MdHS Description:

The Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) is the nation's leading center for the study of Maryland history and one of the most comprehensive resources to explore our nation's past. Its collections, totaling over seven million objects, comprise the largest collection in the state and one of the largest collections of Americana in the world. These resources are shared with over 100,000 individuals every year through on-and off-site educational programs, the publication of new scholarship on Maryland history, and an ongoing schedule of long-term and changing exhibitions.

Permanent Exhibitions:

Looking for Liberty: An Overview of Maryland History, the centerpiece of the Maryland Historical Society's Carey Center for Maryland Life, explores Maryland's history-its people and events-using Marylanders' pursuit of liberty from the colonial period to the present as its theme. The exhibition combines new research, important objects and artifacts from the MdHS and other collections with oral histories, video installations, and interactive elements, allowing the visitors to experience Marylanders' pursuit of liberty in ways that are compelling and represent a true departure from conventional state history exhibits.

Maryland Through the Artist's Eye, considers the history of Maryland through visual representations of the state's land and its people. The exhibition features the Society's rich assemblage of paintings by the Peale family, its treasure trove of precious miniatures, and its distinguished collection of portraits and landscapes, which includes not only oil paintings but previously unexhibited fragile watercolors and drawings on paper. Original research, combined with relevant decorative arts and everyday objects, enables the visual arts collection to be interpreted in new ways.

Furniture in Maryland Life explores the manufacture, design and function of furniture made and used in Maryland from 1634 to 2000. Installations present furniture in innovative ways and include engaging hands-on activities to illustrate furniture construction. Decorative arts treasures, such as silver and porcelain, along with stunning paintings of Maryland interiors will contribute to this fresh look at the furniture industry in Maryland. In addition to familiar favorites, 30 percent of the exhibition will feature pieces that have never before been displayed, including examples of MD furniture from every region of the state.

Campus Expansion and Renovations:

The Mount Vernon campus includes over 230,000 square feet of space and encompass more than a city block. The completed campus expansion plan, including new construction, the acquisition of three buildings, and renovations to existing structures, has more than doubled the institution's size since the mid 1990s.

The Zabelle S. and E. Read Beard Jr. Pavilion
The Beard Pavilion, the society's new public entrance and central reception area, is clad entirely in glass and contributes to the campus's visual continuity while also serving as the society's new, engaging, and contemporary public face along Park Avenue, a major Baltimore thoroughfare. Combining traditional materials in a contemporary setting, the Read Pavilion is set upon a floor of granite that begins outdoors in a landscaped courtyard and extends indoors through a reflecting pool and a large two-story reception area. Interior walls are composed of brick, limestone, and white marble and echo the materials found in the society's older buildings on Monument Street.

The Museum and Carey Center for Maryland Life
A stunning and contemporary three-story Museum, adjacent to the new entrance and the former Heritage Wing, houses the Carey Center for Maryland Life, which includes the exhibitions, Looking for Liberty: An Overview of Maryland History, Maryland Through the Artist's Eye, and Furniture in Maryland Life; as well as new areas for educational programs. The new exhibition areas boast high ceilings (including 20-foot ceilings in the third floor furniture gallery), flexible spaces, and northern light. Clad in a zinc-paneled exterior punctuated by windows of varying sizes, the dramatic and contemporary gallery building also contributes to the campus' visual unity.

The H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Renovations to existing spaces have more than doubled the Library's size. As part of the current expansion and renovations, the Library's main reading room has been restored to its original 1919 splendor, while modern additions include new lighting, wireless computer stations, and increased seating. Special collections occupy an elegant new reading room with tall windows and original mantelpieces, two galleries showcase Library collections, and SeaRCH, the Student Research Center for History Student Research Center provides students with the resources they need to conduct original historical research.

The MdHS Shop and Bookstore
The new MdHS Shop and Bookstore includes significant architectural elements saved from downtown Baltimore buildings. The store's outside wall is the oak façade (a reproduction of 1770s Parisian storefront) from Mano Swartz, a fur store first located at 225 N. Howard Street in Baltimore. Installed along the inside back walls of the shop are oak display cabinets, made c.1912, salvaged from the front sales room at Arthur's Bakery at 223 N. Eutaw Street, Baltimore. Founded in 1832, Arthur's Bakery was one of downtown's oldest retail establishments when it closed in 1978 after 146 years of service.



MdHS History:

In 1844, a group of Marylanders had the foresight to understand that preserving manuscripts, books, paintings, furniture, and more, was a way to preserve the state's and the country's heritage. The founders of the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) knew that these objects could bring Maryland's past and its role in our nation's history to life-to tell Maryland's story-so that future generations could learn from Maryland and its history.

In January of that year, 28 leaders of Baltimore's intellectual community met to form a historical society, which was chartered by the Maryland State legislature that spring. The new institution, housed in a former post office on St. Paul Street, began collecting books, records, manuscripts, and objects of local interest for preservation and display.

Today, the Maryland Historical Society is one of the nation's oldest and largest state history centers. It operates two satellite locations in downtown Baltimore, the Baltimore Civil War Museum and the Fells Point Maritime Museum, and has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and adults from across the state, the country, and even the world through an array of dazzling exhibitions, scholarly publications, vibrant educational offerings, and an exhaustive library.



Education and Public Programs:

The MdHS sponsors a dynamic schedule of educational programs and special events to make Maryland's history come alive for visitors of all ages. Lectures, symposia, living history performances, weekend programs for children, Traveling Trunks for teaching Maryland history to schoolchildren, gallery tours, Civil War Walking Tours, and many other programs, held both on- and off-site, promote pride and understanding of Maryland's rich history. In 2003 alone, over 90,000 people were served by MdHS educational programs both on- and off-site.


Press:

The Press at the Maryland Historical Society publishes new works and reprints in the field of Chesapeake regional history and biography. It also publishes quarterly a scholarly journal, Maryland Historical Magazine. Recent Press titles include, The Diary of William Faris: The Daily Life of an Annapolis Silversmith, Kent Island: The Land That Once was Eden, The Living City: Baltimore's Charles Center & Inner Harbor Development, The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography, and Yellow Flag: The Civil War Journal of Surgeon's Steward C. Marion Dodson.


Satellite Locations:

The Maryland Historical Society has opened two satellite museums in downtown Baltimore, enabling the MdHS to explore in- depth specific aspects of Maryland history in environments that are both historically significant and relevant to the topics they address.

• The Baltimore Civil War Museum, located in the historic President Street Station, explores Maryland's important railroad history, the transportation of slaves escaping to the North, and President Street Station's role as the site of the first bloodshed of the Civil War.
  
  Baltimore Civil War Museum
  601 President Street
  Baltimore, MD 21202
  (410) 385-5188
  
  Museum and shop are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  
  Admission: $3-4; children under 12 free.
  Free First Thursday of each month.