MARYLAND'S NICKNAMES. Maryland is
known as both the Old Line State and the Free
State.

According to some historians. Gen. George
Washington bestowed the name "Old Line State"
and thereby associated Maryland with its regular
line troops who served courageously in many Rev-
olutionary War battles.

The nickname "Free State" was created by
Hamilton Owens, editor of the Baltimore Sun. In
1923, Georgia Congressman William D. Upshaw,
a firm supporter of Prohibition, denounced Mary-
land as a traitor to the Union for refusing to pass
a State enforcement act. Mr. Owens thereupon
wrote a mock-serious editorial entitled "The
Maryland Free State," arguing that Maryland
should secede from the Union rather than prohib-
it the sale of liquor. The irony in the editorial was
subtle, and Mr. Owens decided not to print it.
However, he popularized the nickname in later
editorials.

POET LAUREATE OF MARYLAND.

Maria B. Coker, 1959-1962
Vincent Godfrey Burns, 1962-1979
Lucille Clifton, 1979-1985
Reed Whittemore, 1985-

In the 18th century, Ebenezer Cook, author of
The Sot-weed Factor: Or, A Voyage to Maryland
(1708), styled himself Poet Laureate. Maryland
did not have an official poet, however, until 1959.
In that year, the General Assembly authorized the
Governor to appoint a citizen of the State as Poet
Laureate of Maryland (Chapter 178, Acts of 1959;
Code State Government Article, sec. 13-306).
Since 1979 the incumbent has been appointed to a
three-year term.

STATE THEATERS. By Chapter 1003, Acts of
1978, Center Stage in Baltimore was designated
the State Theater of Maryland. By the same act
Oiney Theatre in Montgomery County was desig-
nated as the State summer theater of Maryland
(Code State Government Article, sec. 13-309).