Author: Baltimore Heritage

August 11, 2015

Highlighting a famous flagmaker and a little-known collection

Read on for the second post in a new series from local preservationist Auni Gelles as she works on our new Battle of Baltimore website and soon-to-be-launched app. Auni interviewed Amanda Shores Davis, the Executive Director of the Flag House, about this museum’s unique and little-known collections.

If you have an interest in the Battle of Baltimore, you’ve no doubt visited the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House on Pratt Street. (And if you haven’t, now is a great time to check it out!) The 1793 brick house became the home and business of flagmaker Mary Pickersgill in 1806, seven years before she was commissioned to sew the enormous flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. The house’s proximity to the busy harbor helped to make her business creating ships’ colors and signal flags quite stable. Mary stitched the soon-to-be-famous Star Spangled Banner and a smaller storm flag in seven weeks over the summer of 1813 with the help of her mother (and fellow flagmaker) Rebecca Young, daughter Caroline, nieces Eliza and Margaret Young, and Grace Wisher, an African American indentured servant.

The city of Baltimore purchased the house in 1927 and it has served as a museum for the past 88 years. A new permanent exhibit at the Flag House entitled “Family of Flagmakers: The Women Who Created the Star-Spangled Banner” explores the lives of these women.

In addition to the historic house, a contemporary museum building, and landscaped grounds, the Flag House is home to a collection of archival materials related to the Battle of Baltimore and the Star-Spangled Banner. Amanda Shores Davis, the Executive Director of the Flag House, took some time to answer my questions about this little-known but valuable collection.

Auni: Some Baltimoreans may be aware of the historic house and museum building but not the collections at the Star-Spangled Flag House. What types of materials are held here? How large is the collection?

Amanda: The Flag House holds a collection of 19th century decorative arts (the majority are from the early part of the century, 1800-1820), memorabilia from celebrations in recognition of the Star-Spangled Banner, Old Defenders, and Baltimore anniversaries, and War of 1812 military items. There are also small holdings of primary source documents (city directories, letters, periodicals) and WWI and WWII posters. We have roughly 1,000 items in the collection. This does not include the archaeological materials found in 1996 and 1998.

Auni: How did these objects/documents end up at the Flag House? Were they donated by descendants, purchased/donated by individuals, or acquired by the city?

This photo of Mary Pickersgill was taken some 40 years after the Battle of Baltimore.

Amanda: Collections items have come to the Flag House in a variety of ways. The one of the first administrators, the Ruth Bibbins, who purchased or collected many of the furnishings for the house. Some items have been gifted over the years and some items have come to us as permanent loans from institutions that are no longer operational. Very few items have been donated by descendants of Mary Pickersgill. Her daughter Caroline Pickersgill Purdy was childless so few things have come to us by the descendents of Mary’s sister Hannah.

Auni: Is the collection accessible to researchers?

Amanda: We are currently undergoing reorganization of the collection, cataloging, and status reports so for now the collection is not open to researchers—although that is the end goal, and to add our online catalog to the website.

Auni: What artifact or document is most surprising, in your opinion?

The living room at the Flag House.

Amanda: The most surprising item in the collection is the receipt for the Star-Spangled Banner for the fact that it even exists. There is little to no documentation of the flag making business aside from advertisements in city directories. We have two key documents that sort of create bookends to Mary’s career as a flag maker: the first is the [flag] receipt from 1813, six years after the establishment of the business in 1807 and obviously her most famous commission. The second is an 1815 receipt for what we consider to be one of the last flags made by Mary. The receipt is for an American ensign 15 x 24.5 feet, for $120, commissioned in February 1815. It dates to the period in which Mary stops making flags before the marriage of her daughter, Caroline, to iron merchant, John Purdy.

Auni: Are there any objects/documents related to Grace Wisher in the collection?

Amanda: There are no objects related to Grace Wisher, the only evidence I believe anyone has been able to locate about Grace is her indenture contract, which is not part of our collection.

Auni: I know there was some archaeological work conducted at the Flag House a number of years ago. What were some of the most interesting finds of those digs?

Amanda: This is probably my favorite part of the collection. There is one box of objects from the dig under the kitchen floor conducted in 1996. Everything from beer bottles to a lady’s hair comb. The 1998 dig conducted by the Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology uncovered over 15,000 unique items. The majority of the items were preserved and mostly intact due to the use of the privy and beehive oven being used as trash disposal areas. I specifically included a case in our new exhibit to showcase some of these items to tell the history of the house itself and because there was so much cool stuff!

For me as a decorative arts historian some of the best items are intact utilitarian objects like yellow ware bowls and a decorative candy dish because they were so well-preserved and are great educational tools to talk about material culture and life in the 19th century. A close second would be the remnants of a thimble and pair of scissors that the archeologist located in the old foundation of the oven and date to the period when Mary lived in the house.

Auni: Thank you, Amanda, for taking time to share the collection with us!

August 4, 2015

200 years after the original Defender’s Day, we continue to remember the Battle of Baltimore

Today we are sharing the first in a new series of posts from local preservationist Auni Gelles as she works on our new Battle of Baltimore website and soon-to-be-launched app. Auni tells the story of the city’s first Defender’s Day celebration and shares how we are carrying on this legacy of commemoration and education two centuries later.

Since 1815, Baltimoreans have celebrated the bravery of those “Old Defenders” who guarded against the British at sea (at Fort McHenry) as well as on land (at North Point) during the September 1814 Battle of Baltimore. This battle, near the end of the War of 1812, had implications for defense, trade, and perhaps most significantly, the identity of our city and country. The Americans’ success in Baltimore inspired Maryland attorney Francis Scott Key to write “The Defence of Fort M’Henry”—which we know today as our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Key’s lines, which gained near-instant popularity, transformed the flag from a straightforward military sign into a symbol of American patriotism. The event quickly became an integral part of the city’s understanding of itself in the new republic.

Photograph of the Old Defenders by W. Ashman, Druid Hill Park, c. 1876-1880. Maryland Historical Society, GPVF.

This September will mark 201st anniversary of the Battle and the the 200th anniversary of the city’s the first Defenders’ Day commemorations. Baltimore marked first anniversary of the battle with a ceremony that laid the cornerstone for the Battle Monument—a symbol has appeared on the city seal since its completion in 1825. Anniversaries of this major Battle presented an opportunity for Baltimoreans to recall their city’s moment of national importance. 19th century Baltimoreans celebrated Defenders’ Day annually with parades, artillery salutes, fireworks, speeches, banquets, performances, and, until the last veteran passed away in 1894, reunions of the Old Defenders. President Benjamin Harrison was in attendance for the 75th anniversary in 1889 and witnessed a 15,000-person parade, battle reenactments, and a rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner performed by a 415-piece band and a chorus 500 voices strong. The week-long centennial celebration in 1914 featured an “auto parade,” a carnival of electric lights, a military ball, an outdoor concert, fireworks over Fort McHenry, a display of visiting ships in the harbor, and schoolchildren forming form a human flag (sound familiar?).

A crowd gathers at the Battle Monument as part of the Star-Spangled Spectacular, the bicentennial commemoration of the defense of Baltimore, in 2014.

The team at Baltimore Heritage is developing a new platform for exploring the Battle of Baltimore and its legacy, thanks to a grant from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. A new website and smart phone app will share short place-based stories related to the battle and its revered place in the city’s history. Like Explore Baltimore Heritage, the Battle of Baltimore website will use the Curatescape platform to plot these sites on a map and integrate individual stories into thematic tours. Some of the buildings integral to city life in and around 1814 are no longer extant, but we will seek to tell those stories with period illustrations and excerpts from 19th century publications.

As a graduate student in public history at UMBC, I will assisting with researching, writing, editing/formatting and publishing these stories for my thesis. I will also create blog posts as well as activities for engagement with this content, such as quizzes, lists, and shareable graphics.

Do you have questions about the project? Suggestions for sites to highlight? We’d love to hear your feedback!

Be sure to check out Auni’s 2014 post for the National Museum of American History with the story behind a modest piece of charred timber set on fire by British troops in 1814. You can also follow Auni on Twitter @aunigelles and share your comments on this post in the Bmore Historic Facebook group.

July 1, 2015

Call for Papers: Baltimore Revisited – Social History for the Twenty-First Century City

Baltimore Revisited: Social History for the Twenty-First Century City will draw from a wide range of researchers inside and outside of the academy to tell the stories of how and why Baltimore looks and functions as it does today. We are specifically looking for heavily researched pieces written in an accessible voice that can offer new perspectives on the city’s social history grounded in the specific places, neighborhoods, and communities in Baltimore. Each chapter could stand alone, but together, they will offer a newer vision of local history from the ground up to complicate our view of the past, as well as the present.

June 12, 2015

Field Notes from Herring Run: Finding valuable information in a 150-year-old burned down house

Thank you to everyone who came to visit or volunteer at our archaeological dig in Herring Run Park last month. For our final Field Notes entry from the 2015 field season Lisa Kraus and Jason Shellenhamer shared a recap of what we were searching for and what we found. We’ll be looking for more volunteers to assist with processing the artifacts this summer so please sign up for project updates or get in touch with questions and suggestions.

Archaeologists Jason Shellenhamer and Lisa Kraus, 2015 May 9.

Last month, we worked with and a team of volunteers completed the inaugural field season of the Herring Run Park Archaeology project. The focus of the investigation was Eutaw Manor. Eutaw Manor was the late 18th-century retreat of William Smith. Smith’s country estate spanned all of present-day Herring Run Park between Belair and Harford Roads as well as portions of Lake Montebello.

Portrait of William Smith and His Grandson, Charles Wilson Peale, 1788. Courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

In the 19th century, the estate and manor house became the home of Smith’s grandson, Benedict William Hall and his descendants. During their ownership, the property was improved to include a hotel, two mills, several tenant farms, and the Eutaw Methodist Church. In 1865, the Eutaw Manor house burnt to the ground as a result of an accident during a christening dinner.

Nearly 150 years after manor burned, archaeologists and volunteers from all over Maryland and greater Lauraville rediscovered this lost piece of local history. During the nine-day excavation, archaeologists and volunteers uncovered the remains of the home’s foundation and explored portions of the extensive cellar.

We recovered numerous artifacts during the excavation of the Eutaw Manor House including materials from the house itself. In addition to the foundation of the 60 by 60-foot house, numerous nails, window glass, and bricks were recovered from within the cellar hole and in the yards surrounding the home. Other artifacts included numerous fragments of tea and tablewares as well as tobacco pipe fragments, food remains, and glassware.

Burned plaster from Eutaw House. Photograph by Lisa Kraus, 2015 May 11.

While the fire that destroyed the house occurred over a century ago, the scars of that event were still evident. Much of the material recovered from the site bore evidence of the fire. The pottery was blackened, the glassware melted, and scorch marks on the foundation walls and the plaster showed evidence of smoke damage. Over the course of the excavation, it became apparent that many of the ceramic dish fragments recovered from the site were likely pieces of the very dishes the Hall family set out for their christening dinner on the last night the house stood. Although none of these fragmentary items has any monetary value, their worth in providing valuable information about the occupants of the house will be immeasurable.

Post hole for veranda on west side of the manor. Photograph by Eli Pousson, 2015 May 13.

Other discoveries from the site included the possible remains of the Eutaw kitchen, an oyster shell trash pit, and support posts for the large veranda that was once attached to the west side of the manor house. Another surprising find was a sizeable collection of pottery and other artifacts that suggest the site of the Eutaw Manor house was likely home to an earlier residence that predates the ownership of William Smith and his family; a home that might date to the 1750s or earlier.

Photography by Eli Pousson, 2015 May 13.

The project was a remarkable success, and would not have been possible without the support of our amazing partners: the Northeast Baltimore History Roundtable, Baltimore Heritage, the Friends of Herring Run Parks and a generous grant from Preservation Maryland. Most importantly we want to thank you, the greater Lauraville community, for you ongoing interest in the project, generous support, and the hard work of our nearly 60 volunteer archaeologists who helped us learn a little more about our community’s past.

While the excavation is over for this year, there are more volunteer opportunities to come. Starting in late July, we will announce days and times when we will be washing and sorting the hundreds of artifacts collected from Eutaw Manor. If you didn’t have a chance to join in last month’s excavation, this will be an opportunity to get to see and touch all the interesting objects discovered in Herring Run Park!

May 14, 2015

Field Notes from Herring Run: How big is Eutaw House?

We are continuing to share field notes from Lisa Kraus and Jason Shellenhamer as they lead our archaeological dig at the Eutaw Manor and Mill complex in Herring Run Park. Read on for Lisa and Jason’s third journal entry – dated Wednesday, May 13, 2015 – or look back at past entries from Monday and Sunday.

Today marked the midway point for this first field season of the Herring Run Archaeology Project, and we enjoyed the beautiful cool weather as we continued to make new discoveries.

One of our ongoing goals is to define the dimensions of Eutaw House. We need evidence of all four walls to get a sense of how big the house was, so Jason set out this morning to identify more of Eutaw’s foundation.

As it turns out, the west wall, much like the north wall, was still intact and fairly close to the surface. A section of the west wall was uncovered and documented by lunchtime. While digging, one of today’s volunteers (NPS archeologist and Baltimore Heritage board member Dave Gadsby) noticed a dark stain near the west wall. After some careful cleaning of the area we determined the stain was likely the remains of a decayed post that may have supported a porch or stair. Tomorrow we will excavate the post and begin searching for the other two walls.

David Gadsby, Jason Shellenhamer and Margaret DeArcangelis examining the western wall and post hole, 2015 May 13.

To the west of Eutaw House, Lisa and her team of volunteers continued their excavation of the mixed historic and Native American component of the site. In addition to finding nearly seventy-five Native American stone artifacts over the last two days, they have also discovered some of the earliest European artifacts at the site. These artifacts point to an occupation that predates that of William Smith by several decades.

Another interesting discovery was the identification of an oyster shell midden (trash pit). So far, the excavation of the oyster midden is in its preliminary stages, and we’re looking forward to exploring it more fully on Thursday.

Lisa Kraus excavating the oyster midden. Photograph by Jason Shellenhamer, 2015 May 13.