underbelly
Politics
Happy Birthday, Henry – A Mencken Mystery
Sixty-eight years ago today, Baltimore journalist, Henry Louis Mencken turned 65. In his diary entry for that day, he took the opportunity to ruminate on his life up that point: “My sixty-fifth birthday, and I am, as usual, in the midst of severe hay-fever. I began taking vaccines from Dr. Leslie N. Gay last Winter, [...]
“Is He White or Colored?”: Chinese in Baltimore City Public Schools
The story of race in Baltimore has traditionally been presented as a black and white issue. Particularly in discussions about the Civil Rights Era, the focus has been on the interaction between these two racial groups, with Jewish residents representing an ethnic middle ground between them. In researching this pivotal time period in the city’s [...]
Big Stories in Small Pieces of History: President Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment Trial (March 13-May 26, 1868)
On Monday, May 13, the FBI and NARA returned twenty-one of the documents stolen from the Maryland Historical Society Library on June 15, 2011.* Among the invitations and announcements were several pieces of political ephemera, including tickets to President Andrew Johnson’s congressional impeachment trial in the spring of 1868. Johnson (1808–1875), seventeenth president of the [...]
The Quasi-War (1798-1801): Diplomatic Treasures from a Long Forgotten Dispute
MdHS cataloger Kristi Thomas recently pulled together all of the institution’s holdings on the French Spoliation Claims, a little-known group of pamphlets and documents on a long-forgotten episode during which thousands of citizens sought compensation from the federal government for ships and cargoes captured and destroyed during the Quasi-War with France, 1797–1801. This international drama offers [...]
“To die is gain”: Memory and the U.S.-Mexican War in Maryland
On an auspicious afternoon in late September 1903, a crowd of Baltimoreans converged onto the intersection of Mount Royal Avenue and Lanvale Street to witness the symbolic-laced unveiling of the William H. Watson monument. The monument, erected by the Maryland Association of Veterans of the Mexican War, honored Marylanders who lost their lives during the U.S.-Mexican [...]
Maryland Ahead by (Clarence) Miles
After Clarence Miles died on October 8, 1977, the Baltimore Sun described him as “an urbane man who never forgot the value of good common sense. And he applied both traits with rich results for the city and the state.”[1]Miles has long been an overlooked figure in Maryland history, primarily overshadowed by the passage of [...]
Election Recollection: Errol Morris’ Op-doc from the NY Times
With tomorrow’s vote looming over us, we decided to direct our readers to Errol Morris’ thoughtful Op-doc video “11 Excellent Reasons Not to Vote,” from last week’s New York Times. Click here for the Video. Morris’ full text appears below. And to loosely tie this post together with our collection, we’ve thrown in a few pieces [...]
Election Recollection: All Politics is Weird
This week, with the final Obama-Romney debate bearing down on us, we thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the more bizarre political and election-related items in our holdings. In doing so we set our sights on Maryland’s own Spiro Agnew, the Nixon administration, and the many products Agnew’s likeness [...]
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