Latrobe's Cathedral: The Baltimore Basilica Through the Years Opening November 8!
In honor of the restoration and grand reopening of the Baltimore Basilica, the H. Furlong Baldwin Library will open the exhibit Latrobe's Cathedral: The Baltimore Basilica Through the Years November 8, 2006.
Featuring a variety of images and objects, as well as manuscripts and ephemera, the exhibit will include selections from the papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the Cathedral, including his initial offer, in 1804, to Bishop John Carroll to design the building and other correspondence throughout the construction process. The papers of Thomas Meredith, a 19th-century businessman quite devoted to the building, include pew rents, payments for music and salaries, and other items. Images and objects ranging from a print of Latrobe's original vision for the Cathedral and modern-day photographs will allow visitors to see how the cathedral has changed over the past two centuries.
The Civil War in Maryland: Rare Photographs from the Collection of the Maryland Historical Society and its Members
May 3 - October 14, 2006
The Civil War in Maryland: Rare Photographs from the Collection of the 
Maryland Historical Society and its Members will open in the galleries of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library May 3, 2006. Curated by Ross J. Kelbaugh,the exhibit will be the largest collection of original photos of Civil War Maryland ever displayed, including many images never before exhibited, and will cover the time period just before the start of the conflict through the postwar era. In addition to the collection of the MdHS, the exhibit will feature rare images from Maryland Union collector Arthur G. Barrett, Civil War authors' Ross J. Kelbaugh and Daniel Carroll Toomey, Maryland Confederate collectors David P. Mark, Sr. and Frederick D. Shroyer, and others.
Key photographs on display will include:
· Rare outdoor photographs of the Carroll family's Doughoregan Manor
· Portraits of the first African American casualty of the Civil War
· A newly discovered portrait of the citizen killed in the Pratt Street Riot who may also be the first Confederate soldier ever killed in the Civil War
· Rare photographs taken after the Battle of Antietam
· The largest number of wartime photographs of Baltimore ever displayed
· Unpublished photographs of Fort Federal Hill in Baltimore and other Union
camps around Maryland
· Portraits of African American soldiers from Maryland including one very rare
photograph of a member of the 4th U.S. Colored Troops from the Eastern Shore who was mortally wounded
· The only known photographs of Barbara Frietchie, the Frederick heroine of
John Greenleaf Whittier's poem of the same name
· The largest collection of images of Marylanders who served in the Union and Confederate armies that has ever been exhibited
· Rare Civil War stereoviews that can be viewed in 3-D
Ross J. Kelbaugh, an active member of the Library Committee of the MdHS since 1987, has assembled the largest private collection of vintage Maryland photographs and related material in the state. His interest and passion for the Civil War and historic photographs began when he was in elementary school at the start of the Civil War Centennial and continues today. Kelbaugh, co-author of the Baltimore County Public School’s grade 8 American History Gifted & Talented curriculum, retired from his career as an American history teacher at Catonsville High School in 2001. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he was selected as "Teacher-Historian" by the United States Capitol Historical Society in Washington, D.C. On the day of his retirement from teaching, Baltimore County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger declared "Ross J. Kelbaugh Day" in honor of "his lifetime commitment to providing a positive and productive learning environment for young people.”
Today he pursues his second career as founder and CEO of HistoricGraphics.com, a vintage image solutions company that has provided period paintings, prints, and photographs from his collections for books, magazines, media, and museum exhibitions. Many items were also selected for interior sets of the Ted Turner Picture's Civil War movie "Gods and Generals" starring Robert Duvall. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, and has been a consultant for the National Park Service, the Maryland State Archives, Maryland State Department of Parks & Recreation, the University of Maryland and the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland. He is author of the Directory of Maryland Photographers, 1840-1900, Introduction to Civil War Photographs and the recently published Introduction to African American Photographs, 1840-1950.
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