A history of Indian Head,
since 1920
Postcards, papers and photographs of Indian Head from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The peninsula, a "head" of land overlooking the Potomac River, had been long occupied by various cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe was the Mattawoman (likely a band of the Piscataway) encountered by the first English settlers; the latter called the land "Indian Head", meaning "Indian Peninsula". According to research published by the historical society of Charles County, "Indian Head" is a shortened form of "Indian Headlands". A newspaper article mentions another explanation of the name, that "an unfortunate young brave" from a foreign tribe was beheaded for falling in love with an "Algonquin princess", although Edward W. Rice (the town's mayor at that time) dismissed the story as a "fairy tale".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Indian Head’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewIndian Head, M.D. [and] Fish house, 1860: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Indian Head
See all 1 →Indian Head, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Indian Head is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Indian Head has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Mount Aventine in Bryans Road, 2.5 miles away.
Indian Head and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Indian Head, M.D. [and] Fish house (1860) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.