Tell Us Your Stories- Buffalo Soldiers: One Man's Stories
In collaboration with Towson University students and with the help of a grant from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and Arts, the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) will open the exhibition Tell Us Your Stories- Buffalo Soldiers: One Man's Stories in January 2006.

The exhibition tells the story of Norman Gilyard, a Baltimore native who served as a Buffalo Soldier during World War II, and will explore the role of African Americans during World War II. It will include Gilyard's Buffalo Soldier uniform shirt, pictures of Gilyard and his regiment, his original discharge papers, and an oral history interview conducted by Leon Bean, Gilyard's grandson.

The exhibition will close September 3, 2006.

Tell Us Your Stories is a new changing exhibition space that will allow the MdHS to exhibit more of its collection and tell the stories of Maryland's heritage. A book will be part of each exhibit and visitors will be asked to write about their experiences as they relate to the current exhibition.
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American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 1790–1840

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Curated by Sumpter Priddy III, American Fancy brought together, for the first time, many of the finest objects of the 19th-century artistic movement known as "Fancy" from some of the nation's leading museums and private collections, including the MdHS. Detailing a previously unexplored cultural and historic movement, American Fancy captivated audiences with more than 200 examples of the visually stimulating, ornately patterned, and engaging fine arts and domestic objects  embodying the "Fancy" style. Characterized by light, color, motion novelty, variety, and wit, the style identifies its relationship with important cultural developments and beliefs in early 19th-century America. Fancy objects in the exhibition included furniture, ceramics, textiles, metals, glass, paintings, and prints purposefully designed to stimulate the senses, stir the emotion, and please the eye.

Of the more than 60 pieces of "Fancy" furniture in the exhibition, visitors found several brilliantly-colored painted furniture pieces produced by John and Hugh Finlay (Baltimore 1805-1820) from the Maryland Historical Society collection. The spirited textiles in the American Fancy exhibition also included an early 19th-century Kaleidoscope quilt from the MdHS collection, further emphasizing the state's role in the new and exciting era of consumer culture.

The exhibition's innovative design does more than display historic  decorative arts; it captured the feeling of the era and allowed the audience to experience the spirit of "Fancy." American Fancy began with a presentation of the style's 18th-century philosophical origins, before the concepts were translated into goods in the 19th-century, and followed the evolution of the movement as well as the reasons it ended.

Additional topics covered included the surprising impact of the kaleidoscope on "Fancy"; the style's unparalleled role in the marketplace; and the range of decorative and sculptural techniques used by makers of "Fancy" goods. Utilizing the technology of today, the exhibition included a specially constructed audio-visual theater and a media station to provide interactive experience for visitors.

Curated by Sumpter Priddy III and organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum in collaboration with the Chipstone Foundation, the project, including the exhibition and the accompanying publication, is the result of Priddy's 25-year study of "Fancy". The exhibition was complemented by a 250-page, full-color book, American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840, by Sumpter Priddy III and published by the Chipstone Foundation, which is available at the MdHS Museum Shop.

The MdHS was the last of three venues for the national traveling exhibition. American Fancy opened at the Milwaukee Art Museum on March 26, 2004, was at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, July 7-October 31, 2004, and ended at the MdHS December 4, 2004- March 20, 2005.

Baltimore Ablaze
2/8/04–10/31/04

On February 7 and 8, 1904, a catastrophic fire raged through Baltimore. Almost all of downtown Baltimore burned to the ground, more than 1,500 buildings and 2,500 businesses were devastated. Miraculously, only five people died because of the fire.

This cornerstone exhibition, leading the city's centennial commemoration of the Great Fire, included over 300 objects, photographs, film, and documents, many of which had never before been seen by the public. Numerous oral histories included personal remembrances of the fire and its aftermath.
        

What's it to You?: Black History is American History
This exhibition presented highlights of African American life and achievement in Maryland from the late 1600s through 2000. Drawing on the Historical Society's vast collection of Maryland objects, What's It To You? featured photographs, furniture, paintings, sculpture, and video. Vistors were encouraged to consider how these objects related to their own lives as part of American history.

Greyhound Garage History
11/1/98-11/15/02
When it was built in 1942, the Greyhound garage was an innovation of its time. The garage sat behind the station's loading platform and saved Greyhound money by eliminating travel between the terminal and the garage. Today the Greyhound garage serves as MDHS's Heritage Wing for changing exhibitions and is one of MDHS's largest historic artifacts.

Mining the Museum
1/29/94-1/15/02
This was an installation of a larger exhibition, by the same name, by artist Fred Wilson. The exhibition addressed issues of curatorial choices and the role of museums as they relate to the representation of African Americans and Native Americans in traditional museum collections.

Baltimore Album Quilt Tradition
6/16/01-9/16/01
Colorful, exquisite and rarely seen by the public, the Maryland Historical Society presented an exhibition of historic quilts, including many of the MDHS's renowned 19th-century Baltimore album quilts.
A publication accompanies this exhibition.
Notes: See the BAQ- Japan file for catalog, printed material, as well as research used for this exhibit at the MDHS.

Celebrating the Baltimore City Life Collections
5/7/98-9/16/01
An exhibition drawn from the rich legacy of the Baltimore City Life Museums, including paintings, photographs, and objects from everyday life that explored themes important to Baltimore's history.

Maryland In Focus: A Photographic History, 1839-2000
12/15/00-4/15/01
This exhibition examined the evolution of photography in Maryland from the introduction of the first processes in 1839 to the present day. Drawing primarily on the MDHS's extensive holdings of original photographic materials, the exhibition represented the first comprehensive survey of the development of photography as a major medium of documentation and personal expression in America as it unfolded within the confines of a single state.

Ravens: Festivus Maximus Exhibitus
3/1/01-4/8/01
This exhibition looked at the Baltimore Ravens' history and celebrated their championship romp at Super Bowl XXXV.

George Calvert and Kiplin Hall
2/15/01-4/1/01
Maryland's roots are founded in Yorkshire, England at the ancestral home of the Calvert family, Kiplin Hall. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore and the proprietary founder of Maryland built Kiplin Hall. With the reopening of Kiplin Hall in May 2001, the MDHS's exhibit connected America, particularly Maryland, with old England and recognized Kiplin Hall as the 'birthplace of Maryland'. This exhibit displayed Annette Polon's copy of the portrait of George Calvert (Daniel Mytens' 1625 oil on canvas) which was held at the MDHS until Kiplin Hall reopened.
Notes: More information about Kiplin Hall on MDHS website.

Filming Maryland
4/15/00-10/8/00
From the silent films of the early 20th century through the recent work of film makers John Waters and Barry Levinson, Filming Maryland pointed the spotlight on the history, society, and landscape of Maryland as seen in feature films. The exhibition included props, costumes, scripts, and director's notes from 30 films.
A publication accompanies this exhibition.
Notes: Catalog lists feature films with Maryland topics.

The Burns Family Dollhouse
5/4/00-7/1/00
A display of the miniature world fashioned by the Burns family over 100 years ago. This distinctive dollhouse was built by an unknown Baltimore cabinetmaker around 1870. Isabelle Burns Berry and her daughter Isabelle Berry Hill collected the furnishings, which date from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

"Our WASHINGTON is No More!": Maryland Reveres George Washington, 1799-1829
11/1/99-2/27/00
As the news that George Washington had died on December 14, 1799 traveled throughout the state, Marylanders mourned the loss of their former Commander-in-Chief and president. A grieving public created a tremendous demand for memorial portrait prints of the man, writers composed poems, speeches, and sermons about Washington, and English potters created huge quantities of commemorative porcelain with images of Washington. Marylanders erected two monuments to his memory. This exhibition celebrated the life of George Washington and examined Maryland's mourning of our first president through paintings, ceramics, rare documents, and prints.

Wallis: Duchess of Windsor
9/19/99-2/20/00
The exhibition presented Maryland native and 20th-century icon Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, and displayed her costumes, jewelry, and other personal effects that defined her American style.

Steamboat Vacations: Excursions on the Chesapeake
4/4/99-1/30/00
To escape the oppressive summer heat, Baltimore residents and other regional travelers boarded steamboats to travel to amusement parks and excursion points along the Chesapeake Bay.
Steamboat excursions, whether for a day or longer, were the highlight of many Marylanders' summers. As this form of transportation vanished and the destination sites crumbled, people collected and saved fragments from both the steamboats and the parks to serve as reminders of summers past. The exhibition presented this history through objects and oral histories.
Notes: Steamboat Vacations: Destinations on the Chesapeake was a changing exhibit produced by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to correlate with the MDHS' Steamboat Vacations exhibition which was opened from 6/4/99 to 11/30/00.

More than Meets the Eye: Maryland History in Prints, 1750-1900
7/16/99-1/16/00
Maryland prints of the late 18th and 19th centuries, although produced mainly for commercial purposes, were highly prized and viewed by the public with great interest. The prints presented in the exhibition at the MDHS explore four themes from Maryland's history: immigration, rowdyism (riots and unruly gatherings), evangelical religion and reform movements, and changes imposed upon Maryland's landscape by its rapidly increasing population. Each print represented a window through which the observer can glimpse facets of Maryland's past and gain a deeper understanding of the events and social trends that have shaped the state's history.

Poe-Pourri
10/1/99-10/31/99
This exhibition focussed on Edgar Allen Poe and material from the MDHS Library related to him.

Family Reunions
6/1/99-9/1/99
With the acquisition of the collections from the Baltimore City Life Museums (BCLM) in 1998, the Maryland Historical Society (MDHS) brought together materials that document life in Maryland. The two collections often tell different, yet complementary stories, and almost as often tell two halves of the same story.
This exhibition documents the remarkable connections that have already been found between the MDHS and BCLM materials. We look forward to decoding more mysteries, reuniting family collections, and making new discoveries as we continue to integrate the BCLM's 300,000 objects with MDHS's nearly 7,000,000 items.

In Their Own Right: Portraits of Women in the Collections of the Maryland Historical Society
12/3/98-6/30/99
Maryland women are known for their work in quilts, coverlets, clothing and samplers, as well as through their letters and diaries. In Their Own Right: Portraits of Women in the Collections of the Maryland Historical Society enabled visitors to see their faces - women of renown, women of courage, women of industry and women who faced their daily lives with dignity. This exhibition celebrated women whose achievements and contributions contributed to the artistic, political, and civil fabric of the state.

The Legacy of Miss Mary Ringgold Trippe
4/13/99-6/6/99
Miss Ringgold Trippe was a historian and chairperson of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as well as a member and volunteer at the MDHS. Her collection of objects included those of her grandfather, the confederate General Andrew Cross Trippe, her father, former Speaker of the House of Delegates and judge of the Appeal Tax Court, James McConky Trippe, along with her own childhood keepsakes.

Casmir Pulaski- The Commander of the Horse
3/2/99-5/9/99
Casmir Pulaski was a Polish patriot and a soldier who joined the American colonists' cause in 1777. Pulaski was a Brigadier General under George Washington and established what was known as 'Pulaski's Legion' which was the first formal American Calvary unit. Pulaski recruited 330 men from Maryland and Virginia and headquartered his legion in Baltimore, which earned him the title of "Commander of the Horse".
This exhibition honored the strong and experienced soldier who gave his life in order to "…do myself the honor of being admitted among worthy citizens in the defense of their Country and their Liberty." One of the few surviving Revolutionary War standards (flags), the 'Pulaski Banner', was displayed along with other artifacts related to this highly regarded Polish soldier.

Claire McCardell: Forging an American Style
10/9/98-4/18/99
Claire McCardell was one of the most important designers of the 20th century. Intent on forging and defining an American identity independent of the French influence, Claire McCardell created a style that turned its back on Paris and looked to the lives of American women for inspiration. The minimalism of her designs launched a new era in American fashion. The exhibition included McCardell's costumes, paintings, awards, and objects.
Notes: Claire McCardell Costume and Textile Gallery

Under the Big Top
11/1/98-2/1/99
Inspired by childhood recollections of going to the circus in Baltimore in 1970, Joseph F. Schmitt Sr. engaged his family in the creation of a 1/8-inch scale model fashioned after the great Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey circus of the 1930s. Nearly 20 years in the making, the Schmitt's "Bozo Bros. Circus" is a world in miniature that captures the wonder and excitement of circus life. This exhibition features the Schmitt's 21-foot model, as well as historical images of the circus in Maryland and a brief history of the modern circus.

Mapping Maryland: The Willard Hackerman Collection at the Government House
6/26/98-9/13/98
Mapping Maryland traced the developments of map-making from the late 1500s to the mid-19th century. Additional themes included the meaning of graphic symbols, uses for maps over the centuries, and Maryland's own cartographic connections.
This extraordinary collection is considered one of the finest groups of Middle Atlantic region maps in the country and marks the first time that Willard Hackerman's maps were open to public view. In addition to these maps, the exhibition included manuscripts, atlases, navigational and surveying tools, and other objects from the MDHS's collection.

Facing the New World: Jewish Portraits and Decorative Arts in Colonial and Federal America
2/20/98-5/24/98
The exhibition was the first major comprehensive view of early American Jewish portraits and decorative arts from 1700 through the 1830s. The exhibition was organized and premiered at The Jewish Museum in New York and traveled to the MDHS where additional objects from the MDHS collection were included.
A publication accompanies this exhibit.

Crazy for You
1/15/98-4/19/98
Crazy quilts feature cloth scraps in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials and are named as such because they are stitched together in a way that appears random. The quilter embellishes the sewn-together patches with fancy needlework, paint, applique, beads, and other decoration. Crazy quilts came into their heyday in the last decades of the 19th century when this style of quilting became a national mania. A radical departure from the symmetry of traditional patchwork quilts, crazy quilts of the late 1800s inspired new directions in quilting in the 20th century. An 1839 crazy quilt by Martha Ellicott Tyson and two contemporary quilts by Elizabeth Scott were featured.

Olympic Treasures
2/20/97-2/28/98
This exhibition honored Maryland athletes whose achievements have brought them Olympic fame. Featuring Olympic and Paralympic medals, memorabilia, and objects used and brought home by our state's athletes, Olympic Treasures was the society's first show to focus exclusively on contemporary sports history.
Notes: Symington Sporting Arts Gallery

Baltimore, Inc.: From Mobtown to Charm City
5/14/97-2/28/98
In celebration of Baltimore's Bicentennial, this exhibition traced the major themes in the development of the city's history, from its inception to the present day. Told through four of the city's earliest thoroughfares - Baltimore, Pratt, Charles, and Howard streets - the history of the city is represented through a variety of objects, costumes, textiles, photographs, maps, and architectural drawings. In addition, four "vignettes" within the exhibition interpret a specific aspect of a street's history and the people who helped shape it. Living history theater brings these sets to life in a program called "Baltimore Through My Eyes."

Maryland's English Connection: Silver
12/3/97-1/4/98
A tie-in to the 1997 Maryland Antiques Show theme, Maryland's English Connection featured silver objects, many of which relate to the fashionable custom of tea drinking. The silver represented in this sampling of the Society's permanent collection was made in England and owned by Marylanders in the 18th and 19th centuries. The dominance of English silver in 18th -century Maryland is in marked contrast to New England, where local silversmiths flourished as early as the 1640s. After the Revolutionary war, Maryland gentry continued to purchase quantities of household goods from England. The form and ornamentation of these English goods provided local craftsmen with models and inspiration for pieces made here in Maryland.

An Immigrant Odyssey: The Maryland Greek-American Experience
8/21/97-11/22/97
Numerous practical reasons prompted the first wave of Greek immigrants to leave their homeland: crop failures, taxation, religious freedom, the Balkan Wars, and centuries of persecution by the Ottoman Empire. This exhibition of photographs and objects illuminated their role in shaping Maryland.

Delta Sigma Theta: Celebrating a Legacy of Service
6/20/97-8/3/97
This exhibition organized in conjunction with the African American sorority DST, focused on the accomplishments of its Maryland members.

Celebrate Baltimore!
4/1/97-6/1/97
The Prints and Photographs Gallery featured a selection of prints, photographs, and ephemera to celebrate the bicentennial of Baltimore's incorporation. An eclectic assemblage of the unusual, the unique, as well as the ubiquitous items from various collections were brought together to provide a glimpse of the social history of the Monumental City.

Voices: Students Respond to Mining the Museum
4/26/97-6/1/97
This exhibition features the creative talents of more than 100 Baltimore City and Baltimore County public school students. Issues of race, culture, and "ownership of history," are explored, as addressed in the Maryland Historical Society's award-winning installation, Mining the Museum.

On the Streets: A Look at My Neighborhood
2/22/97-4/6/97
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Baltimore City's incorporation, seventh grade students from Diggs Johnson Middle School collaborated with the Maryland Historical Society to produce an exhibition that uncovers the history of the southwest Baltimore community surrounding their school. Using quotes from interviews with long-time residents and shop owners as well as photographs, past and present, they brought to light glimpses of Baltimore's ever-changing face.

An Early Look at Photography from the Collection of the MDHS
11/1/96-2/1/97
The Prints and Photographs Department presented an exhibition of Victorian stereo views. Stereo views, also called stereo cards, first appeared in the early 1850s. By the 1890s nearly every American family owned stereoscopic viewer, making it the 19th-century equivalent to television.

Peeking Through the Keyhole: Revealing Baltimore's Christmas Gardens
11/29/96-1/13/97
The Christmas Garden was most popular in Baltimore from about 1880 to well into the 20th century, directly reflecting the rise of Baltimore's German population at that time. Whole and partial Christmas Gardens and photographs of gardens no longer in existence brought this artistic tradition to life.

Songs of the Heart: Hooked Rugs by Mary Sheppard Burton
10/9/96-1/5/97
Maryland artist Mary Sheppard Burton created hooked rugs inspired by family history and international designs. The three rugs featured represented the range of rug designs she produced: "Moghul Taj," inspired by a carpet commissioned for the Taj Majal; "Strawberry Capital of the World, Pittsville, Maryland"; and "Alpha, Beta, Omega."

Olmstead's Sudbrook: The Making of a Community
10/18/96-11/17/96
Considered one of Maryland's earliest planned communities, Sudbrook, now known as Sudbrook Park, was designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, Sr., in 1889. It is Maryland's only planned suburban village by Olmstead, Sr., one of America's greatest landscape architects. Originally developed by Boston and Philadelphia investors along the route of the Western Maryland Railroad in northwest Baltimore County, near Pikesville, Sudbrook started with nine cottages and a large hotel. The exhibition featured maps and objects related to the history of Sudbrook and its residents.

Making a Coal Scuttle Fly
6/13/96-11/1/96
Written by Camay Calloway Murphy and illustrated by nationally acclaimed Baltimore artist Tom Miller, Can A Coal Scuttle Fly? was published by the MDHS in 1996. This whimsical children's story recounts Miller's experiences as an African American child in Baltimore and as a young adult honing his artistic skills at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The story comes alive though the bright, bold colors of Miller's palette.
The MDHS acquired 17 original acrylic paintings that illustrate Can a Coal Scuttle Fly? The exhibition of these paintings, along with a demonstration of how the book was made, from Camay Murphy's handwritten manuscript though the artist's early sketches, to the printing and binding process, was located in the MDHS Highlights Gallery.

Where the Wild Things Are: The Nature of Maryland
5/17/96-10/6/96
Where the Wild Things Are focused on historical and artistic approaches to Maryland's natural world. Five collections of 19th- and 20th-century watercolors, drawings, and photographs by Maryland artists and naturalists explored Maryland's changing natural landscape from several unique perspectives, many of which were never before on public display.

The Thrill of Excellence: Fine Arts in the National Museum of Racing
4/26/96-9/1/96
This exhibition featured an important group of 25 works on loan from one of the preeminent collections of sporting art in the U.S., The National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, New York. It included paintings and drawings from the early 19th to mid-20th centuries by 15 nationally and internationally renowned artists.

Maryland to Scale
4/12/96-5/2/96
Maryland to Scale featured some of the Library's most important maps tracing the state's development and physical growth through maps and plates from the Prints & Photographs Division. The exhibition also examined map-making through the centuries. The hand colored Speed Map, 1676, a highlight, revealed the town where Maryland's fist citizens lived. Rarely displayed 18th-century maps show pre- and post-Mason-Dixon line Maryland. Other cartographic items from the MDHS collections, such as surveying tools, were featured as well.

Eggscapes
3/21/96-4/8/96
The Maryland Historical Society presented "The Decorated Eggs of Mitzi Perdue." The exhibition featured uniquely and elegantly decorated eggs by Mitzi Perdue displayed with those from various ethnic traditions.

Lift Every Voice and Sing
1/26/96-3/3/96
This exhibition traced the story of African American sacred music from its roots in Africa to contemporary gospel, which paralleled the many kinds of rebellion against oppression. For freedom fighters, music became a sword and shield as they paved the way for future generations. Lift Every Voice and Sing examined how music became a source of comfort, a record of the lives of African Americans, as well as a means of protest and an instrument of rebellion.

Sankofa: Retrieving the Past to Move Forward & The Maryland Tradition
9/22/95-3/3/96
Retrieving the Past to Move Forward was the first half of the Sankofa exhibit, which featured nearly 150 examples of fine and decorative arts made by African Americans from the late 18th- to early 20th-century. This exhibition included diverse works of artists, sculptors, photographers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, potters, quilters, basketmakers, and other artisans, both slave and free.
The Maryland Tradition was the second half of Sankofa. This exhibition celebrated these contributions to our national heritage. The Maryland Tradition presented the slave and free experience in Maryland and was illustrated by important slave-related documents as well as significant new information on the many African American artisans and their trades.

Home for the Holidays
-1/7/96
The exhibition viewed Christmas as celebrated during WWII at home and at the front.

This Is Our Parish
10/1/95-11/5/95
To celebrate the visit of Pope John Paul II to Baltimore in October, the Maryland Historical Society featured an exhibition on Baltimore's Catholic parishes. The exhibition illustrated through photographs and related documents the activities and diversity of Baltimore's Catholic parishes. Items for the exhibition were culled from
MDHS collections, parish archives, and the Catholic Review and its photo archives.

Alexander Smith Cochran: Baltimore's Architect, Modernist Pioneer
5/5/95-9/18/95
A photo retrospective of Baltimore's "architectural missionary," who brought the International Style and Bauhaus modernism to Baltimore.

Eubie Blake
8/95-
This exhibition honored Eubie Blake, the Baltimore ragtime musician and composer. Born in Baltimore in 1883, Eubie Blake was the son of former slaves. He played ragtime music in local bars and later moved to New York where he and Noble Sissle collaborated on the Broadway musical "Shuffle Along," which influenced Broadway for many years to come. The display featured a bust of Blake, photographs, original sheet music, records and awards. Visitors could hear taped selections of Eubie Blake's popular ragtime music.
Notes: Discussed in News and Notes Jan/Feb 1991.

Telltale Art: Maryland History Revealed Through Masterworks
2/26/95-8/20/95
Thirteen MDHS acquisitions - silver, furniture, paintings, and folk art - 'tell tales' of Maryland history, assisted by dozens of related artifacts from the collections of the museum and library. The exhibition included a "floating" Baltimore Federal pier table, a portrait of Revolutionary War hero Mordecai Gist, and ornate silver parade torches commissioned by a Maryland fire-fighting company.

Telltale Art: The Robert G. Merrick Print Collection
2/24/95-8/9/95
Letters, photographs, diaries, and contemporary newspapers from the library's collections help late-20th-century viewers solve the puzzles posed by 19th-century engravers and photographers. This exhibition presented integral parts of the story of life in 19th-century Maryland as it was recorded for posterity by contemporary print makers.

Celebrating A Collection: The Library of Maryland History, 1844-1994
9/16/94-3/16/95
Celebrating A Collection takes viewers on a lively walk through "Maryland's attic," offering a rare glimpse of the treasures gathered during the Society's 150 years. Many of the items on display were never previously exhibited, including motion picture film of the 1933 hurricane in Ocean City, an autographed photo of Benito Mussolini, and a 1789 letter from George Washington to John Eager Howard.

Lighting the Season
11/25/94-1/31/95
Follow the Maryland Historical Society through 150 years of holiday celebrations. Lighting the Season featured toys, dolls, and decorations from the Society's extensive collection. The exhibition explored the season's diverse cultural customs as practiced by Marylanders. Lavish displays of period table settings, decorations, and costumes in the Dining Room, Library, and Double Parlor of the Pratt House evoked an 1840s Thanksgiving, an 1880s Christmas, and a 1920s New Year's Eve.

This Is My Town
1/27/95-
Eubie Blake received Baltimore's award of Merit for Outstanding Citizenship at his 90th birthday celebration in 1973. During the festivities, he claimed of the city, "This is my town. Of course I can't make a living here."
Although this renowned pianist first came to fame in New York as a Broadway composer and performer, Blake always had a special place in his heart for his hometown and its people. This Is My Town celebrates the century-long relationship of Eubie Blake with the city of Baltimore through his papers, sheet music, and photographs in the library's collection.

Lavish Legacies: Baltimore Album Quilts
3/5/94-11/17/94
The MDHS displayed a special exhibition of rare album quilts made in Baltimore between 1845 and 1855. These extraordinary quilts represented the ultimate in needle art achieved by 19th-century American women. The exhibition was divided into two parts, Part I: March 5 -July 10, 1994 and Part II: July 12 -November 27, 1994, to preserve the quilts and display many previously unexhibited album quilts.
A publication accompanies this exhibit.

The Maryland Hunt Cup: 150 Years of America's Greatest Steeplechase
4/29/94-9/25/94
Since its founding in 1894, the Maryland Hunt Cup has become one of our state's premiere amateur sporting events. Renowned internationally as the oldest and most difficult timber race, it is an event, which attracts crowds of dedicated spectators from across the nation and the world over. This exhibition highlighted a variety of the significant aspects of this important Maryland sporting event through paintings, photographs, trophies, silks and saddles.

YOU Make History
1/14/94-8/14/94
In celebration of the Maryland Historical Society's 150th anniversary, the MDHS exhibited objects collected by the Society over the last 150 years which included a wide selection of contemporary objects and works of art.

Classical Maryland 1815-1845: Fine and Decorative Arts from the Golden Age
4/17/93-9/25/93
Classical Maryland synthesized the impact of the classical revival in the state, from the influence of individuals to that of mainstream publications such as newspapers, periodicals, and design books. The exhibition examined the local and national repercussions of the phenomenal growth of Baltimore and the factors that led to the city's becoming a primary center for neoclassical fine and decorative arts.
The exhibition featured examples of fine and decorative arts created in Baltimore between 1815-1840 such as furniture, silver, textiles, paintings, sculptures, architectural drawings, and prints, many never before exhibited.
A publication accompanies this exhibit.
Notes: Classical Maryland was coordinated in relation to the Baltimore Museum of Art's exhibition Classical Taste in America, 1800-1840.

Occupied Baltimore: Civil War Prints from the Robert G. Merrick Collection
10/1/92-3/30/93
Over forty rare lithographs, complemented by a selection of ephemera and contemporary written accounts describing life in Baltimore during our nation's greatest crisis, were
featured in Occupied Baltimore.

Mining the Museum
4/3/92-2/28/93
A unique collaboration with The Contemporary and New York artist Fred Wilson, this exhibition used the MDHS collection to explore the African American and Native American experiences in Maryland. Mining the Museum was awarded the best exhibition of 1992 by the American Association of Museums.
A publication accompanies this exhibit.

Penny Toys
10/16/92-1/3/93
Too small . . . too frail . . . Too cheap to keep! These are the reasons antique penny toys have become the darlings of modern toy collectors. Approximately two hundred of the finest surviving examples gathered from the best private collections in the country were included in this exhibition.

The Founder's Art: Baltimore's Cast-Iron Architecture and Ornamental Ironwork
2/7/92-5/7/92
The exhibition included cast-iron columns and other architectural elements from Baltimore structures, models of buildings and iron gates, wooden foundry patterns and a selection of Victorian wrought ironwork from G. Krug and Son of Baltimore, the nation's oldest continuously operating ironworks. It also traced the rise and fall of cast-iron architecture in Baltimore and explored the city's contribution to this unique building type.
This exhibition is part of a larger cast-iron architecture project by Baltimore Heritage, Inc.

History of Waterfowling on the Chesapeake
9/28/91-2/2/92
Along with 100 of Maryland's finest decoys, which date from the early 1800s to the mid 1900s, the exhibition included other carvings, drawings, paintings, artifacts and memorabilia such as gunning logs from clubs including the Cedar Point Club and Gray's Inn Club.
The Art of Ship-Model Making
4/12/91-9/1/91
The Art of Ship-Model Making spans nearly two hundred years of ship-model making, and offered a rare opportunity to view a large group of ship models form the Maryland Historical Society collection.

Views of Perry Hall by Francis Guy
-3/31/91
Views of Perry Hall highlighted the recent acquisition of the third surviving landscape view depicting the Gough family's country estate. Francis Guy, the artist, was a renowned English-born landscape painter who specialized in painting meticulous depictions of the country estates of the Baltimore gentry.

The Art of Promotion: Maryland Advertising Prints
11/16/90-3/8/91
The exhibit included advertising prints and trade cards from 1830 to 1910 promoting real estate, tobacco, resort vacations, and more.

Maryland: First Catholic Colony
10/13/90-1/27/91
An exhibition commemorating the Bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Maryland Ceramics
6/19/90-11/19/90
Approximately one hundred examples of pottery and porcelain made in Maryland between the 1790's and the 1930's were exhibited in Maryland Ceramics.

Highland Beach: A Community Scrapbook
-3/30/90
For years few maps recorded its existence, but since the turn of the century the quiet Anne Arundel County community of Highland Beach has offered a summer respite to the black elite of Baltimore and Washington D.C. "The Beach" was founded in the early 1890s by Charles R. Douglass, son of the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, as a waterfront retreat for family and friends. Well-known visitors included educator Booker T. Washington, poets Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, and singer-actor Paul Robeson.

Living Likenesses: Twentieth Century Maryland Portraits
5/3/91-8/91
Living Likenesses explored the role of painted and sculptured portraiture in the post-photography era. The exhibition included fine portraits by such artists as Thomas C. Corner, Edward Berge, Camilla Whitehurst, Trafford Klots, Alfred Partridge Klots, Cedric B. Egeli, Simon Elwes, Henry R Rittenberg, Theobold Chartran, Grace Turnbull and Sir Jacob Epstein. Some earlier portraits and a selection of photographs of some of the subjects portrayed were also exhibited for comparison.

Traveling Exhibitions

Maryland In Focus: A Traveling Exhibition
7/3/00-1/14/01
Location: Throughout Maryland
The MDHS and Maryland 2000's traveling exhibition included photographs that capture Maryland - from the everyday to the big events.
Notes: July3 - Aug 13, 2000: MD State House, BWI Airport, Worchester County Public Library. Aug 28 - Oct 9, 2000: C. Burr Artz Central Library, Wicomico County Historical Society. Oct 23 - Dec 4, 2000: Carroll County Public Library, Caroline Country Central Library. Dec 7, 2000 - Jan 14 2001: Wheaton Regional Library, Charles County Government Building

Baltimore Album Quilt Tradition - Japan
12/1/99-12/1/00
Location: Japan
Colorful, exquisite, and rarely seen by the public, the MDHS loaned a spectacular exhibition of historic Baltimore quilts to several museums and galleries in Japan organized by Kokusai Art.
Notes: Dec. 1-27, 1999: Soga Museum of Art, Chiba City. March 30-April 10, 2000: Diawa Department Store Gallery, Kanazawa City. April 18-28, 2000: Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Ikebukero, Tokyo. May 11-16, 2000: Fukuya Department Store Gallery, Hiroshima City. May 25-June 12, 2000: Harkyu Museum, Kobe City. July 29-Sept. 3, 2000: Nagashima Museum of Art, Kagoshima City. Oct. 9-16, 2000: Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, Yokohama City.
See this file for catalogue, printed material, as well as research used for the BAQ exhibit at the MDHS.

Notable Marylanders in Portraiture
11/17/99-1/31/00
Location: the Government House
Curators and collections managers throughout the state's public museums canvassed their collections to determine the most significant Marylanders to present in this exhibition.
Writers, baseball players, artists, inventors, pilots, civil servants, civil rights activists, schooner captains and Cardinals all devoted extraordinary energies to their art, their craft, or their vocation. We begin the 21st-century with their achievements as our inspiration.
These people included: Benjamin Banneker, Clara Barton, James Hubert "Eubie" Blake, Charles Carroll, Barrister, Rachel Carson, Frederick Douglass, Cardinal James Gibbons, Robert Gilmor, Jr., Prudence Carnan Gough, Jonathan Granville, Lillie Carroll Jackson, Francis Scott Key, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Thurgood Marshall, Glenn L. Martin, Alfred Jacob Miller, Mary Pickersgill, Edgar Allan Poe, Julia A. Purnell, Commodore John Rogers, USN, George Herman Ruth (Babe Ruth), Anna Brugh Singer, Samuel Sprigg, Roger Brooke Taney, Colonel Benjamin Tasker, Jr., Helen Brooke Taussig, Leonard S. Tawes, Harriet Tubman, Frances Turnbull, and Moses Wiesenfeld.

Mapping Maryland: The Willard Hackerman Collection at the Government House
4/1/99-9/1/99
Location: the Government House
This exhibition was a follow-up to MDHS's Mapping Maryland: The Willard Hackerman Collection. It traced the development of map-making from the late 1500s to the mid-19th century. Additional themes included the meaning of graphic symbols, uses for maps over the centuries, and Maryland's own cartographic connections.
Willard Hackerman's collection is considered one of the finest groups of Middle Atlantic region maps in the country, which are rarely available for public view.
Notes: Exhibited at the Government House upon Willard Hackerman's request and arranged through the MDHS Library.

In Their Own Right: Portraits of Women in the Collections of the Maryland Historical Society at the Government House
3/2/98-4/17/98
Location: the Government House
In honor of Women's History Month, twenty-one portraits of women who were achievers "in their own right" were shared with the Government House. This exhibition presented women of four centuries from all over Maryland with diverse talents and interests.

Making a Coal Scuttle Fly
2/3/97-3/14/97
Location: City Hall Courtyard Galleries
The exhibition recorded the making of the book Can A Coal Scuttle Fly? written by Camay Calloway Murphy and illustrated by nationally acclaimed Baltimore artist Tom Miller, published by the MDHS in 1996. This whimsical children's story recounts Miller's experiences as an African American child in Baltimore and as a young adult honing his artistic skills at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The story comes alive though the bright, bold colors of Miller's palette.
A publication accompanies this exhibit.

The Portraits and History Paintings of Alonzo Chappel
6/20/92-8/23/92
Location: the Maryland Historical Society
Organized by the Brandywine River Museum, this retrospective celebrated Chappel's contributions to American history painting and illustration.