| # |
Digital Image |
Description |
Notes |
| 21 |
 |
Eliot Woo and Family at Dinner, 1958
Photographed by A. Aubrey Bodine
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, BCLM B502H |
Five photographs taken in different eras, of widely differing people,
all have a common theme—the enjoyment of friends and family seated around
a table sharing a meal. |
| 22 |
 |
Bock Beer Party, April Fools’ Day, 1911
Photographed by John Dubas
MHS Library, Special Collections Department MC9444 |
John Dubas often photographed his family and friends in east Baltimore’s
Bohemian immigrant community, to which these partygoers probably belong.
The party’s host may be a boarder since the party is being held in his
bedsitting room. The party must be a good one - one of the guests is actually
wearing a small kerosene lampshade on his head!
Bock beer is a particularly potent brew that is traditionally enjoyed
in the spring after fermenting all winter.
 |
| 23 |
 |
Family Dinner Party, c 1890
Photographer unknown
MHS Library, Special Collections Department VF |
A very proper and formal dinner party—until you notice the family dog! |
| 24 |
 |
Party for an Elderly Woman, c 1950
Photographed by Paul Henderson
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, BCLM Henderson Collection |
The party is obviously in honor of the woman with a corsage. Is she
being honored by a women’s civic group? Is it a birthday party
given by her sons, standing proudly beside her? The men form a triangle
with the photograph of another man in uniform— perhaps another brother
away in the service? |
| 25 |
 |
Picnic in a Coal Mine, Mount Savage, 1889
Photographed by Edgar S. Thompson
MHS Library, Special Collections Department PP98 |
It must have been a very hot August afternoon when F.S. Deekins (under
the table) and friends took refuge in a coal mine for a meal of peaches,
plums, grapes and wine. The picture was taken by flash lighting. Several
of the men are wearing caps with lamps. Are they miners, or cave explorers? |
| 26 |
 |
Wilkinson and Brothers Wholesale Dealers, Baltimore, 1925
Photographed by the Hughes Company
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, BCLM Hughes Collection,
6692 |
Maryland has a long reputation as a cornucopia of fine food from the
land and the Bay. Note the giant oysters, lobsters, and bear at Wilkinson
and Brothers Wholesale Dealers. |
| 27 |
 |
Muskrat Catcher, Cambridge, 1946
Photographed by A. Aubrey Bodine
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, Bodine Collection, B530a |
Muskrat not only appeared in Maryland food markets, but was also the
basis of a fur industry. |
| 28 |
 |
The Chase/Lloyd House, Annapolis, c 1885
Attributed to Frances Benjamin Johnson
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, Z24.1773 VF |
The nation’s centennial in
1876 set the country looking back; architecture that had seemed plain and
frumpy was now seen as a charming reminder of the romantic Colonial era.
This and other Maryland Historical Society photographs documenting Annapolis
architecture may be the early work of renowned photographer Frances Benjamin
Johnston. She became one of America’s pioneering and premier architectural
photographers. |
| 29 |
 |
Balloon Ascension at Jones Creek, 1886
Photographed by Robinson Studio
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, 64534 |
To celebrate the centennial of their farm, Walnut Grove, the Jones
family of Baltimore County sent up toy hot air balloons. |
| 30 |
 |
Scrubbing the Marble Steps, Penrose Street 1948
Photographed by A. Aubrey Bodine
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
Ask anyone what they know about Baltimore and they’ll probably say
“The houses there have marble steps.” For generations, the marble
front steps provided “a touch of class” on brick rowhouse facades, and
the Saturday morning chore of scrubbing them was part of Baltimore folklore. |
| 31 |
 |
The Yankee Clipper Lands at Harbor Field, March, 1939
Photographed by Robert Kniesche
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
In 1939, Dundalk became the hub of transatlantic air travel when the
Pan American Airlines’ “Yankee Clipper, ” built by Glenn Martin factory
in Middle River, landed on Colgate Creek. Seventy-four passengers could
enjoy travel to Europe in “flying boats” with dining room, sleeping berths,
dressing rooms, and bridal suite. |
| 32 |
 |
Union Artillery at Fort Federal Hill, Baltimore, 1862
Photographed by David Bachrach
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
After the riots of 1861, Baltimore illustrated the nation’s divided
sympathies. If you were for the Confederacy, it was an occupied city. If
you favored the Union, General Butler and his troops were protecting the
city from the rebels. Legend reports that the fort’s troops enjoyed pointing
out to nervous locals that the cannons were aimed at the Washington Monument,
located in the center of the city, in case of insurrection. |
| 33 |
 |
Immigrants Aboard Ship, Locust Point, 1904
Photographer unknown
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
In 1904, the B&O Railroad constructed a massive new pier in Baltimore
to connect the railroad with the North German Lloyd Line ships. Until
World War I, Locust Point was second only to Ellis Island as an immigrant
port. Note the woman on the stairs at right center—she seems to be
taking in the scene with amusement! |
| 34 |
 |
Aftermath of the Baltimore Fire, 1904
Photographer unknown
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
This photograph could be a bombed city during World War II. Actually,
it depicts the aftermath of Baltimore’s great fire. Nearly 140 acres
and 1500 buildings were destroyed in the city’s central business district.
Amazingly, because the fire started on an icy Sunday morning in February,
the area was nearly deserted and no lives were lost. |
| 35 |
 |
Emerson Hotel Barber Shop, 1927
Photographed by the Hughes Company
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
Following the latest rage in hairstyles, the manicurist is wearing
bobbed hair; the young woman in the barber’s chair has finally made up
her mind to get hers cut. |
| 36 |
 |
Apple Peddler, c 1931
Photographed by Holmes Mettee
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, MC8722 |
Is this man actually unemployed and selling apples on a street corner,
or is he a model posed by the Mettee Studios for some forgotten advertising
campaign? In either case, Mettee captured the image that we all think of
when we hear “The Great Depression.” |
| 37 |
 |
Fairchild Aircraft Plant,
c 1945
Photographer unknown
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
“Grandmothers Ruby Winks (Sharpsburg), Iva Golden (Hagerstown) and
Lillie Davis (Boonsboro) find the end of a bomber wing, which they helped
build at Fairchild Aircraft Plant, a good place to eat lunch and discuss
their grandchildren.” (Photo caption) |
| 38 |
 |
First Released Veterans, May 12, 1945
Photographed by A. Aubrey Bodine
MHS Library, Special Collections Department |
|
| 39 |
 |
Civil Rights Picket Line, Ford’s Theatre, c 1951
Photographed by Paul Henderson
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, Henderson Collection |
By power of the vote and the courts, Maryland’s African Americans brought
the state to the forefront of the civil rights movement in the post-WWII
years. In 1954, the Baltimore City school system became the first
in the country to comply with the order to integrate. In 1952, Ford’s Theatre
in Baltimore agreed to admit African Americans after seven years of NAACP
picketing.
In the same year downtown department stores opened to African-American
customers; they could make purchases, but were not allowed to try on clothes. |
| 40 |
 |
Read Street Scene, c 1969
Photographed by A. Aubrey Bodine
MHS Library, Special Collections Department, B12(1) |
Baltimore’s Read Street was Ground Zero for the state’s counterculture
in the late 1960s. Businesses like the Psychedelic Propellor, the Hair
Garage, Omar’s Tent Factory, and the Clothes Horse catered to the young
with incense, paisley, and water pipes. |
