underbelly
Hughes Company
Lost City: Baltimore’s Vibrant Automobile Show Rooms
In early 1900s Baltimore, Mt. Royal Avenue looked quite different from the land originally developed in 1881 carved from portions of Oliver and Johns Streets. The advent of the automobile began to change the face of America and Baltimore. Beginning in 1899 automobile showrooms began to sprout up on Mt.Royal Avenue. Brands like Locomobile, Peerless, [...]
Facing the Great War: World War I and the Beginnings of Modern Rehabilitation
The Maryland Historical Society will partner with the National Park Service and the Baltimore School for the Arts to produce Facing the Great War, three original short plays performed by BSA’s sophomore students that will focus on the experience of Marylanders during the World War I era. FREE performances will take place on March 21st at [...]
Thanksgiving photographs
There’s not a lot to say about Thanksgiving that pictures can’t say better. For many it’s a time to think about what we are thankful for. For others it’s a time to eat, a lot. For others still, it’s a barbaric time of year. Happy Thanksgiving from the Underbelly staff at the Maryland Historical Society. [...]
Lost City: The Sulzebacher House
West Baltimore was once a densely packed, vibrant neighborhood full of theaters, local businesses, and industry. Drive down many of the streets today and you’re likely to see a vacant lot or a boarded up row house on nearly every other block. But even an empty field has a history. The tiny, off-kilter house pictured [...]
“Facing the Masks”: Masked Mystery Solved
Last week we reached out for help toward understanding a photograph, and wow, did we get it. Our photo from the Hughes Company collection traveled far and wide. The image known then as “Detective room, Police Department” was not only a headscratcher, but also a Rorschach Test of sorts. Different sets of eyes saw different [...]
Masked Mystery
Last month we solved a longstanding photograph mystery that we never expected to solve, that is until we rolled up our sleeves and actually tried. Modern digitization technology, more precisely the ability to zoom deep into a photo or negative to see details previously unavailable to the naked eye, coupled with searchable newspaper databases make solving [...]
So this is Christmas…
…and here are a few images of good cheer from the Maryland Historical Society’s collection of photographs. Happy Holidays!
Election Recollection: Albert C. Ritchie, 1932
Gov. Ritchie runs for President, again, or the highs and lows of electoral politics. Eighty years before Governor Martin O’Malley was attending conventions, enjoying the national spotlight, and entertaining thoughts of a presidential run, another Democratic governor from Maryland was poised to make a run at the presidency. Albert Cabell Ritchie (1836-1936) ran the state for 15 [...]
Election Recollection: Albert C. Ritchie, 1928
Gov. Ritchie runs for President. “Election Recollection” is a series we’ll run from now through January’s Presidential inauguration (or so). Here we’ll feature political/election-related items from MdHS’s photograph, manuscript, and ephemera holdings. This first installment takes us back to the Roaring Twenties, a time when Marylanders were, for the most part, as committed to state’s rights [...]
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