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The Death of Sport
Among the many mysterious photographs in MdHS’s collections, two of an elephant stand out as particularly unsettling. Buried in the Subject Vertical File, an artificial collection that was compiled...
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“To die is gain”: Memory and the U.S.-Mexican War in Maryland
The Watson Monument created by sculptor Edward Berge is flanked by captured Mexican mortars. Corpus Christi Church can be seen in the background here at its original location at Lanvale Street and...
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Paul Henderson Collection: Who or Where?
The Paul Henderson Photograph Collection contains over 6,000 photographs of mostly unidentified African Americans from ca. 1935-1965. When the Paul Henderson: Baltimore’s Civil Rights Era in...
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Lost City: The Sulzebacher House
Sulzebacher House, ca 1865, MdHS, CC956. West Baltimore was once a densely packed, vibrant neighborhood full of theaters, local businesses, and industry. Drive down many of the streets today and you’re...
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Lost City: The Regent Theater
The Regent Theater, circa 1948, MdHS, SVF. The theaters, night clubs, and restaurants that once made Pennsylvania Avenue Baltimore’s center for African-American entertainment are today a receding...
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Everyday People: Paul Henderson Collection Goes to City Hall
Can you identify these sharply dressed young men? “Two Unknown Young Men,” MdHS, HEN.08.01-004. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in the Imaging Services Department at MdHS. Through some wild...
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Lost City: Baltimore Town
There are two stories behind the creation of John Moale’s drawing of Baltimore Town. One version is that sometime in the late eighteenth century, Moale (ca. 1731-1798) sat down and sketched from memory...
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Then and Now: The Owl Bar
The Owl Bar has long been a favorite after-work drinking spot for MdHS staffers. A decent beer selection, cheap happy hour specials, and some of the best brick oven pizza in town are only part of the...
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Baltimore, a History Block By Block: Q&A with James Singewald
When he is not busy shooting rare, historic objects for the Maryland Historical Society, James Singewald keeps himself occupied with a more personal form of historic preservation. For the past six...
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The Dream of the ‘90s is Alive: Pre-processing the Joseph Kohl Collection
Whatever you do, do not mistake the title of this post as a diss. Kevin Keelty of Monkeyspank, date unknown. PP284, MdHS. REFERENCE PHOTO The photographs taken by Joseph Henry Adam Kohl (1957 – 2002),...
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A Thorny Path: School Desegregation in Baltimore
Protesting segregation of teacher training programs. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Parren J. Mitchell far left. Douglass High School, Calhoun and Baker Street,...
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Baltimore bands in the ’90s: more Joe Kohl photo mysteries
MdHS needs your help identifying bands, people, dates, and places from the Baltimore music scene of the late 1980s and ’90s in the photos below. Please help if you can. Reference photo #1: SOLVED,...
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The Paint and Powder Club –“The Oldest Club of its Kind”
Circus Maximus, possibly The Alcazar Theatre, 1977, Paint and Powder Club Photograph Collection, PP195-165, MdHS. The Paint and Powder Club, established in 1893 as a philanthropic and social club, is...
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Devil in the Details: Snowball Incident at 123 W. Lanvale St.
Starting January 2019, the content featured in our Aspect Ratio photography and film blog will merge with underbelly. Please look for series such as: ”Devil In the Details” (see below); “Career Day,”...
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