One of only three surviving Revolutionary War officer's uniforms in America

Collections

Library Collections

The library enables researchers, teachers, and students to see the records of the past and to study and learn from the many treasures preserved at the MdHS. Historians, scholars, journalists, lawyers, legislators, and makers of film and television documentaries regular users of the library. The genealogical resources of the MdHS assist Marylanders and others in seeking the historical roots of individuals and families. This most comprehensive library of Maryland history provides resources that enable people throughout the world to review the actions of past citizens, governments, institutions, and organizations. The collection includes:

The Tilghman family papers

• 5 million manuscripts: including Father White's Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam, Francis Scott Key's original manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and significant papers from Marylanders such as the Tilghmans, Lloyds, Ridgelys, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, William Wirt and Betsy Bonaparte
• 1 million pieces of printed ephemera (printed material of passing interest): early theater, sports, and political materials, even tobacco trading cards, obsolete currency, and early wooden cigar boxes
• 800,000 photographs: ranging from 19th- century daguerreotypes to photographer Morton Tadder's work whose subject matter includes images of the Beatles to world-renowned photojournalist A. Aubrey Bodine's images
• 60,000 books including family and local histories, scholarly works, and Baltimore City directories as well as 15,000 rare books on diverse topics ranging from Benjamin Banneker's Almanac to Bozman's A Sketch of the History of Maryland to the sports, horse, and hunting collection in the MdHS's Symington Memorial Library

The incomparable Eubie Blake
• 15,000 musical scores: including original Eubie Blake ragtime scores
• 6,500 prints and broadsides: from landscape prints to Revolutionary era patriotic tracts to run-away slave ads and anti- and pro-slavery propaganda
• 2,500 maps and plats (diagrams of sections of city areas): Colonial and Civil War era maps, Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps (containing detailed maps with information regarding town and building information), and plats of early Maryland estates such as Wye House Farm
• genealogical works: the Norris Harris Church Register indices to library resources, the Wilkins File index to standard Maryland histories, and the Dielman-Hayward File (biographical entries on 400,000 Marylanders from c. 1772 to 1992)
• capsule histories of Maryland structures (Passano Historic Structures Index) 1650 to the present, with one-third in Baltimore City

Museum Collections

As the oldest continuously operating cultural institution in the state, the Society houses the most significant collection of Maryland cultural artifacts. The Museum collection includes:

• 300,000 archeological artifacts: primarily historical, held in approximately 800 boxes, from The Center for Urban Archaeology (Baltimore City Life Museum) excavated throughout the city of Baltimore.
• 10,750 textiles: including the largest collection of Baltimore Album quilts in the world, 124 samplers and embroideries, women's, men's and children's clothing and accessories ranging from c. 1730 to the present, bed and table linens, one of only three surviving Revolutionary War officer's uniforms in America, an extensive collection of Confederate and Union uniforms, a collection of flags (including 51 Civil War era flags and approximately 50 additional flags from the 18th though 21 century), and a collection of dresses and accessories designed by Claire McCardell

Slave-made Coiled Basket c.1860
Woodlawn Plantation, Prince George's County
• 10,000 miscellaneous household: office, and agricultural equipment, including gentlemen's and women's accoutrements (snuff boxes, card cases, canes, and sewing cases), lamps, washing machines, typewriters, and farming implements
• 8,250 works on paper: including 19th century drawing and sketch books that cover a wide range of Maryland topics among them, the largest national collection of B. Henry Latrobe sketchbooks featuring 343 pages of sketches from 14 books
• 8,021 fabrication drawings primarily from 19th and 20th centuries: including 2,165 architectural drawings for domestic and business architecture from the Baltimore region, 56 plans and drawings from 17 architects for the design competition for the United States Capitol, 3,800 drawings for silver made by Samuel Kirk and Son, and 500 furniture drawings from the Potthast Brothers and 1,500 from the Jenkins Furniture Company
• 4,134 pieces of silver holloware and flatware: including over 400 objects made by Samuel Kirk and his descendants and a significant collection of English silver with colonial Maryland history
• 2,500 toys, dolls, and games: played with by Maryland children
• 2,200 paintings and miniatures: including portraits of Maryland heroes from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, 220 works by members of the Peale family, the largest collection in the world; 7 portrait paintings by Joshua Johnson, the first professional African American portrait painter in the United States, and 10 Maryland landscapes by Francis Guy, considered one of the most important English artists to come to America in the late 18th century, over 1,500 images of MdHS paintings dating from the 17th century to the present are accessible here
• 2,200 Native American prehistoric archeological objects: including projectile points, pottery, and stone tools
• 1,500 ceramic table wares and decorative items for the home

In 1848, eight-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Haines stitched this sampler.
• 1,000 maritime objects: in many media including half hulls, ship models, maritime-related navigation tools, and trailboards
• 900 pieces of furniture: including 400 pieces of veneered and painted furniture from the early 19th century
• 866 pieces of jewelry for women and men: including a King Charles I commemorative ring of 1649 worn by a Maryland Catholic in the 17th century, and a ruby tiara owned by Betsy Patterson Bonaparte in the 1820s
• 600 glass bottles, drinking glasses, and glass tableswares, and eight stained glass windows from Baltimore buildings
• 350 sculptural and architectural objects: including portrait busts, portrait medallions, and architectural components from Maryland buildings
• 294 woodworking and silversmith tools and scientific instruments
• 231 weapons: including; muskets, rifles, bayonets, swords, sabers and handguns from the 18th - 20th centuries, associated with the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, and World Wars I and II, and other weapons used for hunting and ceremonial purposes.