Baltimore Town in 1752

More Than Meets the Eye: History of Maryland Through Prints, 1750-1900
Room 4: Changes in the Land

Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org

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Maryland History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice

Baltimore Town in 1752

Drawn by John Moale
Lithograph by A. Hoen & Co., Baltimore
1851

Lithograph, printed with buff tint

Sometime in the late eighteenth century, John Moale sketched from memory a small village in Maryland as it had appeared in his youth. Situated on the northern banks of the Patapsco River, Baltimore in 1752 consisted of about twenty-five buildings, including homes for nearly two hundred residents, a tavern, one church, a brewery, and a tobacco inspection house. The town was surrounded by swampy areas, marshes, and meadows, with a creek winding along the eastern boundary. There is little indication in Moale's sketch
of the boom that was shortly to change the landscape and texture of life here forever.

Moale's unfinished drawing generated great interest. As members of his generation reached the end of their lives, printmakers capitalized on public interest in Maryland's early history by reproducing Moale's drawing in various forms. An advertisement for one of the earlier versions, written in 1812, described the image's appeal: "The surprising difference between Baltimore in its present state of opulance, size, and commercial importance, and what it was at the time this view was taken, evidences an improvement unprecedented for rapidity and extent. Perhaps no city has ever advanced to a similar height of prosperity and commercial respectability, in an equal period of time, and when it is considered that to this fact, the view in question bears indubitable testimony, it must be an object of curiosity as well as of considerable interest."

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Room 1: Immigrants in Maryland
Room 2: Evangelical Religion and Reform
Room 3: Rowdies and Riots
Room 4: Changes in the Land
Exhibit Home Page
CONTENTS: Room 4
23. Baltimore Town in 1752
24. Cotton Duck Factory, Low St. Balt.
25. The Maryland Chemical Works
26. The Blue Mountains Md.
27. Phoenix Line, "Safety Coaches"
28. Westminster Presbyterian Church, Corner Fayette and Greene Streets, Baltimore
29. The Baltimore Bird
30. Waterloo Inn, the first Stage From Baltimore to Washington
31. The Thomas Viaduct, Across the Patapsco River on the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
32. Baltimore in 1889