Maryland Day commemorates the landing of Lord Baltimore and the first colonists on St. Clement’s Island in 1634. Arriving aboard the ships Ark and Dove, the Maryland colonists held a ceremony to express gratitude for their safe arrival on March 25, 1634.
The colony was founded by Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, under a charter granted by King Charles I on June 20, 1632. Their aim was to establish a colony where Roman Catholics and people of all faiths could freely practice religion.
As a condition of the charter, the colony was named “Mary-Land” or Maryland in honor of King Charles I’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. The celebration of Maryland Day began in schools in 1903 and was later established as an official state holiday in 1916.
