the colony and also worryingly for the residents of St. Mary's City, leaving Calvert's militia, which had been protecting the city, unpaid.

Margaret Brent intervenes at a personal cost
Margaret Brent had been named by Leonard Calvert as the executor of his last will and testament, a very unusual designation for a woman of her time. She therefore handled the liquidation of Leonard Calvert's estate. However at the same time, Calvert's still-unpaid militia had become a security issue for St. Mary's City. Even if the militia simply disbanded due to the soldiers remaining unpaid, the City would then be vulnerable again to attack. And so Brent successfully petitioned the Maryland Assembly to grant her power of attorney over the holdings of Cecil Calvert, the Lord Baltimore, who was Leonard's brother living in England. She then used proceeds from liquidating some of these holdings to pay the militiamen.

Although her actions were later defended by the Maryland assembly as necessary in an emergency, a strain emerged between the Calvert family in England and Brent. Even though the assembly stated that Brent's actions may have in fact, helped to save the colony, the Calverts did not approve of Brent making a decision to spend money raised from Cecil Calvert's assets.

In defense of Brent, the Maryland Assembly issued the following proclamation about her:

"...the Colony was safer in her hands than any man's in the Province, and she rather deserves favor and thanks for her so much concerning [herself] for the public safety."

However this did not sway Cecil Calvert.

This dispute also set off racial tensions between the Brent family and Cecil Calvert in England, because Brent's brother, who had also been in St. Mary's City, had married a Native American princess. In the same letter accusing Margaret Brent of mishandling Leonard Calvert's estate, Cecil Calvert also disparaged her brother, Giles Brent, for having married a Native American woman. At the end of the letter, Cecil Calvert ordered Brent and her brother and sisters to leave the Maryland Colony.

Although the assembly was largely supportive of Brent and largely took her side in the dispute with the surviving Calvert family in England, during this time she also petitioned for the right to vote in the assembly. However the assembly denied her that right because she was a woman. This was the first known attempt by a woman in English North America to gain the right to vote.

Despite appeals on her behalf by the Maryland assembly, Cecil Calvert had demanded by letter that she and her brother and sisters leave the Maryland colony. Consequently, Brent left the colony with her sister. They lived for a year on an island in the Potomac River and then moved to the Virginia colony. Other relatives moved directly to Virginia. Brent established a new estate there which she called "Peace". She eventually became very successful and stayed in Virginia for the rest of her life.

1649: Maryland assembly ratifies the "Maryland Toleration Act"
The Maryland Toleration Act, crafted and passed by the reinstated Maryland assembly in St. Mary's City, was the first law codified to mandate religious tolerance among Christians of various sects (especially Catholics and Protestants). It was approved not only to carry out the wishes of George Calvert and his son and Cecil Calvert that the colony be a place of religious toleration between Catholics and Protestants. More urgently, the act, which applied to all of the Maryland Colony, sought to settle once and for all the religious divisions that had triggered the recent fighting. The assembly at the time was majority Protestant, and the aristocratic leadership, including the governorship of the colony was Catholic.

The act remained in effect for 40 years, and contributed to relative peace in the colony during that time.

1660s: Problems in the tobacco economy
In the 1660s tobacco, which had long been a lucrative boom crop, began to experience price declines. This was likely due to increased production and competition in other colonies. The problem was then aggravated by Maryland planters cutting their tobacco product with other leaves in order to make up for the decrease in the price of a tobacco barrel. Although helpful in the very short run, in the longer run this cutting practice hurt the reputation of Maryland tobacco in England and further devalued the yearly tobacco crops. All of this began, in stages, to have a destabilizing effect on the Maryland Colony, which then further aggravated latent religious tensions between the majority Protestant planters and the Catholic aristocratic leadership.

All of this further intensified reliance on slavery in St. Mary's City, as plantation owners sought to eliminate the cost of paid labor in producing tobacco.

1676: Original brick Maryland Statehouse constructed
In 1676, the original Maryland Statehouse, the home of the Maryland colonial assembly, was finished. The current reconstructed statehouse is not in the original location, which today lies under the churchyard of the adjacent Trinity Episcopal Church. When the original statehouse was dismantled in 1829, Trinity was built out of the statehouse bricks.

1678: First printing house in southern colonies opens in St. Mary's City

Moving to St. Mary's City in 1678, William and Dinah Nuthead became the first printers in Maryland. While Dinah Nuthead was illiterate, she would often help her husband in operating the printing press. By copying the letters and the processes of her husband, Dinah was able to continue the printing business following her husband's death in 1695. After gaining a license to print from the colonial government, Dinah became the first female printer in the colony. When Dinah moved to Annapolis, Maryland in 1695, she was able to continue their printing business in the new location.

1689: Watershed eruption of religious conflict
In 1689, about forty years after the passage of the Maryland Toleration Act, sectarian tensions between Protestants and Catholics became so great that Protestant settlers revolted against the Lords Baltimore in the Protestant uprising in Maryland. The English Crown took over the Maryland colony and appointed royal governors, replacing the Calverts.

Legally mandated religious tolerance was abolished, first by Royal decree and then later by a law passed by a now majority-Protestant state assembly, in the new capital in Annapolis.

1690s: Catholics lost the right to vote, other anti-Catholic policies implemented
In 1692 Catholics in the Maryland Colony lost the right to vote. Catholics were also no longer allowed to worship in public and could only worship in their private homes. Laws were also passed limiting new Roman Catholic immigration to the colony.

Although a Catholic person's right to vote in Maryland would be reinstated by the state assembly some decades later, other forms of discrimination against Catholics would continue through most of the next century and would leave lasting religious tensions in Maryland felt all the way through to the election of John F. Kennedy just past the mid-20th century.

Relocation of Maryland Capital
The new Protestant Maryland governor Sir Francis Nicholson relocated the capital from St. Mary's City to the more central Annapolis (then called "Anne Arundel Town") in 1695. The colonial statehouse in St. Mary's was turned into a Protestant church the same year.

In 1695 St. Peters freehold, the former home of Maryland governors in St. Mary's City, was destroyed in an explosion. Whether this was an intentional act or an accident is not known, as a large gunpowder magazine had been stored in its basement. The freehold had briefly been the home of the new Protestant Governor Francis Nicholson until he ordered the colonial capital moved to Annapolis. Prior to this the freehold had been the home of Philip Calvert, the former Catholic Governor of the Maryland colony and Cecil Calvert's half-brother until his death in 1682.

Anti-Catholic policies and discrimination in the 18th century
During the 18th century, Catholics became a persecuted minority group in Maryland, including St. Mary's county. Catholics were denied the right to serve in the militia, taxed double when money had to be raised for the military, and continued to be discouraged from immigrating. Wealthy Catholics often became crypto-Catholics (practicing their religion in secret and sending their children abroad to get Catholic educations), but poor Catholics could not afford this and were more vulnerable to discrimination practices. Consequently, over the generations, many converted to Protestantism in order to avoid discrimination. By the late 18th century, the Catholic population had dropped to 9%.

Abandonment of the city
With the seat of government gone, the town lost its reason to exist. Remaining inhabitants were mostly farmers. The former town center was converted to agricultural land, and archaeological remains from the colonial town were undisturbed in the ground.

Early 18th century: Consolidation of farms
The small remaining farms in St. Mary's City were consolidated into a large antebellum-style slave plantation by the Brome-Howard family, which operated through a majority of the 19th century. The main plantation house was built over the ruins of one of the Calvert residences.

Civil War
During the Civil War, Union troops occupied St. Mary's County, which like a large part of Maryland at the time, had Southern sympathies. Piers and wharfs in St. Mary's County were burned by Union forces in order to stop trade with the confederacy which was only across the Potomac River. Brome's Wharf in St. Mary's City was also burned, as it was a part of what was by then the Brome-Howard Plantation, owned by Doctor Brome, a slave-owner and a likely confederate sympathizer. There is archeological evidence that the Union Army may have occupied the plantation for some time. Records show that Brome later complained that Union troops had damaged his piano while ransacking the main plantation house.

Records show that one quarter of the 66 people living under slavery at Doctor Brome's plantation in St. Mary's City escaped during the Civil War and at least two of them then joined the Union Army. Even before slavery was legally abolished, the Union Army had a policy allowing enslaved men to gain their freedom if they became Union soldiers. Other records show that the total number of people living under slavery there during this time was 59.

Two men who had escaped slavery from the St. Mary's City area, Alexander Gough and William Gross, joined the famed 38th United States Colored Infantry Regiment of the Union Army, which won unit citations for valor in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm (also known as the "Battle of New Market Heights") in the American Civil War. Gough is known to have survived the war and lived the rest of his life in Baltimore. Two other African American men from the area, William H. Barnes and James H. Harris both from Great Mills (which is just to the north of St. Mary's City), who had been free tenant farmers before the war, also served in the same regiment. Harris and Barnes each received the Medal of Honor for their actions in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm. There is evidence suggesting that additional slaves from the Brome plantation fought in the war as well. In total, over 700 African Americans from St. Mary's County served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

The United States Colored Troops Memorial Statue, in Lexington Park, Maryland, seven miles north of St. Mary's City, honors and memorializes African American soldiers from St. Mary's County, including the men of the 38th United States Colored Troops Regiment, who served as soldiers or sailors in the Union cause during the American Civil War. An educational plaque at the site specifically mentions Barnes and Harris and how they received the Medal of Honor.

Post-Civil War farming
The Civil War ended slavery on the plantation and the area remained mostly under a large farm, worked by tenant farmers and owned by descendants of the original owners until the 20th century. By the mid-20th century, few 17th-century buildings still stood. The town center site appeared to be farmland with the exception of a few private residences, and also after 1840, a slowly expanding female seminary school that began with just a small part of the total area.

Writings about the decline of St. Mary's City
In 1838 the novel Rob of the Bowl was published; it was a story about the struggle for religious tolerance in Maryland and was written by John Pendleton Kennedy, and was set in St. Mary's City and also neighboring St. Inigoes, Maryland. The book opens with a poem that Kennedy selected as a re-attribution to describe St. Mary's City long after its abandonment as the capital of Maryland.

This also refers to part of the 19th-century history and mythology of St. Mary's City (in the State of Maryland) as a place where great things happened (such as the founding of the Colonial Government of Maryland and the birthplace of religious freedom in the United States) but which eventually became a ghost town. "No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,

But choked with sedges, works its weedy way;

Along thy glades a solitary guest,

The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;

Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies,

And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.

Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,

And the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall"

"The Deserted Village"

1840: Establishment of St. Mary's Female Seminary
The book Rob of the Bowl tells a somewhat fictionalized story of the original St. Mary's City. The author, after the book became popular, publicly lamented that there was no monument to memorialize the original St. Mary's City and what happened there.

A few years later, in 1840, a women's nondenominational seminary high school was established on the grounds of old St. Mary's City, in response to Kennedy's call for a monument. Its founders described it as a "living monument" to the beginnings of religious tolerance and established it to meet the educational needs of young women in the county and the state. The school was called St. Mary's Seminary.

The school was intentionally made nondenominational, to honor, promote and memorialize religious tolerance, and also to help heal Protestant-Catholic tensions that still haunted St. Mary's County at the time.

The name was changed to St. Mary's Female Seminary, to clarify the school's already existing female student-only mission.

Early 1900s
In 1926, the former St. Mary's women's Catholic seminary school (a boarding high school within the proper of old St. Mary's City that was founded in 1840) was expanded to a two-year seminary female junior college combined with the last two years of high school (four years total). This was seen as a natural outgrowth of its former role as a now elite, state-funded women's high school.

Through an act of the Maryland Legislature, St. Mary's gender limitation was removed, and the word "female" was consequently dropped from the school's name. However, although males may enroll, they are not offered housing. The name of the school was changed to St. Mary's Seminary Junior College.

The St. Mary's City Commission was chartered in 1966 by the State Assembly of Maryland and the Governor, Millard Tawes. The charter created the commission as "a new, independent state agency" reporting directly to the Governor of Maryland "to preserve, develop and maintain" St. Mary's City as a state "monument", and also to oversee ongoing archeological work.

The Junior College was ordered to be expanded to a four-year institution in 1966 (effective in 1968) and renamed "St. Mary's College of Maryland". It was chartered as a four-year public liberal arts college. Its mission was to provide a liberal arts college in the public sector to students who could not afford to attend elite private colleges. Reorganization was completed in 1967.

1969: St. Mary's City declared a National Landmark
St. Mary's was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1969.

The plan "recommends acquisition of 1200 acres" and suggests a museum, visitor center, working tobacco farm, public transportation, and reconstruction of the Ark and Dove as first steps in the reconstruction of the historic city.

1976: World premiere of Wings of the Morning, by Kermit Hunter
Commissioned to celebrate the founding of St. Mary's City, Hunter's outdoor drama prominently featured the characters of Leonard Calvert, William Claiborne, Ann Arundel, Richard Ingel, Mathias de Sousa and others, and launched the career of two-time Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington, who made his stage debut as DeSousa. Also in the cast were Tony winner Debra Monk as Ann Arundel), and actor/writer/director Jackson Heath as Ingel. On July 4, 1976, a Washington Post review of the play was read aloud on the floor of Congress and permanently entered in the Congressional Record.

1980–present
After years of exploratory test digs and historical detective work, and with the possible original key town locations having been narrowed down, archeological dig activity was increased significantly in a determined effort to finish uncovering the original layout of the colonial settlement.

In 1984, Lord Baltimore's World was a large-scale, months-long colonial reenactment that was staffed by professional actors and also included live Shakespearean theater. It occurred within St. Mary's City proper and celebrated the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Maryland's first colonists.

After four years of intensified archeological digging, most of the original town layout had been discovered. It had been originally expected that the layout would be chaotic, but instead it was revealed that the town was actually carefully planned in a Baroque style, similar to Williamsburg, Virginia and Annapolis Maryland. Old St. Mary's City, Annapolis and Williamsburg are the only three towns in North America planned and built in a Baroque layout.

The St. Mary's City Commission, which had evolved through a variety of roles and slight name variations assigned to its historical research, reconstruction and preservation charter, was assigned a new name in 1991 by the State of Maryland: the Historic St. Mary's Commission. This commission still has administrative authority over about half of St. Mary's City; it is responsible for the preservation of more than 800 acres of land and 3 miles of shoreline.

Present
Historic St. Mary's City is now a significant tourist attraction in the state of Maryland, visited by approximately 20,000 students per year, in addition to approximately 25,000 other tourists per year (a rough yearly total of 45,000 people). Expansion and development of the historic area continues, including reconstruction and replica creation of additional period sites. Historic St. Mary's City is operated as an outdoor living history museum, and includes costumed actors portraying colonial-era life, museum exhibitions, and numerous reconstructed buildings.

St. Mary's College of Maryland is now a nationally recognized elite educational institution in the public sector. In 2014, U.S. News & World Report, in its annual report, ranked St. Mary's College as 5th in the nation under the category "Top Public Schools" in the "Colleges" category.

Archaeological research in St. Mary's City
The National Park Service has described St. Mary's City as "probably the most intact 17th-century English town surviving in our nation represented entirely by archaeological resources." Numerous archaeological digs and research projects continue in St. Mary's City. In the last 30 years, there have been more than 200 archaeological digs in the city.

First excavations
After explorations by Henry Chandlee Forman in the 1940s, excavations began in 1971 with the creation of the St. Mary's City Historic Commission, a state institution tasked with discovering and preserving archaeological remains in St. Mary's City, establishing a museum on the site, and conducting related historical research. Since then, much of the original colonial St. Mary's City has been found. The Historic St. Mary's City Commission continues to excavate the area today.

The Historical Archaeology Field School
In conjunction with St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Historic St. Mary's Commission (formerly the "St. Mary's City Commission") runs the Historic Archeological Field School every summer that is attended by students from all over the United States and other countries as well. Many of its graduates now hold prominent positions in the field. The students not only study, but also work in many of the active archeological dig sites in St. Mary's City. Providing extensive hands-on experience, the school teaches all aspects of professional archeological work, including working in real archeological digs, analyzing and conserving artifacts, as well as cataloging, archiving and related historical research. The school has been in existence for more than 40 years.

Current work
St. Mary's City has numerous active archeological dig sites, focusing on precolonial, colonial and antebellum (slavery era) history.

Notable discoveries
Some important archeological discoveries in St. Mary's City include:

 * The site of the first printing house in the Southern colonies; a quantity of lead print type (for printing words), indicating that the site where it was found was the documented William Nuthead Printing House
 * A 1645 fort with a surrounding moat, claimed to be the only structural remains of the English Civil War in the American Colonies
 * Discovery of the site of St. John's Freehold, where Maryland's citizen government was instituted
 * Façon de Venise glassware
 * A set of Kütahya ceramics, one of only two known examples found in the United States
 * 19th-century slave quarters from St. Mary's City's later plantation period
 * Three 17th-century lead coffins. One of these is suspected of being the coffin of the former colonial chancellor and also judge, Philip Calvert.
 * The foundation of a Jesuit chapel
 * Discovery of the site of St. Peters Freehold, the former home of Maryland Chancellor Philip Calvert. St. Peters freehold was destroyed in a violent explosion in 1695 when 900 pounds of gunpowder stored in its cellar were set off. Whether the explosion was intentional or an accident is unknown. The discovery was made by a team of visiting British scientists, and was featured in a British Time Team documentary that aired on The Learning Channel.
 * Garret Van Sweringen's Inn, a 17th-century inn founded by Garret Van Sweringen an Innkeeper and a leader in St. Mary's City's development
 * Extensive artifacts from successive Native American occupations
 * The 18th-century house of merchant and planter John Hicks, with an extensive ceramic assemblage
 * Former slaves quarters and living area discovered on current campus grounds of St. Mary's College of Maryland, monument in honor of enslaved people erected by college

These findings come along with thousands of artifacts and bone fragments that have been cataloged and processed into St. Mary's City historical museums and storage archives. These artifacts continue to be analyzed, and continue to advance period research in various fields.

St. Mary's Fort
In late 2019, St. Mary's Fort was unearthed to be later revealed in March 2021. The structure was built in 1634 by the first English colonists, to be their fourth colony in the New World after Jamestown (1607), Plymouth (1620), and Massachusetts Bay (1630). Moreover, a silver coin was discovered there, dated back to the reign of King Charles I.

title: St. Mary's City, Maryland


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Queen's College, Nassau

Queen's College (QC) is a coeducational institution located in Nassau, Bahamas, operating under the auspices of the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church. Founded in 1890, Queen's College is the oldest private school in the Bahamas.

Structure
Queen's College consists of three sections: the early learning centre, a primary school and a high school. The school offers Advanced Placement courses, A+ certification, Advanced Subsidiary courses, SAT II course, and MOUS (Microsoft Office User Specialist Certification) certificates.

History
In 1871, Queen's College opened its doors under the name The Bahamas Wesleyan Propriety Institution. The school's first principal was George Terry. From 1890 to 1925, the school continued under the guidance of S. B. Wilson and his successors, including Rev. Leonard Edge (1903–1908).

In 1925, Rev Richard P. Dyer took up the appointment as headmaster, a position he which held until 1959. Dyer was succeeded by Geoffrey Litherland (1959–64), Neville Stewart (1964–71), and Hayden Middleton (1971–79).

By the late 1960s, the school's population had grown to more than 2,000 students. The first Bahamian administrator of Queen's College, Yvonne Noronha, was appointed vice principal of the college and headmistress of the primary school in 1978. This was followed by the appointment of Charles Sweeting in 1979. Sweeting served as principal until 1993.

Vice Principal Philip Cash was appointed principal in 1993 and served until he died in June 1997. In November 1997, Andrea Gibson became the first woman principal and served until 2019. Virginia Minnis was appointed head of the early learning centre in September 1999 and was the first Bahamian to serve in this post.

The school's current principal is Rev Henry Knowles, who has held the position since 2019.

Sports
The Comets, the school sporting team, has won awards in basketball, volleyball, swimming, track & field, and soccer. For years, Queen's College has placed second in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) Track and Field Championship. In 2015, the Comets secured their first victory over the St. Augustine's College (SAC) Big Red Machines, who were on a 20+ year winning streak.

Administration
As of 2023:

 * Principal: Rev. Henry Knowles
 * Vice Principal, Head of High School: Shawn Turnquest
 * Deputy Head High School (Curriculum): Maria Tsavoussis
 * Deputy Head High School (Administration): Clint Higgs
 * Head of Primary Years: Sylvia Beneby
 * Head of Foundation Years: Joiclyn Taylor

House system
Queen's College has four houses: Dyer, Heath, King, and Rogers. This system is used primarily for student classification in sporting events and as a merit system up to the high school level. It is then used to place students into home room classes, where students remain until graduation. It is also used to decide which students go to BAISS.

Extra-curricular activities
Clubs and societies include but is not limited to:

 * The SPARC (Students Pursuing Advanced Rigorous Courses) Programme
 * The Student Christian Movement
 * The Student Representative Council
 * The Anchor Club
 * The Key Club
 * The Junior Cooperative Credit Union
 * The Interact Club
 * The Debating Society (encompassing The Model United Nations debate)
 * The People to People International Student Chapter
 * The Teacher Cadets Club
 * The Modern Languages Club
 * The Governor General's Youth Awards
 * The Queen in Me Club
 * The Drama Club
 * The Chess Club
 * The Guitar Club
 * Feeding the 5000
 * Cheerleading
 * Band
 * French Praise Team
 * School Choir
 * Junkanoo Squad

Through Queen's College's extra-curricular involvement, students have become involved with organizations such as Resources and Education for Autism and Related Challenges (REACH), the AIDS Foundation of the Bahamas, and the Special Olympics Committee of the Bahamas.

Students of the college have volunteered in improving the living conditions and recognition of hurricane victims.

Notable alumni

 * Durward Knowles, Olympic sailor
 * Sir Leonard Knowles, first Chief Justice of The Bahamas
 * Keva Eldon Bethel, educator
 * Mychal Thompson, NBA basketball player
 * Jackie Edwards, long jumper
 * Allison Martlew, musician
 * Culture, rapper/musician
 * Hon. Obie Wilchcombe, Member of Parliament, West End & Bimini
 * Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin, Member of Parliament, Englerston & Chairwoman, Progressive Liberal Party
 * Sen. Hon. Henry Alexander L. Storr, Senator, & Deputy chairman, Progressive Liberal Party

title: Queen's College, Nassau


text:
List of timelines of World War II

This is a list of timelines of events over the period of World War II.

Main timelines

 * Timeline of events preceding World War II
 * Timeline of World War II (1939)
 * Timeline of World War II (1940)
 * Timeline of World War II (1941)
 * Timeline of World War II (1942)
 * Timeline of World War II (1943)
 * Timeline of World War II (1944)
 * Timeline of World War II (1945–1991)

Wars, campaigns, and battles

 * Timeline of the invasion of Poland (1939)
 * Timeline of the Battle of France (1939–1940)
 * Timeline of the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945)
 * Timeline of the Winter War (1939–1940)
 * Timeline of the Norwegian campaign (1940)
 * Timeline of the North African campaign (1940–1943)
 * Timeline of the Eastern Front of World War II (1941–1945)

Others

 * Timeline of declarations of war during World War II
 * Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II (1939–1945)
 * Timeline of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1918–1941)
 * Timeline of Sweden during World War II (1939–1945)
 * Timeline of the Netherlands during World War II (1939–1945)
 * Chronology of the liberation of Dutch cities and towns during World War II
 * Chronology of the liberation of Belgian cities and towns during World War II
 * Timeline of the Manhattan Project (1939–1947)
 * Timeline of air operations during the Battle of Europe
 * Timeline of the Holocaust
 * Timeline of the Holocaust in Norway
 * Timeline of Treblinka extermination camp
 * Timeline of deportations of French Jews to death camps
 * Timeline of Allied World War II conferences
 * Timeline of Irish maritime events during World War II
 * Timeline of Winston Churchill's first premiership

title: List of timelines of World War II


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Międzyrzecz

Międzyrzecz (Meserici, Meseritz, מעזריטש ) is a town in western Poland, on the Obra and Paklica river, with 17,667 inhabitants (2020). The capital of Gmina Międzyrzecz and Międzyrzecz County. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, it has been situated in Lubusz Voivodeship. In 1975–1998 Międzyrzecz was part of Gorzów Voivodeship. The town limits cover 10.26 km2.

Geography
The town's name refers to Mesopotamia ("between rivers", Międzyrzecze) and its location at the confluence of the Obra River and the Paklica tributary, in the west of the historic Greater Poland region. About halfway between the towns of Skwierzyna and Świebodzin, it is situated 48 km south of the regional capital Gorzów Wielkopolski and 68 km north of Zielona Góra.

The municipal area is in a particularly green part of Poland. Extensive forests and numerous lakes can be found in the vicinity, including two Natura 2000 protected areas south of the town.

Międzyrzecz is the seventh largest town in Lubusz Voivodeship. The number of inhabitants has slightly been on the decrease since the 1990s.

History
The settlement on the road leading from Magdeburg to Gniezno was first mentioned as Mezerici by the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg in the course of the 1005 campaign of King Henry II of Germany into the Polish lands of Duke Bolesław I Chrobry. The Old Polish name Mezyriecze first appeared in the 1112/16 Gesta principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus.

It remained a western outpost of the Duchy of Greater Poland, established by the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty, after the loss of Lubusz Land in the mid-13th century and was incorporated into the Poznań Voivodeship of the Polish Crown upon the coronation of King Władysław I the Elbow-high in 1320. Under the rule of his successor Casimir III the Great (1333–1370) German settlers began to migrate into the area in the course of the Ostsiedlung. Town privileges were confirmed by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1485. Międzyrzecz was a royal town of the Polish Crown and the seat of starosts (local royal administrators). In 1520 it was ravaged by the Germans.

The town remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until in the Second Partition of Poland of 1793 it was annexed together with the whole region of Greater Poland by the Kingdom of Prussia. The town at first was part of the South Prussia province, was ceded to the Poznań Department of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw by the 1807 Treaties of Tilsit, and upon the 1815 Congress of Vienna fell back to Prussia, administrated within the Grand Duchy of Posen. In 1818 the town became the capital of the Prussian Kreis Meseritz within Regierungsbezirk Posen. After the failed Greater Poland Uprising of 1848, it was incorporated into the Province of Posen, which, with Prussia, became part of the unified German Empire in 1871. According to a 1900 census, 20.2% of the population were Polish native speakers.

20th century
After World War I, upon the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918/19 and according to the Treaty of Versailles, the town was part of the small, mostwestern part of Greater Poland which remained part of Weimar Germany. From 1922 these lands, located close to the border with the Second Polish Republic, were administrated as the Prussian Province of Posen-West Prussia. Meseritz became the seat of the Landeshauptmann governor, until in 1938 the province was dissolved and Meseritz was incorporated into the Province of Brandenburg. From 1934 to 1938, the Nazi administration had the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen fortifications erected in the south of the town. During World War II, in Obrawalde (present-day Obrzyce within the city limits), from 1942 to 1945, Germans murdered over 10,000 people, mostly mentally ill and disabled, as part of the Aktion T4, but also prisoners of war and political opponents.

In the late days of World War II, Meseritz was occupied by Red Army forces in the course of the Vistula–Oder Offensive on 31 January 1945. Left to the Republic of Poland, it was incorporated into Poznań Voivodeship on July 7. The town's re-incorporation to Poland was confirmed with the Potsdam Agreement and the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line. While the Polish autochthonous minority was allowed to remain in Międzyrzecz, the German speaking majority was expelled. Poles of whom a part had been expelled or left from former Kresy territories, annexed by the Soviet Union, re-settled the town.

Sport

 * MKS Orzeł Międzyrzecz (founded April 15, 1945) – men's football club (Polish league level 6)
 * KS Orzeł Międzyrzecz – men's volleyball club (Polish league level 3)
 * MKT Tenis Club Poland-Orzeł Międzyrzecz (founded November 15, 1993) – men's and women's tennis club
 * MSBS Międzyrzecz – men's duplicate bridge club
 * MTB MOSiW Międzyrzecz – men's and women's cycling (mountain biking) club

Notable people

 * Christian Samuel Theodor Bernd (1775–1854), linguist and heraldist
 * Adolph Kullak (1823–1862), pianist and musicologist
 * Rudolf E. A. Havenstein (1857–1923), director of the Reichsbank
 * Peter Berling (1934–2017), actor and writer
 * Dawid Murek (born 1977), volleyball player
 * Rafał Maślak (born 1989), male model
 * Kamil Jóźwiak (born 1998), footballer

Twin towns – sister cities
See twin towns of Gmina Międzyrzecz.

title: Międzyrzecz


text:
Jarocin

Jarocin is a town in west-central Poland with 25,700 inhabitants (1995), the administrative capital of Jarocin County in Greater Poland Voivodeship.

Jarocin is a historical town, having been founded and granted city rights in the 13th century. The marketplace features a Ratusz town hall built between 1799 and 1804, which is now home to the Jarocin Regional Museum.

The town also became famous in the 1980s thanks to the Jarocin Festival, one of the first rock-punk music festivals of the former Warsaw Pact and in Europe. The first event was organised in 1980.

History
The lordship of Jarocin was first mentioned in a 1257 deed issued by Duke Bolesław the Pious of Greater Poland. The town was conveniently located at the intersection of the trade routes from Wrocław to Toruń and from Poznań to Kalisz. It was a private town of Polish nobility, administratively located in the Pyzdry County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland.

Jarocin was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1793 Second Partition of Poland and administered within the newly formed province of South Prussia. It was part of the Duchy of Warsaw from 1807–13 during the Napoleonic Wars, but was restored to Prussia afterwards. The town was included within the Grand Duchy of Posen from 1815 and the Province of Posen from 1848. It became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1889 it was included within the newly created Jarotschin District of the Province of Posen.

Jarocin participated in the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) and had the first soldiers' council in the Province of Posen. Polish insurgents captured the local military barracks and rail junction on November 8–9, 1918, just days before Poland declared independence on November 11. It was subsequently included in the Second Polish Republic. 42 Polish insurgents from Jarocin and nearby settlements were killed in the uprising. In the interbellum Jarocin was a county seat in the Poznań Voivodeship.

The town was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939 during World War II and administered within the newly formed province Reichsgau Wartheland as part of the district or county (kreis) of Jarotschin. Poles arrested during the Intelligenzaktion were imprisoned in the local prison. Many Polish citizens, especially Jews, were expelled and replaced with ethnic Germans from the Baltic states, Volhynia, and Bukovina in accordance with the German Lebensraum policy. Many inhabitants were also deported to forced labour in Germany. The Germans devastated the memorial at the mass grave of the fallen Polish insurgents of 1918–1919. A forced labor prison operated in the vicinity from January 1941 to January 1945. Nevertheless, the Polish resistance movement was organized in the town, including the Secret Military Organization and structures of the Polish Underground State. Several resistance members were captured by the Germans and then sentenced to death and executed in Dresden in 1943. Following the arrival of the Red Army and the end of the war in 1945, Jarocin was restored to Poland with however, a Soviet-installed communist regime that stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The devastated insurgents' tombstone was renovated in 1948.

It was administratively located in the Kalisz Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998.

Sights
Main landmarks and points of interest include the old Radoliński Palace with an adjacent park, the Polish Rock Granary, a museum dedicated to Polish rock music, the Rynek (Market Square) filled with historic architecture, including the town hall, which also houses the historic museum, and the St. Martin's Church, and several Greater Poland Uprising memorials.

Sports
The town's most notable clubs are rugby union team, which competes in the Ekstraliga (Poland's top division), and football team Jarota Jarocin, which competes in the lower leagues. The town has a parkrun event that meets in Radoliński Park.

Education

 * Wielkopolska Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Jarocinie

Twin towns
Jarocin is twinned with:

 * 🇫🇷 Libercourt, France
 * 🇳🇱 Veldhoven, Netherlands
 * 🇭🇺 Hatvan, Hungary
 * 🇩🇪 Schlüchtern, Germany
 * 🇺🇦 Oleksandriia, Ukraine
 * 🇹🇷 Korkuteli, Turkey

People

 * Eduard Lasker (1829–1884), politician
 * Gustav Wegner (1903–1942), German athlete
 * Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915–2006), operatic lyric soprano
 * Czesław Madajczyk (1921–2008), Polish historian
 * Sławomir Majusiak (born 1964), Polish long-distance runner
 * Robert Baran (born 1994), Polish wrestler

title: Jarocin


text:
Krotoszyn

Krotoszyn (Krotoschin, קראטאשין Krotoshin) is a town in west-central Poland with 29,485 inhabitants. It is the seat of Krotoszyn County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship.

History
Krotoszyn was founded by local nobleman, participant of the Battle of Grunwald, and was granted town rights in 1415 by King Władysław II Jagiełło. It was a private town owned by the Krotoski, Niewieski, Rozdrażewski and Potocki families, historically located in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. After the town suffered a fire in 1453, King Casimir IV of Poland vested it with new privileges, establishing a weekly market and three annual fairs.

It developed as a regional center of trade and crafts, located at the intersection of the Kalisz–Głogów and Toruń–Wrocław trade routes. During the Thirty Years' War, in 1628, Protestant refugees from German states settled in the town. It was plundered by the Swedes, during the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1656, but soon recovered and famous fairs were held there.

It was annexed by Prussia in 1793 during the Second Partition of Poland. After the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia, and in 1871 it subsequently became part of Germany. During the German rule in the 19th century, the town was located in the Prussian province of Posen. The castle of Krotoszyn was the centre of a mediatised principality formed in 1819 out of the holdings of the Prussian crown and granted to the prince of Thurn und Taxis in compensation for his relinquishing control over the Prussian postal system and it was subjected to Germanisation. Famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin stopped in the town in 1829. During the Polish Greater Poland uprising (1848) Germans and Jews attacked the local Polish committee, and the Poles had to move their activities to Koźmin Wielkopolski. Later on, despite the Germanisation policies, Poles established a number of organizations, including an industrial society, a cooperative bank and a local branch of the "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society.

Many inhabitants took part in the Greater Poland uprising (1918–19), during which the town was liberated by the insurgents on 1 January 1919, nearly two months after Poland regained its independence.

World War II
The Germans attacked Krotoszyn on 1 September 1939, the first day of the invasion of Poland and World War II. On 2 September they bombed a train with Polish civilians fleeing the Wehrmacht from Krotoszyn, killing 300 people and on 3 September they captured the town. The Germans established a transit camp for Polish prisoners of war and over 4,500 Polish soldiers passed through the camp. In mid-September 1939, the Einsatzgruppe VI entered the town to commit various crimes against the Polish population.

During the German occupation the Polish population was subjected to mass arrests, Germanisation policies, discrimination, expulsions, executions and deportations to forced labour in Germany. Poles from Krotoszyn, including several local policemen and the town's deputy mayor, as well as several alumni of local schools, were also murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. The Germans destroyed the memorial dedicated to local Polish insurgents of 1918–1919, while another monument plaque was hidden by Poles and thus preserved. Germany also established and operated a Nazi prison in the town. Nevertheless, local Poles managed to organize the underground resistance movement, which included secret Polish teaching, scout troops, a local branch of the Home Army, the Secret Military Organization and structures of the Polish Underground State. Independent underground Polish press was issued in the town.

The town was liberated by Soviet troops and local Poles in January 1945 and restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Some members of the Polish resistance movement were persecuted by the communists after the war.

It was within Kalisz Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998.

Economy
The dominant trade is in grain and seeds, and the headquarters of the Polish branch of Mahle GmbH is located there.

Cuisine
The officially protected traditional food originating from Krotoszyn is wędzonka krotoszyńska, a type of Polish smoked pork meat (as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland). Local traditions of meat production date back hundreds of years, and the first butchers' guilds were established shortly after granting town rights in the early 15th century.

Sports
The main sports club of the town is Astra Krotoszyn with football and volleyball sections.

Notable people

 * Agnieszka Duczmal (born 1946), Polish conductor
 * Martin A. Couney (1869–1950), American obstetrician
 * Katarzyna Grochola (born 1957), Polish writer
 * Georg Huth (1867–1906), German Orientalist
 * Isidor Kalisch (1816–1886), reform rabbi
 * Judah Aryeh ben Zvi Hirsch, French Hebraist
 * Theodor Kullak (1818–1882), German pianist and composer
 * Marian Langiewicz (1827–1887), Polish military leader of the January Uprising
 * Marcin Lijewski (born 1977), Polish handball player
 * John Monasch (1865–1931), General Sir John Monash (change of name) was an innovative strategist in WWI
 * Otto Roquette (1824–1896), German author
 * Władysław Rybakowski (1885-1952), Polish social and political activist
 * Maria Siemionow (born 1950), Polish scientist and microsurgeon
 * Melitta von Stauffenberg (born Schiller) (1903–1945), German test pilot of WWII
 * Louis Weissbein (1831-1913), architect, immigrated to the United States in 1854
 * David Zvi Banet (1893–1973), Orientalist and Professor of Arabic Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
 * Łukasz Kaczmarek (born 1994), Polish volleyball player

Twin towns – Sister cities
Krotoszyn is twinned with:
 * 🇹🇷 Bucak, Turkey
 * Brummen, Netherlands
 * 🇫🇷 Fontenay le Comte, France
 * 🇩🇪 Dierdorf, Germany
 * 🇱🇹 Maišiagala, Lithuania
 * 🇭🇺 Fonyód, Hungary
 * 🇯🇵 Okinoshima, Japan

title: Krotoszyn


text:
Queen's College, London

Queen's College is a private day school for girls aged 11–18 with an adjoining prep school for girls aged 4–11 located in the City of Westminster, London. It was founded in 1848 by theologian and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice along with a committee of patrons. In 1853, it was the first girls' school to be granted a Royal Charter for the furtherance of women's education. Ever since, the college patron has been a British queen.

The college has a distinctly liberal ethos based upon the principles of F. D. Maurice.

History

In 1845, David Laing, chaplain of the Middlesex Hospital raised funds with a committee of patrons to acquire a building at 47 Harley Street with the intention of creating a home for unemployed governesses.

Laing was keen to develop the institution to provide governesses with an education and certification. In 1847, he acquired the agreement of professors from King's College London to give lectures in the Home. Queen Victoria gave her assent, promise of funds and patronage. In 1847, the first lectures took place, the Committee of Education was established under the chair of F. D. Maurice, and number 45 was purchased. In December of the same year, the first certificates were issued. Meanwhile, it was decided to extend the reach of the education on offer to women who were not governesses.

The establishment of the college was met with criticism by the press, F. D. Maurice was forced to defend the intention of teaching mathematics to women against claims of its 'dangerous' consequences.

The composers William Sterndale Bennett and John Pyke Hullah were among the founding directors.

In the early days of the college, lectures were given to a single classroom of girls ranging from 12 to 20 years of age. The younger pupils were soon to be given their own school at the back of the buildings, which was also open to boys. The Waiting Room became the place where girls would gather and be introduced by the Lady Resident to their chaperones who remained with them throughout their classes and were known as the 'Lady Visitors' (one of them being Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley). When the college was separated from the Governesses' Benevolent Institution in 1853, a new Governing Council was established, with the 'Visitor', the Bishop of London as its figurehead, an arrangement which continues to this day. Following the resignation of Maurice in 1853, Richard Chenevix Trench became the first principal and took over as Chair of the Committee of Education.

The college had resisted attempts to become, or merge with, a college of London University. The Lady Resident Eleanor Grove and linguist Rosa Morison had left together in the 1880s because of this and they returned to lead College Hall, London.

The practice of offering lectures from visitors throughout the year is a tradition of the college.

During the Second World War, the college escaped destruction when a bomb exploded on the opposite side of Harley Street. The windows at the front of the building were smashed and plaster work damaged. The college continued to function during the war with classes held in bomb shelters constructed in the main corridor. Evacuation of the pupils to the Lake District and then to Northamptonshire was short-lived.

The college ceased to offer boarding accommodation in the 1980s and Kynaston House was re-modelled from the accommodation to offices, a senior common room and a library.

School organisation
Each student is assigned to a form of approximately 18–22 members. The forms are headed by a tutor and deputy, and take their name from the initials of the tutor. There are two or three forms in a year and each year is under the watch of a year head. The years comprise the three sections of the college, each with a further delegated head.

Ethos

The teacher in every department, if he does his duty, will admonish his pupils that they are not to make fashion, or public opinion, their rule; that they are not to draw or play, or to study arithmetic, or language or literature or history, in order to shine or be admired; that if these are their ends, they will not be sincere in their work or do it well. — F. D. Maurice

Religious affiliation
The college is Anglican in affiliation, stemming from its foundation under Christian Socialist F. D. Maurice. Half the principals since the college's inception have been vicars or canons of the Anglican Church. Today, the college is associated with the nearby All Souls Church, Langham Place, whose vicar is the school chaplain. Prayers are said daily in the hall (except on Thursday), and the year begins with the reading of a prayer written specially for the college by Maurice. Members of other faiths are welcomed and a weekly Jewish assembly takes place.

Terms
The three terms are named Michaelmas, Lent and Summer.

At the end of the Lent Term, Founder's Day is observed, when thanks is given for the founding of the college at All Souls Church, which is also the location of the carol service at the end of the Michaelmas Term.

Annual Gathering
The Summer Term closes with the Annual Gathering, when pupils continue the tradition, begun in 1854, of lining the school corridor dressed all in white, accompanied by the staff in academic dress. The 'Visitor', the Bishop of London, or his representative, is introduced by form tutors and the Principal to every student in the college from Class 1 upwards and selected representatives of Classes 2 and 3. The event is followed by the Principal's report to the governors, parents, staff and pupils on the academic year and an address from the Visitor.

Alumnae

Founded in 1891, the Old Queen's Society exists to connect former pupils with each other and the school. The first Honorary Secretary was Frideswide Kekewich and the first President, Ellen Howard.

Known as Old Queens, alumnae have included many notable women over the school's history, including:
 * Camilla Croudace, Lady Resident at Queen's College (1881–1906)
 * Gertrude Bell (1884–86), archaeologist, cartologist, diplomat
 * Anna Wintour OBE (1960–63), editor-in-chief, Vogue
 * Frances Helen Prideaux, the first woman to be competitively appointed as a surgeon to a London hospital

Heads of Queen's College

 * Principals

 * F. D. Maurice (Chair of the Education Committee 1848–53)
 * Richard Chenevix Trench (1853–54)
 * A. P. Stanley (1863–1872)
 * J. LLewelyn Davies (1873–1874)
 * Edward Plumptre (1875–1879)
 * J. Llewelyn Davies (1879–1886)
 * R. Elwyn (1886–1894)
 * C. J. Robinson (1895–1898)
 * T. W. Sharpe (1898–1903)
 * G. C. Bell (1904–1910)
 * Henry Craik (1911–1915)
 * J. F. Kendall (1915–1918)
 * Joseph Edwards (1919–1931)
 * G. E. Holloway (1932–1940)
 * A. M. Kynaston (1940–1963)
 * Stephanie C. P. Fierz (1964–1983)
 * P. J. Fleming (1983–1990)
 * Celia Goodhart (1991–1999)
 * Margaret Connell (1999–2009)
 * Frances Ramsey (2009–2017)
 * Richard Tillett (2017–present)

 * Deans

 * C. G. Nicolay (1848–54)
 * E. Plumptre (1854–75)
 * Henry Craik (1875–81)
 * H. G. Seeley (1881–1909)
 * Joseph Edwards (1909–1919)
 * R. Bayne (1919–1922)
 * T. W. Crafer (1922)

 * Headmistresses of the School

 * Parry (1849–57)
 * Hay (1857–1893)
 * Palethorpe and Wood (1893–1895)
 * Luard (1895–1907)
 * Teale (1907–1919)
 * Position merged with Principal (1919)

Former

 * Terry Bagg, poet
 * Dorothea Beale, suffragist and educational reformer
 * R. C. Trench
 * David Bedford, composer
 * Louisa Bovell-Sturge, pioneering female doctor
 * Isidore Brasseur, tutor to the Prince of Wales
 * Émile Cammaerts, Belgian poet
 * Richard Chenevix Trench, Dean of Westminster
 * Henry Charles Innes Fripp, Professor of Art
 * John Pyke Hullah, composer
 * Janet Kay-Shuttleworth
 * Elaine Kaye, author
 * Charles Kingsley, author and social reformer
 * David Laing, chaplain and secretary of the Governesses' Benevolent Institution
 * Edward Collett May, music educator
 * Fiona McIntosh, Olympian and former British number 1 fencer
 * Tessa Millar, Olympic rower and coach
 * Edward Plumptre, theologian
 * Anne Smith, world record holder for running the mile in 1967
 * Henrietta Maria Stanley
 * William Sterndale Bennett, composer, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music
 * Ethel Truman, first woman to achieve a first in physics at London University
 * Richard Henry Walthew, composer

title: Queen's College, London


text:
Ostrów Wielkopolski

Ostrów Wielkopolski (often abbreviated Ostrów Wlkp., formerly called simply Ostrów, Ostrowo, Latin: Ostrovia) is a city in west-central Poland with 70,982 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship; the seat of Ostrów Wielkopolski County. It is the fifth-largest city in the voivodeship after Poznań, Kalisz, Piła and Konin.

It is located in the Kalisz Region in the south-eastern part of historic Greater Poland.

History
Recently, a small fortified dwelling dating from the 10th century was discovered on the north-east side of the town's limits. An archeological excavation is now in progress. It was part of Poland since the establishment of the state in the 10th century.

The oldest known mention of Ostrów comes from a document from 1293. Ostrów received town rights in 1404 but the economic stagnation caused by fires, wars, and a weak 16th-century nobility, led to the town's officials dropping its town status in 1711. Administratively it was located in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the [[Greater Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
 * Greater Poland Province]]. In 1714, one of the nobles of Ostrów,, intervened at the royal court, for the status to be reinstated. To help the city grow, new settlers were exempt from taxes for six years. By the power of Grand Crown Marshal Franciszek Bieliński, the town received its status back with greater privileges. Another noble family, the Radziwiłł family took patronage over the town and looked over its many investments. The care of the town's owners, work of its people, and dedication of its officials, as well as its location, favored the town's continuous growth.

During the Second Partition of Poland, in 1793, the town was annexed by Kingdom of Prussia. After the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. It was re-annexed by Prussia, to be included within the initially autonomous Grand Duchy of Poznań in 1815. The cloth industry prospered in Ostrów until 1825, when Russia imposed tariffs on imported cloths, as a result of which many textile manufacturers moved east to the Russian Partition of Poland. In 1828 local noble Antoni Radziwiłł funded the construction of a new town hall. In 1845 the Royal Catholic Gymnasium was established, a significant Polish school in the Prussian Partition of Poland, which as the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące remains one of the most renowned high schools in Greater Poland. Ostrów then became an important center of Polish education, press and publishing in the region. Among the local Polish elites were Antoni Bronikowski, an outstanding Hellenist who translated the works of Plato, Homer, Thucydides and Xenophon into Polish, and poet. The establishment of a railroad hub in Ostrów was a vital turning point in its development, helping to lend the town prominent status on the local and national scene. In 1875 the first railway connections were opened, with Poznań and Kluczbork. The Primate of Poland Cardinal Mieczysław Halka-Ledóchowski was imprisoned in the local prison for two years by the Prussians, before they eventually expelled him from the country. After Poland regained independence, he was honored with a monument in the city.

Ostrów was an important center of Polish resistance and national liberation movements. One of the town's historic episodes was the so-called Republic of Ostrów (Republika Ostrowska), which was the citizens’ upheaval of 1918. No blood was shed at that upheaval and all political powers were taken over from the Prussian authorities. The anniversary of the upheaval, November 10, is celebrated as the official Day of the City of Ostrów Wielkopolski. The first Polish mayor of Ostrów after regaining independence was, one of the leading independence activists and publishers in Ostrów before 1918. Following the Polish–Soviet War, from 1920, the 60th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army was stationed in Ostrów Wielkopolski. In the interbellum, Ostrów was one of the fastest growing towns: the number of inhabitants doubled, showy houses were built, as well as new schools, stadiums and a swimming pool. Three new villa district were founded, and a modern railcar manufacturing (Fabryka Wagon) began. In 1934 the city limits were widely expanded and the villages of, , Wenecja and Krępa became new districts of Ostrów.

World War II
During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the Einsatzgruppe III entered the city on September 7–9, 1939 to commit various crimes against Poles, and also the SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Brandenburg operated in the city. During the German occupation of Poland, local Poles were subjected to mass arrests, imprisonment, deportations to concentration camps, expulsions, forced labour and massacres.

In late 1939 and early 1940, many Poles were arrested during the Intelligenzaktion, then imprisoned in Kalisz and murdered in large massacres in the Winiary forest. Among the victims were activists, school principals, former participants of the Polish Greater Poland uprising (1918–19) against Germany, and pre-war mayor Stanisław Musielak. The Germans also established a Nazi prison for Poles in Ostrów. Further mass arrests of around 400 Poles from the county were carried out in April–May 1940, and many of the victims were then imprisoned in the local prison. Teachers from Ostrów were among Polish teachers murdered in the Mauthausen concentration camp. A Nazi German labor camp, Staatspolizeistelle Litzmannstadt Arbeitserziehungslager Ostrowo, operated within the town's limits, where 193 people died.

The Germans carried out first expulsions of Poles in October 1939, focusing on owners of bakeries, cafes, workshops and large apartments, which were then handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy, while expelled Poles were held in a transit camp in nearby Nowe Skalmierzyce for several weeks, and then deported to the General Government (German-occupied central Poland). Further 160 Poles were expelled in December 1939 to the Radom District of the General Government. Also a transit camp for Poles expelled from nearby villages was established in the local church. Further expulsions of Poles were carried out in 1940–1941.

The town was one of the major Polish conspiracy centers in the Greater Poland region. The Polish Secret Military Organization was founded in Ostrów in October 1939, and there were also structures of the Polish Underground State in the city. In 1941, after the Gestapo's crackdown on the headquarters of the Poznań branch of the underground army Union for Armed Struggle-ZWZ, the headquarters were moved to Ostrów. From here the re-structure of the Poznań region of the Union was conducted. Polish underground press was printed in Ostrów and then distributed in Ostrów and other nearby towns, including Krotoszyn, Ostrzeszów, Pleszew. Ostrów was liberated from German occupation on January 23, 1945. The town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

Recent period
After the war Ostrów Wielkopolski was part of the Poznań Voivodeship, and from 1975 to 1998 it was the second largest city of the Kalisz Voivodeship (behind Kalisz).

In September 1945, the Polish resistance movement made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the local communist jail and liberate the prisoners. In July–August 1980, employees of local factories joined the nationwide anti-communist strikes, which led to the foundation of the "Solidarity" organization.

In 1979 Ostrów's city limits were widely expanded for the second time, including the former villages, Szczygliczka, Zacharzew, Piaski, Stary Staw and Nowy Staw as new districts.

Sights
Ostrów has a well-preserved city center, with such sights as:
 * City hall (Ratusz) at the Market Square (Rynek), housing the local museum
 * Ostrów Wielkopolski Co-Cathedral
 * Virgin Mary Queen of Poland church
 * I Liceum Ogólnokształcące, the city's oldest high school, and one of the most renowned high schools of Greater Poland
 * Main Post Office
 * Monument of Primate of Poland Mieczysław Halka-Ledóchowski
 * Former synagogue

Places of interest outside the city center include:
 * Old Cemetery (Stary Cmentarz), the oldest active Catholic cemetery in Poland
 * New Cemetery (Nowy Cmentarz), opened in 1905, resting place of many distinguished figures of Ostrów, and Greater Poland insurgents, including the first fallen insurgent
 * Park 3 Maja (3 May Park)
 * Park Miejski (Municipal Park)
 * Ogród Bracki (Bracki Garden)

Education

 * Społeczna Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości i Zarządzania in Łódź, branch in Ostrów Wlkp.
 * Technical University of Łódź, branch in Ostrów Wlkp.

Sports

 * Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski – men's basketball team, playing in the Polska Liga Koszykówki (top division), 2020–21 season champions, 2019 Polish Basketball Cup winners
 * Ostrovia 1909 Ostrów Wielkopolski – men's soccer team, who play at the Ostrów Wielkopolski Municipal Stadium
 * TZ Ostrovia Ostrów Wielkopolski – speedway team, who race at the Ostrów Wielkopolski Municipal Stadium
 * Arged KPR Ostrovia Ostrów Wielkopolski – men's handball team, playing in the PGNiG Superliga (top division).

From 5 July to 20 July 2013 Ostrów Wielkopolski hosted the 17th European Gliding Championships. Local pilot Łukasz Błaszczyk took a bronze medal in the Club Class.

Notable people

 * Bartłomiej Jaszka (born 1983), Polish handball player
 * Krzysztof Komeda (1931–1969), Polish film score composer and jazz pianist
 * Krzysztof Kwiatkowski (born 1971), computer scientist, researcher, software developer; former Minister of Justice
 * Moritz Landé (1829–1888), German architect
 * Krzysztof Lijewski (born 1983), Polish handball player
 * Marcin Lijewski (born 1977), Polish handball player
 * Władysław Marcinkowski (1858–1947), Polish sculptor
 * Władysław Markiewicz (1920–2017), Polish sociologist
 * Mateusz Ponitka (born 1993), Polish basketball player
 * Bernhard Rawitz (1857–1932), German anatomist
 * Manfred von Richthofen (1892–1918), "Red Baron", German fighter pilot (World War I); briefly stationed in the city's cavalry unit before being sent to the Western Front
 * Jan Żniniewicz (1872–1952), Polish physician, author of the new method of hydrotherapy (balneological method of treatment of chronic rheumatic diseases)

Twin towns — sister cities
Ostrów Wielkopolski is twinned with:

title: Ostrów Wielkopolski