---
title: "As the Marine Corps Celebrates 250th Birthday, UMD Alum Preserves Its History"
date: 2025-11-10T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/as-the-marine-corps-celebrates-250th-birthday-umd-alum-preserves-its-history"
section: Articles
---
# As the Marine Corps Celebrates 250th Birthday, UMD Alum Preserves Its History

*November 10, 2025* — by [John Tucker](/author/john-tucker)


> Shawn Callahan Ph.D. ’23 Safeguards Quantico Archive, Advises Commandant on Historical Matters

*IMG 7856 1920x1080 1 — The United States will honor its 250th birthday next July, but the Marine Corps, established at the time of the United Colonies, celebrates its semiquincentennial on Monday. Shawn Callahan Ph.D. ’23, director of the Corps’ History Division, preserves documents reflecting the nation’s origin. (Photo by John Tucker)*

The weathered parchment is signed by John Hancock but predates his more famous autograph. On Nov. 28, 1775, six weeks after the United Colonies established a navy, the Second Continental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas as captain of the new Continental Marines.

“This is our most treasured document,” said Shawn Callahan Ph.D. ’23, leaning over it in a repository deep within the U.S. Marine Corps’ base in Quantico, Va. “The birth of our nation is reflected in it.”

Callahan, director of the Corps’ History Division, stood in his workspace, surrounded by shelves holding some of the military branch’s most cherished artifacts. Here, a letter from Walt Disney offering to design a squadron’s insignia during World War II. There, a 1918 map of Thiaucourt, France, overlaid with a color-coded battle plan. Across the room, an “after-action” report written shortly after the Tet Offensive in Vietnam to document one unit’s experience.

Callahan is tasked with preserving Marine Corps history, building its archives and promoting its story. He shares information with government officials and the American public and serves as the commandant’s primary adviser on historical matters.


*naval aviator certificate — Photo from the Alfred A. Cunningham Collection (COLL/3034) at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections. Official USMC photograph*



**Sidebar note:**

**Veterans Day Events**  
Veterans Student Life will host a [Veterans Day Breakfast ](https://umdsurvey.umd.edu/jfe/form/SV_8nVD2pEY9MaVau2)from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesday in its newly renovated space, 1103 Cole Field House. All students, faculty and staff, and alums who are veterans, active duty, reservists or military-connected are invited. Staff and faculty are invited to come meet UMD's student veterans.  
  
[Memorial Chapel](https://stamp.umd.edu/visit/memorial_chapel) invites Terps to honor and remember veterans 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday. Visit the labyrinth in the Garden of Reflection and Remembrance to inscribe a stone in honor of a veteran in your life, past or present. A vigil, carried out by the Maryland Honor Guard, will take place on the Chapel front steps 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in honor of deceased UMD veterans.

Find more details on UMD Veteran Week events at [stamp.umd.edu/veteransmemorial](http://stamp.umd.edu/veteransmemorial); it includes a list honoring deceased veterans from the past year.





**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni), [Veterans](https://today.umd.edu/topic/veterans), [History](https://today.umd.edu/topic/history)


**Units:** [College of Arts and Humanities](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-arts-and-humanities)