The Society was founded 50 years ago to collect and preserve artifacts and documents that help to educate the public about the history of Howard County. Originally part of Anne Arundel County the Howard District was made a seperate county in 1851. In the 17th and 18th centuries the county was primarily am agricultural community based on tobacco cultivation.

The society, while collecting and preserving the past, also celebrates the present. Our exhibitions are designed to show the past in a way that is relavent to the community today.

In 1775 members of the Ellicott family came from Pennsylvania and founded flour and iron mills in Ellicott City and at other locations on the Patapsco River. The area switched from tobacco to wheat production and at one time had some of the largest wheat mills in the world. The first terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was Ellicott City because of the numerous mills in that area. Although flour production shifted to the western territories, Howard County remained an agriculture based economy until World War II. With less than 40% of its land in agricultural use today the county has undergone extensive changes including the building of the planned community of Columbia.

The Howard County Historical Soceity is the county's oldest cultural institution. The museum is housed in a gothic revival church built of locally quarried stone in 1894. The library/archibves is housed in the Weir Building, the oldest building in historic Ellicott City. The Society has paid staff, but rely heavily on volunteers to assist in both the library and museum.