Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Annapolis, Maryland, March 2001. Photo by Elizabeth W. Newell. 
 
 
 
 Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Photo courtesy of American Chesapeake Club, Inc. 
 
 
 
 Retrievers are characterized by their versatility, strength, endurance, and loyal devotion. These dogs excel in field and obedience trials. As service dogs, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are found working with drug enforcement agencies, and visiting hospitals and nursing homes. Some are trained for search and rescue work, even as avalanche or sled dogs. 
 
 Since 1966, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever has been the official mascot of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. ||||| Maryland State ArchivesArchive-It Partner Since: Mar, 2011Organization Type: State Archives & LibrariesOrganization URL: http://www.msa.md.gov As the historical agency for Maryland, the State Archives is the depository for records of permanent value. Today, the Internet is the face of government. Through this partnership we hope to capture and make accessible important state and local government laws, publications and information. ||||| ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland lawmakers took a step Thursday toward scrubbing references to "Northern scum" and other Civil War-era phrases from the official state song. 
 
 The Maryland Senate voted 37-8 for the changes, while also recognizing "Maryland, My Maryland" as the state's historic song. Supporters of the measure, which now goes to the House, said it was a compromise that removes offensive language and recognizes history. 
 
 "They keep the historic song. It's still there, but this bill is an excellent compromise to move forward, so that our children and our children's children and so that all Maryland can be proud of our state song," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat. "At the present time, all of Maryland cannot be proud of our state song, and so that's the reason I'm voting green." 
 
 Maryland, which is below the Mason-Dixon Line, was a slave state with strong southern sympathies, but nevertheless refused to secede from the Union. 
 
 "Maryland, My Maryland" was written in 1861 by James Ryder Randall, when he was despondent over the death of a friend who was shot while protesting Union troops in Baltimore. It refers to President Abraham Lincoln as a "despot" and the need to "burst the tyrant's chain." The changes keep one verse from the old lyrics and add one from an 1894 poem by Frederick County educator John T. White that describes the state's natural beauty. 
 
 Sen. Robert Cassilly, a Republican, said it was wrong to try to eliminate parts of the state's history. 
 
 "Our song doesn't belong to the Confederacy. It belongs to us," he said. 
 
 Cassilly said the song celebrates the courage of people who are willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in, even if they turn out to be on the wrong side of history. 
 
 "It is what it is, but we learn from history, we learn from each other and we build upon it, so the idea that we're trying to excise our history is just, I don't think that's America," Cassilly said. "That's not what we're about." 
 
 The song is set to the traditional seasonal tune of "O, Tannenbaum." It was adopted as the state song in 1939. 
 
 It's not immediately clear why the song was adopted then. It was proposed in 1935, a year after the state had celebrated the tercentenary of its founding, and could've been adopted as a source of state pride, according to a panel that studied the song in 2015. The racial and political climate of the time should also be considered. There had been two lynchings, and the trial of an African-American man accused of murdering a white family in the early 1930s. 
 
 At the same time, the NAACP was pursuing equal pay for African-American teachers and by enshrining a Confederate war anthem, the General Assembly may have been seeking symbolically to challenge such efforts, the report said. 
 
 The song calls for Maryland to secede from the Union — at a time when Maryland residents sympathized with the Confederacy. The song begins with a hostile reference to Lincoln, who brought troops through Baltimore to protect Washington: "The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland! His torch is at thy temple door, Maryland!" 
 
 It ends with a call for the state to stand up to the Union: "She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb — Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She'll come! She'll come! Maryland! My Maryland!" ||||| Maryland State Flower - Black-Eyed Susan 
 
 In his Species Plantarum (1753), the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1701-1778) described and named the flower Rudbeckia after Olav Rudbeck and his son, both professors at the University of Uppsala, and hirta from the Latin meaning "rough hairy". 
 
 Black-Eyed Susans, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1998. Photo by Elizabeth W. Newell. 
 

– No one seems to take issue with Maryland's state flower (the black-eyed Susan), dog (the Chesapeake Bay retriever), or even dessert (the multi-layer Smith Island cake). But the state's Department of Legislative Services tells NBC News that lawmakers have tried more than once to dump "Maryland! My Maryland!"—a marching song soldiers belted out during the Civil War that became the state song in 1939—because of its Confederate ties and somewhat dread-inspiring lyrics, to no avail. But a state Senate vote Thursday, while not completely ditching the song that state Sen. Cheryl Kagan has called "shameful," approved 38-8 a bill that will at least modify some of the more questionable lyrics; it moves to the state House of Delegates next. Sung to the comforting tune of "O Tannenbaum/O Christmas Tree," the song starts off with "The despot's heel is on thy shore" (a disparaging reference to Lincoln), moves on to more confrontational lines such as "Avenge the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore," and then goes full-on battle cry with "She spurns the Northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She'll come! She'll come! Maryland! My Maryland!" (The "Northern scum" slur refers to the Union and its soldiers.) The lyrics were penned by James Ryder Randall in 1861 after one of his pals was shot and killed as he protested Union troops filing through Baltimore, per the AP. If the bill goes through, the more controversial wording will be removed, and lyrics from an 1894 poem describing the state's scenic beauty will be swapped in.