In 1814 Rembrandt Peale opened “Peale’s Baltimore Museum” on Holliday Street. The museum building served several other uses after 1831 until reopening in 1931 as the Municipal Museum of the City of Baltimore. In 1985, the name was changed to the Peale Museum of the Baltimore City Life Museums to reflect its inclusion in a group of several associated historic sites and museums.

The Baltimore City Life Museums (BCLM) collected and exhibited objects pertaining to the history of the city of Baltimore and its people. In addition, at its Peale site, it maintained a Museum Reference Center with particularly strong holdings of historical prints and photographs.

In 1997, the Baltimore City Life Museums closed due to lack of funding. The collections were transferred to the Maryland Historical Society in 1998.

Collection Origin

Acquired by the Maryland Historical Society in 1998 after the closing of the Baltimore City Life Museums.

Scope and Contents

The Baltimore City Life Museum's photographic collection begins in the late 1840s with particular strength in the first half of the twentieth century. Images date from 1849 to the 1980s. Included are daguerreotypes, paper prints, glass plate and film negatives, and slides (lantern and 35 mm). The collection is particularly strong in documentation of architecture and the Baltimore Harbor.

Ca. 57,200 items are cataloged in an inventory database, of which ca. 28,600 are available for research and searchable online (see below).

Notable collections within the BCLM collection:
 - Approximately 12,000 images by A. Aubrey Bodine (active 1927-1970) documenting all aspects of life in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay Region.

 - The work of  John Dubas: 3,850 images spanning ca. 1905-1970, with special emphasis on ships, the working class immigrant neighborhoods of East Baltimore, and the changing Baltimore scene of the 1950s-1970s.

 - Photographs taken by the Hughes Company, ca. 1910-1940 depicting Baltimore scenes, streets, buildings from the center city to outlying streetcar suburbs.

 - Other noteworthy collections include views of the 1904 Baltimore Fire (ca. 500 images) and extensive photographic surveys of historic neighborhoods taken in the 1950s and 1960s.

The following collections, not included in online inventory, are accessible by contacting the Curator of Photographs:
 - The Paul Henderson Collection: Approximately 2,000 negatives taken ca. 1945-1960 by a prominent African-American photojournalist and studio photographer.  These document the black shopping and entertainment district of segregated Baltimore, Morgan State College students and activities, civil rights groups and protests, and middle-class African American life of the period. The Henderson Collection is uncatalogued, but because of its importance, parts are available to researchers.

 - City Buildings Collection: In 1926, a photographic survey (ca. 3,000 images) was made of property owned by Baltimore City. These photographs cover goverment buildings, schools, parks, fire houses, police stations, etc. The collection is uncatalogued, but well indexed and available to researchers.

 - The Bureau of Recreation Collection: Photographs documenting childrens’ recreational activities sponsored by the Parks Athletic League ca. 1915-1935. This collection is uncatalogued, but arranged by topic and available to researchers.

Arrangement

The photographs are arranged by size and media. The searchable inventory database contains ca. 28,600 items. The inventory descriptions are often item-level.